PHA-Exchange> Medical Fact-Finding Mission Palestine

Tue Jun 17 22:45:03 PDT 2003

Gretta Duisenberg takes medical delegation to Palestine

On June 23, a medical delegation consisting of five physicians from the Netherlands and Belgium, will travel to the West Bank and Gaza accompanied by Gretta Duisenberg, chairperson of the Dutch action committee 'Stop the Occupation'. Mrs. Duisenberg, wife of the President of the European Central Bank, is known internationally for her efforts in solidarity with Palestinian human rights, and received the 2002 award of the Belgian Human Rights League. 

The delegation, under the name "Medical Fact Finding Mission Palestine", is organized by Stop the Occupation (the Netherlands), in collaboration with Medical Aid for the Third World, Doctors for Peace, , CODIP, the Flemish Palestine Committee, the Action Platform Palestine (Belgium) and the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees. The mission has the support of the International People's Health Council.

The five physicians travelling with the mission are Tariq Shadid (general surgeon) and Henri van de Vall (internist), both from the Netherlands, and Guido van Ham (internist/virologist), Colette Moulaert (pediatrician), and Sofie Blancke (general practitioner) from Belgium.

The goal of this medical delegation is to collect information about the current condition of health care in the Palestinian territories, which reportedly is suffering from great difficulties under Israeli occupation. The numerous road blocks separating inhabited areas from each other have often hampered medical aid to individuals, leading to sometimes fatal delays in treatment. Also, the local economy has been damaged so extensively, that malnutrition has affected the health situation of people in many areas, especially children and elderly people. Also, there have been numerous reports of shootings of medical personnel, ambulances and hospitals, sometimes resulting in fatal injuries.

The delegation will visit hospitals, health centres and refugee camps, to try to obtain a comprehensive image of the extent of the damage, and attempt to point out the causes of these problems.

The report, which will be made up after the visit, will be presented to David Byrne, the Commissioner of Health and Consumer Protection of the European Union, as well as to the European Parliament and the governments of the Netherlands and Belgium.

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