1. High Court of Justice Hearing scheduled for Monday, 12.11.07, at 11.30 regarding eleven patients in life-threatening condition who are refused exit from Gaza.
2. GSS (shabac, the Israeli secret service) attempts to co-opt PHR-Israel into its mechanisms.
3. A further worsening of State policies at Erez Crossing is recorded PHR-Israel and eleven patients from Gaza have appealed to the Israeli High Court of Justice, demanding their immediate passage into Israel, the West Bank or Jordan for urgent lifesaving care. The petition was submitted after only four out of 16 cases submitted for review by PHR-Israel last week were granted permits.
Following are the details of the patients in the petition:
1. M.A-A, 40, heart patient, in need of urgent bypass surgery. referred to Nablus in the West Bank.
2. R.M.T, 40, cancer patient, in need of urgent diagnostic services due to a suspicion of secondary tumors. Referred to Jordan.
3. A.Q, 38, cancer patient (prostate), needs urgent diagnostic services due to non-response to current care. Referred to Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv. He entered Israel in the past but was recently refused.
4. N.A-K., 21, cancer patient (seminoma), who was referred in July to Ichilov hospital in tel Aviv for urgent diagnostic services in order to determine care. He was refused entry repeatedly and his condition has badly deteriorated; he has secondary tumors in the liver.
5. N.K, 28, suspicion of kidney cancer. Referred to Jordan for diagnostics and surgery. He received an entry permit but upon reaching Erez Crossing was asked by the GSS (secret service) to provide information about his family and neighbors, including their telephone numbers. When he failed to provide the information he was refused passage.
6. N.S, 28, cancer of the pancreas. Referred to Jordan for diagnostics and treatment.
7. M.A-J, 25, cancer patient (osteosarcoma). Referred to Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem for diagnostics and care. This patient was included in our previous appeal in October, and received a permit as a result. However, upon reaching Erez Crossing, he was delayed for 11 hours and finally turned back.
8. R.Y., suspected lymphoma in the spleen. Referred to Augusta Victoria hospital in East Jerusalem for diagnostics and surgery.
9. M.A-W., 32. Obstruction hepatitis. Referred to Nablus in the West Bank for care.
10. Y.A-H, 37. Heart patient in need of open heart surgery. Referred to Nablus in the West Bank for surgery. This patient received a permit to exit Gaza but upon arriving at Erez Crossing he was called for "interrogation" by the secret service. According to the patient, the interrogator said: "If you help us we will help you" and asked him to provide information about his acquaintances. When he said he had no such information, the interrogator said "If you don't help up we won't help you. Go and die in Gaza". He sent him back home, promising that he would never leave Gaza.
11. Y.M.S., 20, giant brain tumor. Referred urgently for brain surgery to St. Joseph hospital in East Jerusalem.
These life-threatening conditions could be treated if allowed to reach medical centers in time. Several of the patients have already suffered deterioration in their condition due to the delays so far.
In its petition, PHR-Israel has reviewed the worsening of State policies at Erez Crossing since June 2007, and demanded that all patients in need of care unavailable in Gaza be permitted access to medical centers.
PHR-Israel has also demanded an immediate stop to Shabac (Israeli secret service, GSS) exploitation and coercion of the patients at the Crossing, whereby patients who have already passed security clearance are required to provide information on acquaintances as a condition for passage to medical care.
Israeli secret service attempts to co-opt PHR-Israel into its practices
On the 8th of November the Israeli army authorities at Erez Crossing informed PHR-Israel that patients receiving a permit of the category "authorized pending interrogation" would no longer be interrogated on their way out of Gaza as heretofore. Instead, they would be called for an interrogation by the GSS, for which lengthy prior coordination is necessary, after which the patients would be sent home to await a reply. This policy further delays an already arbitrary process that has led to at several deaths since June. Moreover, the Israeli authorities demanded that PHR-Israel inform the patients of interrogations and coordinate their
arrival. PHR-Israel is aware of the practices of the GSS during such "interrogations", whereby they demand information on others as a condition for granting a permit (see above). Even if the "interrogation" were not used in this way, as a medical and human rights organization we can have no part in such a mechanism.
When PHR-Israel refused to coordinate interrogation appointments, saying that it would only inform patients of authorization to exit Gaza for medical care, the military authorities closed the files of the patients and refused them entry.
In addition, the Israeli military refuses to handle PHR-Israel's appeals on behalf of patients without receiving the telephone numbers of the patients. Since the military refuses to phone patients to inform them either of an interrogation or of authorization of the permit, PHR-Israel's conclusion is that the telephone numbers are used for intelligence purposes.
In the light of the above, PHR-Israel sees the permit category "authorization pending interrogation" to be tantamount to a refusal to grant a permit.
PHR-Israel regards the attempt to co-opt its workers for the gathering of intelligence as totally unacceptable; it undermines the foundations of trust between patients and the workers of PHR-Israel.
Both these practices constitute an attempt to exploit an independent, non-governmental medical organization for purposes that are completely external to and often contradictory to the best interests and well-being of the patients. The attempt to co-opt PHR-Israel into the practices of the secret services by threatening that non-compliance would deny a permit to
the patient, is totally unacceptable in our opinion.
From a medical-ethical perspective, PHR-Israel cannot participate in, collaborate with or condone such mechanisms in any way, and sees itself duty-bound to express clear and public opposition to these practices. It will do so, in court, on Monday.
Further worsening of State policies at Erez Crossing -
Military authorities at Erez Crossing, and the Israeli Civil Administration in the West Bank have recently forbidden Palestinian hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to issue medical appointments directly to patients or hospitals in Gaza, and have directed them to issue appointmentsx only to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. Due to the current division of powers between Gaza and the West Bank, this directive leads to further delays for Gaza patients awaiting referrals to hospitals outside Gaza, even before submitting a request for an exit permit. Since patients often do not receive answers regarding their permits in time for the appointments issued them, they miss appointments and have to reschedule repeatedly, leading to further delays.
Attached is a flowchart of the stages a patient must undergo on her way from a Gaza hospital to medical care outside Gaza. Each of the stages represents a potential obstacle on the way to care.
What you can do:
If you are in Israel:
- Attend the High Court of Justice Hearing on Monday morning, 12.11 at 11.30am. Bring placards with slogans demanding access to medical care for all, protesting the isolation of the residents of Gaza, and protesting GSS coercion of patients and of medical organizations.
If you are outside Israel:
- Write to the chair of the Israel Medical Association, Dr. Yoram Blachar, who was recently appointed to chair the World Medical Association. Ask him to express his position publicly on this issue. blachar@ima.org.il .
- Write to other Israeli policy makers. This is the fax number of the head of the Israeli secret service, GSS (Shabac), Mr. Yuval Diskin: 00 972 3 6428175. This is the email of the Public Affairs Department of the Israeli Prime Minister's Office: pmo.heb@it.pmo.gov.il .
- Write to the Israeli embassy in your country.
- Forward this message to individuals and organizations worldwide, protesting the isolation of Gaza and the denial of access to medical care and other basic rights.
For further details please contact Miri Weingarten at miri@phr.org.il,
telephone 00 972 3 6873718 ext. 115 or 00 972 546 995199, or Ran Yaron at
ranyaron@phr.org.il, telephone 00 547 577696, or Libby Lenkinsky-Friedlander
at libby@benor.co.il
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