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The Palestinian Helath Care Crisis.Pdf More information OCCUPATIONOCCUPATION REALITIESREALITIES • American Friends Service Committee - Middle jamp.htm AFSC Middle East Resource Series Middle East Task Force | Spring 2004 East Peacebuilding Programs www.afsc.org/middleeast/peace/israel- • Palestinian Non-Governmental Organization’s palestine.htm website, the Palestine Monitor, has on-line resources, including fact sheets, eyewitness pieces, photos. • Amnesty International, an international human www.palestinemonitor.org Palestinian Health Care Crisis rights organization that conducted a study • Palestine Red Crescent Society, a major provider of “Israel and the Occupied Territories, Surviving Health and the Occupied Palestinian OCHA (Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Under Siege: The Impact of Movement Restric- humanitarian, health, and social services in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Site includes reports, photos, Territories Affairs) survey in July 2003, 396 barriers have been tions on the Right to Work.” www.amnesty.org erected in the northern West Bank alone.] updates, statistics. www.palestinercs.org Great efforts have been made by Palestinian and • B’tselem, the Israeli Information Center for The provision of health care is bound to the international non-governmental organizations, the Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, • Physicians for Human Rights - Israel, includes situation and ability of people to move from one international law documents, reports, action alerts, Palestinian Health Ministry, and the United Nations includes testimonies, photos, and a specific region to another, according to Dr. Mustafa high court appeals. www.phr.org.il Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) to provide health report on deaths of Palestinians due to denial Barghouti, President of the Union of Palestinian services and medical care to Palestinians living in the of medical treatment/restrictions on move- • Relief Web includes articles on the humanitarian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC). “This is an ment. www.btselem.org Occupied Territories. Hospitals, mobile and village- crisis and alerts from the UN office for the Coordina- unprecedented situation. It is the first time that an based health clinics, emergency services, a national • Jewish American Medical Project, organiza- tion of Humanitarian Affairs. www.reliefweb.int entire people is prevented from using their roads for a health insurance program, training for health tion based in Cambridge, MA, which facilitates • The Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees period of [more than] two years. The effects on the professionals, and services such as immunization and delegations to the Occupied Palestinian has a comprehensive website, including a photo health situation are catastrophic.” Territories to provide medical aid and docu- in-school health education programs have attempted gallery, action alerts, background, testimonies, and (upmrc.org,, “Drastic Deterioration of Palestinian Health Conditions, ment the impact of occupation on both Pales- overview of their medical services. www.upmrc.org to meet the needs of more than a million Palestinians. action alert,” August 1, 2003) tinian and Israeli populations. www.vopj.org/ Israel must put an end to the imposition According to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights Five things you can do to help of disproportionate and discriminatory group that documents human rights violations in the 1. Sign up for email action alerts posted by the Union of restrictions on Palestinians’ movement Occupied Territories, “Israeli officials have repeatedly stated that emergency medical cases are allowed to Palestinian Medical Relief Committees or Physicians in the Occupied Territories which have for Human Rights-Israel (www.upmrc.org and cross at checkpoints. The reality is different. The sick www.phr.org.il) crippled the Palestinian economy and are often prevented from moving along the roadways, caused widespread poverty, both by physical obstacles (such as concrete blocks and 2. Volunteer with a medical relief team in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Emergency care and surgery unemployment and increasing health piles of dirt) and by soldiers at checkpoints.” skills are particularly needed. Contact the Jewish problems. (From B’Tselem, “Deaths of Palestinians following Delay in Obtaining American Medical Project to participate in an Medical Treatment because of Restrictions on Movement during the (Amnesty International, “Surviving Under Siege,” September al-Asqa Intifada”) upcoming delegation or contact Palestinian and Israeli 2003) health organizations directly and offer your volunteer services. (www.vopj.org/jamp.htm) In early October 2000 (after the beginning of the AFSC principles and positions 