semitism.net

From Dr. Alan Meyer of the Jewish American Medical Project, a piece by Derek Summerfield in the October 16 British Medical Journal. Dr. Summerfield writes about the health crisis in the occupied territories.

The coherence of the Palestinian health system is being destroyed. The wall will isolate 97 primary health clinics and 11 hospitals from the populations they serve. Qalqilya hospital, which primarily serves refugees, has seen a 40% fall in follow up appointments because patients cannot enter the city. There have been at least 87 documented cases (including 30 children) in which denial of access to medical treatment has led directly to deaths, including those of babies born while women were held up at checkpoints. The checkpoint at the entrance to some villages closes at 7 pm and not even ambulances can pass after this time. As a recent example, a man in a now fenced in village near Qalqilya approached the gate with his seriously ill daughter in his arms, and begged the soldiers on duty to let him pass so that he could take her to hospital. The soldiers refused, and a Palestinian doctor summoned from the other side was also refused access to the child. The doctor was obliged to attempt a physical examination, and to give the girl an injection, through the wire.

The article is presented as an opinion piece, not a scientific study or topic review. Dr. Summerfield’s outrage is clear. A South African native, he states that the excesses of the Israeli occupation are even worse than those he witnessed in his own country under Apartheid.

Responses to the piece are also on the BMJ website. Some are favorable but, as is usually the case with public criticism of Israel, the journal was flooded with letters accusing it of bias, anti-semitism, etc. These letters provide a sort of taxomony of our own denial of what we are doing to the Palestinians. A few examples:

• Israel has been responsible for sending Palestinian children abroad for life-saving treatment. True - and irrelevant in this case. If a Palestinian child (or adult) finds his way into an Israeli hospital, by most accounts, he will get excellent care. But few Palestinians have access to Israeli hospitals, and the barriers imposed on freedom of movement in the territories have led to numerous miscarriages, infant deaths and other fatalities at checkpoints.
• The absence of any reference to Palestinian terrorism that destroyed hopes for peace and killed over 1000 Israelis is clear evidence of the author’s blatant bias and abuse of data. No, it isn’t. We need to own up to the conditions we have created for the Palestinians. As an occupying power, we are responsible for the health and well-being of the Palestinians. Reflexively, we throw out references to Israeli casualties as if they justified any action, no matter how violent, against the entire Palestinian population. This devalues the Israeli as well as the Palestinian lives that have been lost.
• His views seemed not unlike Nazi leaders claiming wartime atrocioties when German cities were bombed. Those who know a bit about World War II will recall that the Nazis were actually RULING GERMANY at the time, whereas the Palestinians are a captive population under Israel’s military jurisdiction. Suicide bombings are in no way comparable to genocide. The fact that we were victims does not exempt us from the responsible use of power. One lesson of the Holocaust is that we - Jews, humans - must never allow any racial or ethnic group to be isolated, persecuted or destroyed to serve the interests of the state.

For those who wish to learn more about acess to medical care in the occupied territories, I strongly recommend the report of the Jewish American Medical Project, which can be viewed (including video feeds of interviews) on their web site. The report is balanced, including views from Israelis as well as Palestinians. It presents the effects of violence on both sides with sensitivity and insight.