New report: "Holding Health to Ransom: GSS Interrogation and Extortion of Palestinian Patients at Erez Crossing"

Testimonies in Physicians for Human Rights’ new report reveal:

GSS (Shabac) demands cooperation as a precondition for exiting Gaza for medical care

In defiance of the UN Convention Against Torture, the GSS is attempting to systematically use sick patients as informers.

Since July 2007, PHR has received 32 testimonies from Gazan patients, whose exit from Gaza was prevented after refusing to cooperate with GSS interrogators at the Erez Crossing. Since October 2007, some of the Palestinian patients with referrals for medical treatment outside of Gaza are required to undergo a GSS interrogation as an integral part of the decision-making process regarding their request for an exit permit.

In a new report released on August 4^th, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) has exposed that the General Security Service (GSS- Shabac), who make the final decisions regarding exit permits, are targeting sick patients as potential collaborators, making informing and cooperation with the GSS a pre-condition for exiting Gaza. This practice constitutes a violation of The Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Convention Against Torture, as well as criminal law.

For the first time in the report Holding Health to Ransom, Palestinian patients testify as to the process they undergo when attempting to exit Gaza for medical treatment. Eleven detailed first-person testimonies of patients who were subjected to interrogation and pressure are included in the report.

At a press conference held this morning at the Ambassador Hotel, Jerusalem, two video testimonies were screened. Detailed information was provided by Dr. Ruchama Marton, President of PHR-Israel, Hadas Ziv, Executive Director, Dr. Bella Kaufman, oncologist and Board member, and Miri Weingarten, co-Director of the OPT Department.

After a patient receives a message from the Palestinian side explaining that he must undergo interrogation, he must arrive at the Erez Crossing, where he is taken down into the depths of the earth, to the GSS basement. His cellular phone is taken from him, and the numbers are extracted from its memory. Interrogators then question the patient and demand information in return for permission to access care. In some cases patients are asked to collaborate with the GSS on a regular basis. Thus testifies A, cancer patient (38): “Afterwards the interrogator told me ‘you are sick with cancer and soon it will spread to your brain. As long as you do not help us – wait for [the opening of] Rafah Crossing.”

This pressure is exerted on patients on both an implicit and an explicit level. Implicit level – the patient is under extreme pressure during the interrogation. Insufficient answers or refusal to answer interrogators’ questions and demands can result in cancellation of exit for medical care. Explicit level – GSS interrogators state clearly that refusal to cooperate will prevent exit for medical care. As a result, some patients decide to forfeit their medical treatment in order to avoid the GSS interrogation.

Mr. Ran Yaron, author of the report: “the absence of public or judiciary review of the considerations of the GSS leaves patients defenseless and takes its toll on their health, sometimes risking the lives of the weakest part of a population already made vulnerable by siege.”