PHA-Exch> On the untimely demise of Palestinian activist doctor Ahmad Maslamani

Wed Jan 9 23:19:26 PST 2008

On the untimely demise of Palestinian activist doctor Ahmad Maslamani,

  On behalf of the Association of Health and Environmental Development and the Development Support Centre in Egypt, I would like to express our deep sorrow and grief at the departure of Dr. Ahmad Maslamani. The news of his sudden death was like other a sad shock, which left us all spell bounded. 
  Ahmad Maslamani, was a great fighter for people's health, progress and liberation. However, he was not only a fighter for Palestine but for the Arab region and humanity as a whole. We worked together shortly, but we had much bigger and wider plans for future cooperation and joint struggle for our people in the region.
  Our only condolence is that his memory will give us more courage to continue and his ideas and plans will continue and in them and in us he will continue

  Alaa Shukrallah
  Chairperson of AHED
  Member of PHM 

Intal - Wim De Ceukelaire <wim.deceukelaire at intal.be> wrote:
    On the untimely demise of Palestinian activist doctor Ahmad Maslamani

Monday morning January 7 we, at the intal secretariat in Brussels, received the message about the sudden death of Dr. Ahmad Maslamani earlier that day. It left us in disbelief and shock.

Ahmad Maslamani was the director of the Health Work Committees, intal's partner organization in Palestine. Our first thoughts went to his wife and three children, his colleagues in the Health Work Committees and his friends in Palestine. That very morning we sent them our sincere condolences by fax and e-mail.

After the first shock, we started to realize how big a loss this was for the Palestinian social movement. Only a couple of weeks ago we still consulted him through fax and e-mail about the Social Forum on the Middle East in Madrid. The Spanish ministry of foreign affairs was pressuring the organizers to reorient the conference from support to the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to dialog with the Israeli occupier. It was Ahmad who coordinated the reaction of the social movements: Eventually, the boycott of the forum was a resounding success.

We have known Dr. Ahmad Maslamani for more than ten years and have been working together to support the implementation of a large school health program for the Palestinian children of East Jerusalem. For him every child has the right to health, even if the Israeli occupier was trying to deny this right to the Palestian youth. Hence, he went all-out for this school health program.

He was our guest in Brussels several times for our partners' meetings where he always defended his view on health passionately: "Health is not the absence of disease but it is a comprehensive quality of life that is the right of anyone. How can this be realized in a society that suffers from repression and exploitation?" 

He talked to the Cuban partners about the alternatives that are taking shape in Cuba. He went to visit our Philippine partners in their country in order to learn from their experiences. He showed his appreciation for the tireless mass work of our partners from Congo. Ahmad was a Palestinian activist and a world citizen. He was likewise eager to share with intal members and sympathizers while he was in Belgium or during solidarity missions to Palestine.

Ahmad was arrested by Israeli security forces in June 2005 and was detained for nine months in inhumane conditions because he was playing a key role in the progressive people's movement of Jerusalem. His health was badly affected while he was in prison, but not his militancy in defense of the Palestinian people's rights. After his release he wrote: "In spite of the difficult conditions we are still able to denounce injustice, defend our identity, claim our rights and to condemn the inhumane practices of the Israeli occupation and express our incense about them."

Ahmad was a doctor who was serving his patients tirelessly and an activist whose world was not limited to his clinic. He wrote about the Palestinian cause: “Our people need more than a government. They need more than elections. Our people need to revive their national dream for independence. The entrance for achieving this dream is the reconstruction of the Palestinian institution on popular and democratic basis, starting from the Palestinian Liberation Organization and ending in the smallest club in the most remote village in Palestine.”

As we are currently developing new plans and programs in cooperation with the Health Work Committees, we realize full well that we will miss his wisdom and leadership dearly. But his dedication calls on us to deepen our commitment to the liberation of the Palestinian people. We are sure that this is also the best tribute we could possibly pay to Ahmad.

Brussels, January 8, 2008
intal staff – www.intal.be

--   Wim De Ceukelaire, coordinator of intal's international partnerships  wim.deceukelaire at intal.be | tel.: +32 2 209 23 55 | fax: +32 2 209 23 51  | mobile: +32 484 119231 | skype: wimdeceuk  intal – http://www.intal.be | http://www.g3w.be – Globalize Solidarity!    # Stop political killings in the Philippines!  http://www.stopthekillings.org | http://www.stopthekillings.be #  
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