Police push forcibly away dozens of American and European doctors
Who tried to enter the Gaza Strip at the Erez Checkpoint
Entry of the physicians for an academic conference in Gaza was forbidden by the military authoritiesAt noon police and military forces pushed away dozens of American and European physicians who knocked on the gates of the Erez Checkpoint at the northern entrance to the Gaza Strip and sought to reach an economic conference scheduled to take place in Gaza City.
Police and Border Guards soldiers used considerable force and pushed back the physicians and mental health personnel, who cried out "Let us pass! Let Gaza Live!". They waved signs reading "Does an academic conference threaten the security of Israel? Does health personnel threaten you?" as well as "Walls vs. Bridges" (title of the intended academic conference in which the physicians intended to participate),
Among those present were doctors, psychiatrists and nurses from the US, Canada, Britain, Denmark, Norway, Spain and Italy. Among them was an organized group from the Harvard University School of Medicine. Together with them were also dozens of Israeli peace activists from the Coalition Against the Gaza Siege, including members of the Coalition of Women for Peace, Gush Shalom and Anarchists Against Walls. Also present were young people of the Shministim (Highschool Seniors) group, who refuse to join an army of occupation. Raz Bar David Veron, whose call up order is due next week – when she expects to go to the military prison – said that the behaviour of the army and police which she just witnessed increased her determination to refuse military service.
After being pushed far away from the gates of the Erez Checkpoint, the physicians and their Israeli supporters held an improvised rally facing the walls which surround the Gaza Strip. A doctor and a mental health nurse, who spoke on behalf of the group said that 120 doctors and mental health personnel had come to the country out of a deep concern and anxiety about the humanitarian disaster taking place in the Gaza Strip, and towards which the International Community shows no concern. "The fact that our entry was prevented by the Israeli authorities further increases this feeling of anxiety. It seems that there are things happening there which they don’t want us to see and to report about when we go back to our countries." They called for removal of the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip. "We have been invited by the Palestinians, and only the Palestinians should be the ones to decided whether or not we – or anyone else – goes or does not go into the Strip. Israel should not be in control of who goes in or out".
The two women speakers rejected out of hand the claim of the military authorities, broadcast on Israeli radio, that the conference "had been organized by Hamas". They said it was an academic conference organized by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, a medical association not affiliated to any government or political party. Moreover, the conference is sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO).
In the event, the academic conference was held at Ramallah on the scheduled dates (Mon-Tue 27-28 October), with the original agenda and the lectures as planned, and with a constant video link between Ramallah and Gaza.
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