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Coronavirus in Palestine: Chaos as seven cases confirmed in Bethlehem

Palestinians, for lack of a better word, are freaking out. And much like the rest of the world, they’re worried about the current outbreak of coronavirus disease.

While the global hysteria surrounding the coronavirus gained traction in Palestine in recent weeks as Palestinians looked to a growing number of confirmed cases in Israel, it reached new heights on Thursday, as multiple suspected cases were reported in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.

COVID-19 is the name of the disease caused by the new coronavirus. It is a respiratory illness spread primarily person to person, and is related to the SARS and MERS viruses that have had outbreaks in recent years.

Locals woke up to the initial news reports that four people, alleged to be foreigners, were being held at the Beit Jala governmental hospital on suspicions that they had been infected with the virus.

People were initially wary to believe the reports, as fake news surrounding the virus reaching Palestine has been circling around social media for weeks.

But by Thursday afternoon, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that there were seven confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Bethlehem, and had declared a state of emergency in Bethlehem and Jericho, another popular destination for tourists visiting Palestine.

Those affected were confirmed to be local Palestinian hotel workers who had come in contact with a group of Greek tourists. According to the ministry, all seven were being held in quarantine.

The seven cases were the first confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Palestine.

Massive shutdowns spark frenzy

Over the course of Thursday afternoon, the situation in Bethlehem continued to escalate.

The Palestinian Authority had ordered that all hotels in the West Bank stop receiving tourists for two weeks.

The Church of Nativity, a major destination for millions of tourists from around the world every year, was shut down until further notice for the first time in decades.

Twenty-seven mosques in the city were also closed, and people were advised to avoid large gatherings like Friday prayers, Sunday mass, meetings, parties, events, and going to the gym.

All schools and universities were hastily evacuated, and government offices were closed until further notice.

Under the orders of the Ministry of Transportation, public health workers wearing hazmat suits began the process of fumigating all public transportation vehicles in Bethlehem, and were expected to continue the process throughout other governorates in the coming days.

Supermarkets and produce stores were buzzing, as people rushed to stock up on food and vegetables, for fear that stores would be forced to shut down in the coming days as well.

One store owner told Mondoweiss that he hadn’t gotten a chance to sit down all day because of how many customers were coming through his door. “It’s not even this busy during Eid,” he said, adding that “every single person whose come in today has been talking about corona.”

People across the city were suddenly wearing face masks, and pharmacies were flooded with people trying to get their hands on some masks and hand sanitizer before they ran out.

By Thursday evening, typically busy restaurants were empty, and the usually crowded streets of the city were quiet, as people retreated to their homes and prepared to ride out the coming storm.

Foreign tourists wearing masks as a preventive measure against the coronavirus during a visit to the Church of the Nativity, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on March 05, 2020. (Photo: Abedalrahman Hassan/APA Images)
Foreign tourists wearing masks as a preventive measure against the coronavirus during a visit to the Church of the Nativity, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on March 05, 2020. (Photo: Abedalrahman Hassan/APA Images)

Tourism industry takes biggest hit

While most Palestinians fear the spread of the virus for health reasons, a significant portion of the population, specifically in Bethlehem, have other reasons to be worried about the outbreak.

Every year, Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, attracts millions of tourists globally, making the tourism industry one of the largest sectors of the city’s economy.

Bethlehem’s streets are lined with dozens of hotels, souvenir shops, tour agencies, and restaurants targeting foreign tourists.

On any given day, dozens of mega tour buses can be seen driving throughout the city, busing groups from the Church of Nativity to other historical sites in the city.

In addition to the owners of hotels and businesses who depend on tourism, such businesses employ thousands of service-industry workers from across the city and its surrounding villages and refugee camps.

With so many people financially dependent on tourism for their livelihoods, a coronavirus outbreak in Palestine could spell disaster for Bethlehem, and the rest of the territory.

Yamen al-Abed, a local tour guide from Bethlehem, told Mondoweiss that in the past 24 hours, he has received some 23 cancellations for upcoming tours.

