(29 October 2007: Gazan cancer patient dies after being delayed entry into Israel for 10 days/Courtesy of B’Tselem)
This appeal arrived this morning from Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace activist group requesting engagement of readers in a petition drive to end the medical crisis in occupied Palestine, principally Gaza, where medical patients are dying after being deprived essential care.
It is known that Israel’s actions toward Gaza residents is intended to be punishment, but it is now knowingly resulting in the death of medical patients. The United Nations, The World Health Organization, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have condemned Israel for this practice, but the Israeli government nonetheless continues its policy while Palestinian patients are dying in front of the world.
Gush Shalom wrote,
After the “disengagement,” Gaza depends on Israel for its basic provisions. Now the IDF closes the taps – collective punishment for a million and a half people.
The following request by Dr Medhat Abbas is about the shortage of diesel and the relation to health. For those who need treatment, it can mean the difference between life and death. Please, sign the petition.
This attached message from Dr. Abbas in Gaza said,
Appeal – Appeal – Appeal
We have a very series shortage of diesel in the Ministry of Health the majority of the 11 hospitals of MOH do suffer from a shortage of fuel, the same is for the 52 primary health care clinics and vehicles.
I am not speaking now about the consequences but they are catastrophic and include the transportation defect which will not enable the employees of the Ministry to go to their hospitals.
Please. We urge you to help us by applying any sort of pressure that could let the Israelis change their mind about this fatal action that would threaten the lives of thousands of civilians in the already under siege Gaza.
Dr Medhat Abbas
General Director of
Crisis Management Unit
Ministry of Health, Gaza.
Contact: mabbas@gov.ps
Last August, Physicians for Human Rights petitioned the Israeli High Court to force compliance with regulations that permit seriously ill patients access to hospitals outside of Gaza.
Israel is not upholding regulations
30 Aug 2007
Physicians for Human Rights reports that Red Crescent ambulances carrying Palestinian patients to hospitals in East Jerusalem are refused entry in more than 70% of instances. PHR asks High Court of Justice to force state to implement the regulations and allow the entrance of injured and sick Palestinians to East Jerusalem hospitals.
Today, August 26th, Physicians for Human Rights, the Palestinian Medical Relief Association, and the local Council of Azariya petitioned the High Court of Justice in a request to order the state to implement the regulation regarding “treatment of residents of Judea and Samaria who arrive at a checkpoint in an urgent medical condition” and to allow the passage of sick and injured Palestinians in a state of medical emergency to the medical centers in East Jerusalem.
The petition was submitted following a report by PHR, which examined the passage of Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances to advanced hospitals in East Jerusalem. The report showed that in 73% of cases (according to Civil Administration figures for 2007) the entrance of Red Crescent ambulances into East Jerusalem was not permitted. In most cases, the coordination of the transfer of a patient caused a delay of between one and six hours. In some cases ambulances were even turned back without evacuating the patient (on average, in 2007, this occurred twice weekly).
The petitioners demand that the state allow the entrance of Palestinian ambulances evacuating urgent cases to the medical centers in East Jerusalem, without using the “back-to-back” procedure, which is required by the Civil Administration health coordinator. According to the procedure, the Palestinian medical team must coordinate the arrival of an ambulance to the checkpoint where the patient must be transferred from a Red Crescent ambulance to an Israeli one. That method constitutes a medical risk for the patient in addition to causing delays. PHR also demands that the medical team be the authority that determines whether to allow transfer for treatment in East Jerusalem, rather than the checkpoint commander, who has other considerations.
In a memorandum of understandings signed between Magen David Adom and the Palestinian Red Crescent in November 2005, which paved the way for the organizations’ joining the International Committee of the Red Cross, it is stressed that the free operation of the Palestinian Red Crescent would be assured according to the rules of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the territories occupied in 1967, including, of course, East Jerusalem. That activity includes regulating the entrance of urgent medical cases to receive emergency care that does not exist in the West Bank.
“The intervention of security officials in considerations that should be purely medical,” says Hadas Ziv, executive director of PHR, “is what is preventing the implementation of the understandings that were reflected in the memorandum between MDA and the Red Crescent.”
CLICK HERE OR BELOW TO SIGN THIS URGENT PETITION TO END THE HEALTH CRISIS IN GAZA
Since Israeli government declared Gaza as “hostile entity” on 19th September 2007,Israel blocks delivery of essential medicines to Gaza Strip and doesn’t allow Palestinian patients to go outside of Gaza for urgent treatment.
The United Nations, The World Health Organisation and Physicians for Human Rights have condemned Israel for this situation, but Israeli government is still continue to its policy and Palestinian patients are slowly dying in front of the world.
All the victims of this humanitarian crisis are innocent civilians, and many of them are children. For example in 14th November 2007, 6 months old Palestinian baby Sina al-Hajj died because Israeli government didn’t allow her to cross Gaza border for getting treatment.
Palestinian MP Jamal Al Khudari said now there are more than a thousand Palestinian patients in urgent need of treatment who are not allowed to leave Gaza.
Please sign this petition to call the United Nations and the Israeli government to allow the Palestinian patients having treatment outside of Gaza.
Thanks.
UPDATES:
1) Appeal from Haitham Sabbah:
Here is my new video, called ‘Gaza Calling’:
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2007/12/05/gaza-calling/
Please help in spreading the word about the catastrophic situations, our brothers and sisters in Gaza are living under.
2) TESTIMONY: ISRAEL DELAYS TREATMENT OF TWO GAZA TODDLERS
Report, B’Tselem, 7 December 2007
I was born in Jordan to a father from the Gaza Strip. In 1994, I came to Gaza on a visitor’s permit that my uncle obtained for me. In 1995, my fiancee also entered Gaza on a visitor’s permit and we got married. At the time, we thought we would be able to obtain Palestinian identity cards. I worked in the office of the Palestinian Naval Police. In 1996, our first child was born, a daughter, whom we named Ghaida’, and in 1998, our daughter Maysa’ was born. In 2000, our first son, Muhammad, was born. Ten days after he was born, we noticed that his skin was yellow, so we took him to al-Shifa’a Hospital, in Gaza, for an examination. Read the full article here:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9150.shtml