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Palestinians Unable to Reach Hospital
The Jerusalem Post
October 18, 2004
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Twenty-eight Palestinian cancer patients who are in urgent need of radiation treatment in Israeli hospitals have been unable to cross the border from Gaza since September 8, Physicians for Human Rights said.
The organization held a symposium in Jerusalem last week on the problem of access to health for Palestinians living in the territories.
The speakers charged that the situation in Gaza, where advanced health services are limited, is the gravest in many years.
Danny Filc, a family doctor, lecturer in politics and administration at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and a member of the PHR board, charged that while the army maintains that the movement restrictions are based on security needs, many of its refusals are purely arbitrary.
"One district liaison coordinator says 'yes.' Another says 'no'... and then relents after civilian elements intervene," said
Filc.
He referred to one case in which a child was killed and his brother was seriously wounded during an IDF operation. The wounded child was brought to hospital in Israel for treatment. However, the army classified his father as barred from entering Israel because he had a son killed by the IDF and was therefore a potential danger, since he might take revenge. As a result, his wounded son was alone in an Israeli hospital. It was only after intervention by an MK that the father was allowed to sit by his son's bed.
PHR accuses the Israeli government of failing to accept responsibility for the well-being of the Palestinian population. According to Hadas Ziv, the director-general of the organization, one of the key factors leading to Israel's alleged indifference to the plight of seriously ill Palestinians is "the belief that Israel has no responsibility towards them, a belief supported by the misperception that the Oslo accords, together with the Palestinian Authority, have ended occupation."
Ziv told the story of a woman who had breast cancer and required treatment in Israel. The civil administration refused her permission to cross the border because she did not have the correct papers. Following the intervention of PHR, which included a petition to the High Court of Justice, she was allowed in for two operations in February and subsequent radiation treatment. Each time she needed to cross the border she had to get a new permit. The army only granted them immediately before her scheduled crossing, as a result of which she often missed the once-a-day Palestinian ambulance taking the sick into Israel.
The woman's condition deteriorated and she required urgent chemotherapy but could not get across the border because of the High Holy Days closure. PHR spokesman Shabtai Gold told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that she has just now received permission to cross.
According to Filc, Palestinians in the West Bank also lack access to medical services, even though there are much better facilities there. The problem, Filc said, is that there are closures and barricaded roads preventing Palestinians from reaching hospitals.
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