“It’s crazy how fast things are changing,” he said, adding that March and April are peak tourism season in Bethlehem, due to Easter and Spring holidays. The annual Palestine Marathon, which was set to be held in Bethlehem at the end of March, has also been cancelled.

Al-Abed said that he received a number of cancellations from German tourists, and tourists from countries that were put on a list by Israel to be immediately quarantined when entering the country.

“It’s not just the tourists who are scared, but the locals as well,” he said. “Just today I had a small tour in Hebron and Ramallah, and all the locals were really freaked out by the group I was guiding.”

Al-Abed told Mondoweiss that tour guides were expecting a spike in tourism this year, as the interest in “alternative tours” — tours showcasing the occupation and political conflict in Palestine — grew significantly in 2019.

“But now it’s looking like we could experience huge losses this year if things don’t recover quickly,” he said. “At this point, we just have to wait and hope for the best.”

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Thank you Yumna Patel!! An exellent, timely and most important article!!

Also:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/05/a-terrifying-scenario-coronavirus-in-quarantined-gaza/

“A Terrifying Scenario: Coronavirus in ‘Quarantined’ Gaza” by Ramzy Baroud, Counterpunch, March 5/2020

“What if the Coronavirus reaches the besieged Gaza Strip?

“While the question carries great urgency for all Palestinians living under Israel’s military occupation, the Gaza situation is particularly complex and extremely worrying.

“Nearly 50 countries have already reported cases of COVID-19 disease, one of several epidemics that are caused by the Coronavirus. If developed countries, such as Italy and South Korea, are struggling to contain the deadly virus, one can only imagine what occupied Palestinians would have to face should the virus strike.

“In fact, according to official Palestinian reports, the Coronavirus has already reached Palestine following a visit by a South Korean delegation in the period between February 8 and 15, which included a tour in the major Palestinian cities of Jerusalem, Nablus, Jericho, Hebron, and Bethlehem.

“The Palestinian Authority scrambled to contain the fallout of the news, which caused palpable panic among a population that has little faith in its leadership, to begin with. PA Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, ‘hoped’ that the ‘owners of the unknown facilities’ would exercise personal responsibility and shut down their business and other establishments that are open to the public.

“The PA Ministry of Health followed this by declaring a ‘state of emergency’ in all hospitals under PA jurisdiction in the West Bank, designating a quarantine center near Jericho for those arriving from China and other areas that are hard hit by the Coronavirus.

“For Palestinians however, fighting an outbreak of the Coronavirus is not a straightforward matter, even if the dysfunctional PA facilities follow the instructions of the World Health Organization (WHO) to the letter.

“Palestinians are separated by an Israeli matrix of control that has excluded many communities behind large cement walls, military checkpoints, and impossible to navigate army ordinances that are inherently designed to weaken the Palestinian community and to ease the Israeli government’s mission of controlling Palestinians and colonizing their land.

“What can the PA do to come to the aid of tens of thousands of Palestinians in the so-called ‘Area C’ of the occupied West Bank? This region is entirely under the control of the Israeli army, which has little interest in the welfare of the Palestinian inhabitants there.

“Such questions would have to be considered in the context of what WHO refers to as ‘health inequalities’ among Palestinians, on the one hand, and between Palestinians and privileged illegal Jewish settlers, on the other.

“In some way, many Palestinian communities are already ‘quarantined’ by Israel, but for political, not medical reasons. An outbreak of the Coronavirus in some of these communities, especially the ones that are cut off from proper healthcare and well-equipped medical facilities, would prove disastrous.

“The worst of fates, however, awaits Gaza, should the deadly and fast-spreading virus find its way from all directions through the hermetic siege, which engulfs this minuscule, but densely populated region.

“Gaza, which is enduring its 12th year of Israeli siege and is still reeling under the massive destruction of several Israeli wars, has already been declared ‘uninhabitable’ by the United Nations.

“However, the misery of Gaza never ceases to unfold. Not a single UN report on Gaza’s ailing medical facilities or preparedness for at least the last ten years has used any positive or even hopeful language.