3. Hold a forum in your community and invite a speaker second Palestinian uprising), the Israeli government to talk about the impact of the military occupation on imposed the most severe restrictions on movement in The AFSC’s position on the Palestinian-Israeli medical care and public health. Speakers are available the Occupied Palestinian Territories since the conflict is based on the Quaker belief that there is through the AFSC in Chicago (312) 427-2533, or via beginning of the occupation in 1967, worsening the that of God in each person and a commitment to nonviolent action for social change. Based on these the AFSC national website. closures and checkpoints imposed in 1991. Curfews, beliefs and within the framework of international 4. Join national advocacy efforts coordinated through military sieges, and “internal closures” — the law and the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the the US Campaign to End Israeli Occupation restriction of movement between Palestinian AFSC strives for a lasting peace between Israelis (www.endtheoccupation.org). communities within the West Bank and Gaza Strip — and Palestinians that provides justice and security have contributed to a worsening economic situation for all peoples living in the region. 5. Contact your elected officials and voice your concern and Palestinian health care crisis. [According to an about the Palestinian health crisis. Use the facts and information provided to begin your dialogue. Peacebuilding Unit • 1501 Cherry Street • Philadelphia, PA 19102-1403 www.afsc.org/middleeast 1 Relevant Facts Illustrating the Palestinian Health Care Crisis • Up to 75 percent of Palestinian health care profession- als are unable to report to work regularly, leading to a Death at a Checkpoint Public Health Implication of Checkpoints decrease in immunization levels and pre-natal care, Rana A-Jayushi, a 17-year-old from a village There is no garbage disposal site within the and severely affecting all sectors of the health care near Tulkarem, went into labor on the morning of precincts of the three villages [al-Hatab, Salem, system. March 9, 2002. She gave birth at the house of a Azmut near Nablus], since in the past waste was midwife because the roads were blocked and she (UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2003) dumped on the outskirts of Nablus. For this reason couldn’t get to the hospital. The infant died at birth. large accumulations of waste were recorded during • Almost 75 percent of Palestinians now live below the The mother’s condition deteriorated and her the visit, and large numbers of insects, pests, and UN poverty line of $2/day. husband tried to take her to the hospital in Qalqiliya. rats were reported as well as unpleasant odors. (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, April 2002) PRCS Soldiers at the checkpoint delayed them for about Moreover, large packs of stray dogs were seen thirty minutes and only then summoned an • Fifty percent of Palestinians require external food roaming both among the garbage and freely in the International Law ambulance. When the ambulance arrived, she was assistance to help meet their minimum daily caloric fields. The dogs are not vaccinated or supervised and International humanitarian law protects already dead. intake. (USAID, World Bank Report, August 2002) pose a health hazard, as well as direct physical medical services in times of conflict. (www.btselem.org/English Freedom_of_Movement danger to the residents. The trench, although dry • More than 70 percent of the Palestinian population Al_Aqsa_Death_after_Delay.asp) The wounded and sick, as well as the infirm during the dry season, was not cleaned after being lives in rural areas that do not have hospital services. and expectant mothers shall be the object of flooded by sewage and rain during the rainy season, Army Seizure of Ambulance and may be expected to be once again filled with particular protection and respect.... The • Eighty Palestinians have died due to soldiers and/or The Israeli army stopped a Palestine Medical polluted water when the rains begin – posing a parties to the conflict shall endeavour to closures that prevented access to medical treatment. Relief Ambulance at gunpoint on June 13, 2003, in severe sanitary hazard, and a nesting ground for conclude local agreements for the removal (as of October 9, 2003; www.upmrc.org) the Palestinian village of Deir Ghassaneh. The insects and bacteria. According to Dr. Barkat, a from besieged and encircled areas of • Fifty-two Palestinian women have given birth at Israeli soldiers got into the ambulance and forced the sharp increase in Hepatitis A was recorded in the wounded, sick, infirm and aged persons, checkpoints. One third of the babies died. medical team, at gunpoint, to drive around the second half of 2002 as a result of sanitary children, and maternity cases, and for
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