PHA-Exchange> Medical Fact-Finding Mission Palestine

Sun Jun 22 06:58:57 PDT 2003

SUPPORT THE MEDICAL FACT FINDING MISSION PALESTINE

As you may have found out from the newspapers, on coming Monday June 23 2003, a medical delegation of Dutch and Belgian doctors will travel to the West Bank and Gaza. This journey was organized by Gretta Duisenberg, wife of the President of the Central European Bank, in cooperation with various organisations, namely Medical Aid for the Third World, Doctors for Peace (Flemish Division of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War), the Flemish Action Platform Palestine and CODIP (Centre for Development, Documentation and Information Palestinians).

The situation in the Occupied Territories is now so dramatic, that almost every other day medical organisations send out a plea for intervention, through their press releases. Below, you will find several examples of such press releases, which illustrate the urgent nature of the problem, especially the press release of the International Red Cross.

Your support is of vital importance, since Israeli immunity under American protection is hindering every form of progress. Israel still manages to dare and violate the most basic of human rights, such as health care, simply because the international community has failed to demand from Israel that it respects international law.

There are very strong indications that Israeli occupation policy includes deliberate damage to Palestinian health care, as the several shootings of ambulances and clinics by the Israeli army clearly testify. These shootings have often resulted in the death of medical personnel, including doctors and ambulance paramedics, while they were on their duty. The frequent closures of villages and cities by Israeli military siege often include the blockade of transport of the critically ill to nearby hospitals; 70 % of the Palestinian population regularly goes for periods of weeks, or even months, without the possibility of hospital care.

By visiting the disaster areas ourselves, we hope to attract the attention of mass media, which are used to magnifying Israeli suffering, while providing insufficient coverage of Palestinian deaths and injuries, and focus their attention upon the massive human rights abuse occurring under the Israeli occupation. The report, resulting from our fact finding mission, will be handed over to David Byrne, the Commissioner of Health and Consumer Protection of the European Union, as well as the departments of health of all other European countries.

Beside Gretta Duisenberg, our team consists of Tariq Shadid, general surgeon and mission coordinator, Henri van de Vall, internist and press coordinator, Prof. Guido van Ham in Antwerp, internist, Colette Moulaert, pediatrician from Charleroi en Sofie Blancke, general and tropical medicine, from Antwerp.

How you can help

  1.. By following the media closely in the coming days, and, every now and again, visiting http://www.stopdebezetting.nl , you will be able to follow what happens to the mission, through our press releases and other publications. If you do this, you will also be one of the watching eyes, because it is quite likely that the Israeli authorities will attempt to sabotage the mission. Especially the sending back (parts of ) humanitarian delegations, is one of their most used tactics, as has become clear from the recent media. 
  2.. If this should happen, we are also counting on you to criticize these measures, since we expect you will agree, that we cannot allow Israel to keep refusing aid organisations forever. 
  3.. By sending this email message to all your acquaintances, you will help increase public awareness on the issue of Palestinian rights to proper medical care, and you will help increase the chances of,  at least, an  increase of voices of protest against the blockage of medical services by the Israeli authorities. 
  4.. By sending the banner included above to people, of whom you know they have a website, and by asking them to link this banner to http://www.stopdebezetting.nl , you can help generating support for this humanitarian project. 
  5.. It is possible that, through the media, we may call upon you to voice your criticism in the case of a blockade of our mission. We hope that in this event, you will answer our call. 
  6.. Your moral support is essential. Nonetheless, organising a journey like this is quite expensive, and we do welcome your financial support. If you wish to support us in this direct fashion, please send us a fax at  020 4712727, or email us at stopdebezetting at xs4all.nl, so we can communicate with you about the method of payment. 
Background Information
Alarming Press Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross
http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList4/D48363EA48DC1B5EC1256D48002F216D

First Press Release of the Medical Fact Finding Mission Palestine

http://www.transfloor.nl/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9

Urgent Appeals by UPMRC

http://www.upmrc.org/content/publications/publications_b.html

Red Cross Projects in Palestine

http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/palestine!Open

Defence for Children International

http://www.dci-pal.org/docs/docs.html

Children's Statistics

http://www.dci-pal.org/statistics/indstats/midjun2003.html

 Gretta Duisenberg's Fact Finding Mission to Investigate Medical and Humanitarian Crisis in Palestine

http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20030618170523544

Useful Links

 Stop the Occupation 

http://www.stopdebezetting.nl/international/index.html

Medical Aid for the Third World

http://www.g3w.be

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

http://www.ippnw.org/

Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees 

http://www.upmrc.org

The Musical Intifadah 

http://www.docjazz.com

The Palestine Chronicle 

http://www.palestinechronicle.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20030622/2efbceca/attachment-0001.html>