“Last March, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Mr. Jamie McGoldrick, bemoaned Gaza’s ‘chronic power outages, gaps in critical services, including mental health and psychosocial support, and shortages of essential medicines and supplies.’

“In January, the Israeli rights group. B’Tselem, spoke of an unprecedented health crisis in besieged Gaza, one that is not fueled by the Coronavirus or any other such epidemics but by the fact that Gaza’s barely functioning hospitals are desperately trying to deal with the fall-out of the thousands of injuries resulting from the ‘Great March of Return’ which has taken place on the Gaza side of the dividing fence.

“B’Tselem has already reported on ‘the unlawful open-fire policy Israel is using against these demonstrations, allowing soldiers to shoot live fire at unarmed protesters who endanger no one, has led to horrific results’.

“The Israeli group cited moderate estimations provided by WHO that, by the end of 2019, Gaza physicians had to perform limb amputations on 155 protesters, a number that includes 30 children. This, in addition to dozens of protesters who have become permanently paralyzed because of spinal injuries.

“This is only a small part of a much more multifaceted crisis. Not only measles and other highly contagious infectious diseases are finding their way back to Gaza, water-borne diseases are also spreading at an alarming rate.

“97% of all of Gaza’s water is not fit for human consumption, according to the WHO, which begs the question: How could Gaza hospitals possibly confront the Coronavirus epidemic when, in some cases, clean water is not even available in Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa?

“’Even when it is available, doctors and nurses are unable to sterilize their hands because of the water quality,’ according to the RAND Corporation.

“WHO director in Palestine, Gerald Rockenschaub, spoke assuredly about his meeting with PA Minister of Health, Mai Al-Kaila, in Ramallah on February 25, where they discussed the need for more ‘preparedness measures’ and ‘additional priority preparedness actions’ in the West Bank and Gaza.

“WHO also announced that it is ‘coordinating with local authorities in Gaza’ to ensure the Strip’s preparedness to cope with the Coronavirus.

“Such soothing language, however, masks an ugly reality, one that WHO and the entire United Nations have failed to confront over the course of a decade.

“All previous reports on Gaza by WHO, while accurately detailing the problem, did little to diagnose its roots or to fashion a permanent solution to it. Indeed, Gaza’s hospitals are as dysfunctional as ever, Gaza’s water is as dirty as ever and, despite repeated warnings, the Strip is still unfit for human habitation, thanks to the brutal Israeli siege and to the silence of the international community.

“The truth is, no amount of ‘preparedness’ in Gaza – or, frankly, anywhere in occupied Palestine – can stop the spread of the Coronavirus. What is needed is a fundamental and structural change that would emancipate the Palestinian healthcare system from the horrific impact of the Israeli occupation and the Israeli government’s policies of perpetual siege and politically-imposed ‘quarantines’ – also known as apartheid.”

The interviewee in the above article, Yamen Al-Abed is my Partner in the Green Olive Collective, an organisation of Palestinians and Israelis using social enterprise to educate visitors to Palestine and Israel and political support to many groups fighting the Occupation and oppression in Palestine.

Last year we serviced over 6,000 tourists, in addition to government delegations, study tours, University programs, and volunteer projects. All of that is now in tatters, and things continue to get worse as tourists are disappearing from the streets. Cancellations continue to pour in.

Today things in Bethlehem continued to get worse. The city is under lockdown, Palestinians are forbidden to leave and tourists are forbidden to enter. Jericho is also closed to tourists.

All our tours to these cities are cancelled and for the coming week we will offer Area ‘C’ tours only, in addition to our tours on the Israel side of the Green Line. Area ‘C’ is the territory in the West Bank that remains under Israel’s full control under the Oslo agreements.

Support from Mondoweiss readers will be appreciated, either by booking tours later in the year or next year, or purchasing our fair trade products at madeinpeace.com. Our equity crowdfunding campaign recently ended but it is still possible to privately purchase shares and memberships in the organisation. We currently have over 200 shareholders from 25 countries. Contact me privately for more details.
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Fred Schlomka is the CEO of the Green Olive Collective Inc., coordinating 10 Palestinian and Israeli Partners and five employees