Tag: Physicians for Human Rights - Page 2 - International Solidarity Movement

‘Israeli doctors to train Bil’in protesters in first aid at site of disputed security fence’

5 July 2009

Physicians for Human Rights will be offering a first aid course on July 11 near the security barrier at the West Bank village of Bil’in for protesters to help them deal with injuries they incur in almost weekly confrontations with what the group’s doctors call an aggressive Israeli occupation.

“In a way, they are going to risk themselves,” said Ron Yaron, director of the international group’s occupied territories department, who explained the need for medical assistance in the West Bank.

“There are medical fields that are not available in the West Bank both due to Israeli restrictions and the entry of goods and medical equipment,” he told The Jerusalem Post.

The Israeli government limits the number of medical personnel who can travel between Israel and the West Bank, he said. Hospitals have to limit the number of workers they hire based on government quotas and medical supplies are also limited. According to Yaron, this “causes many delays” and “patients cannot reach hospitals on time.”

The Palestinian Authority has “not able to provide adequate health care to its residents,” he added. “The health care system still relies on external medical services.”

Yaron explained that the doctors involved in the training hope to provide basic skills in first aid for the protesters so they can “deal with the injuries that they face.”

Well-known Israeli doctors, including Rafi Walden, vascular surgery expert and board member of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, have been involved in the event. Many other highly skilled doctors will be teaching the course.

In addition to providing medical training, Physicians for Human Rights will also be working on a mobile clinic to treat patients who cannot reach hospitals in time. Other Israeli citizens will come to the area to provide medical care for the population.

The first aid course is as political a move as it is a medical one. One of its aims is to show solidarity with the protesters against the Israeli occupancy of the West Bank. As Yaron puts it, “People are wounded by the Israeli army and its use of weapons in an illegal way” on a weekly basis. The aim of the training is first an act of solidarity with the people who fight against the occupation and the building of the wall,” said Yaron.

Professor Zvi Bentwitch, a Physicians for Human Right board member who will be helping out at the event, agrees with Yaron, describing the protests as a “just cause.” Protesters come every week to protest at the Bil’in wall, which has also seen border policemen and other security personnel injured by rock-throwing Palestinians and their supporters.

The training is not intended for the general public, with only protesters – 20 Israelis and 20 Palestinians – allowed to take the course.

Yaron believes that the main problem surrounding medical care is rooted in recent history. “Israel didn’t develop the Palestinian system at all,” he explained. “Israel should bear responsibility [to help Palestinians].”

Bentwitch sees the first-aid course as a positive step in Israeli-Palestinian relations and considers it a “very positive bridge to peace between Palestinians and Israel.”

“I think that even protesters, if they get hurt, should get proper medical treatment,” said Bentwitch.

While he agrees with the Palestinian cause, he emphasizes that his principle focus is helping those in need. “We are doctors and don’t see any differences in gender, religion, or belief,” he explained. “It is one small contribution towards a major goal,” he said. “As a doctor, I am proud to help.”

Palestinian patients ‘interrogated before leaving Gaza for treatment’

Rory McCarthy | The Guardian

4 May 2009

An Israeli medical human rights group said today that an increasing number of Palestinian patients from Gaza were being interrogated by Israeli security services before being allowed to leave the strip for treatment.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said at least 438 patients had been summoned for interrogation by the Shabak, the Israeli general security service, at the Erez crossing out of Gaza between January 2008 and March this year.

It took evidence from several patients and found they were “forced to provide information as a precondition to exit Gaza for medical care”. The group said the ratio of applicants being interrogated rose from 1.45% in January last year to 17% in January this year. Their research also suggested the number of interrogations increased sharply from the beginning of this year, after Israel’s three-week war in Gaza.

One unnamed patient, who had been referred for orthopaedic treatment to a hospital in east Jerusalem, told the group that as he was trying to leave Gaza he was asked to give information on the people in his neighbourhood and was asked if he knew any Hamas members.

When he refused to give any information, he said his interrogator replied: “I understand that you don’t want to answer me and that you don’t want to work with us, so go back to Gaza.”

Another patient, who was trying to reach a hospital in east Jerusalem, said he was asked: “If you tell me which members of your family belong to the Hamas and which to the Islamic Jihad, I’ll let you leave Gaza for the hospital.” When he refused, he was told he would be sent back to Gaza.

The group said that patients were photographed by the security services holding a card with their name and identity card number on it, sometimes by coercion.

Others described being insulted during the questioning and being locked up at the crossing, sometimes for several hours without explanation.

Physicians for Human Rights said it took on average six to eight hours for each patient to cross. The group said it believed the Israeli security services were violating international laws on torture and coercion.

“PHR-Israel reiterates its claim that the way in which the GSS [general security service] is exploiting patients’ medical conditions by exerting pressure on them, be it overt or hidden, constitutes coercion prohibited under the fourth Geneva convention,” it said.

“The exacerbation of the situation is the outcome of failure of public bodies in Israel to take effective steps to restrain the GSS.” It was to present its findings to the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli government, rejected the allegations. He said: “The idea that there is a conditionality that people who come into Israel for medical treatment must provide intelligence co-operation is simply untrue.”

He said 13,000 Palestinians from Gaza were allowed into Israel last year for medical treatment and said they had to go through “legitimate” security checks.

Calls for independent investigation into military’s conduct during Operation Cast Lead

B’Tselem

30 March 2009

Israeli human rights organizations say, in response to the Israeli Army’s speedy closing of internal investigation files about war crimes in Operation Cast Lead: The speedy closing of the investigation immediately raises suspicions that the very opening of this investigation was merely the army’s attempt to wipe its hands of all blame for illegal activity during Operation Cast Lead.

The internal investigation ignored a significant amount of material that was collected and that coincides with soldiers’ testimonies recently publicized in Israel media. In addition, the Military Advocate General disregarded allegations that several of the commands given during the military operations were illegal. It is clear that in this case, the Military Police Criminal Investigations Department (MPCID) has decided to focus on the individual soldier, a measure which is neither effective nor reliable.

“The closing of the Army’s own investigation only strengthens the need for the Attorney General to allow for an independent non-partisan investigative body to be established in order to look into all Israeli Army activity during Operation Cast Lead,” say Israeli human rights organizations.