Activists: Israel pressuring ill Palestinians to be informers

Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers. 24.10.07. Israel gave Hiyya permission to leave the Gaza Strip last month and cross Israeli territory for immediate surgery in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. But when he arrived at the Israeli border crossing, he learned that there was a catch. In a daylong interrogation, Hiyya said, Israeli intelligence offered him a deal: Tell us about your brother, a wanted militant, and we'll let you enter Israel for the operation you need. When Hiyya refused, they turned him away. Human rights groups charge that Hiyya's case is one of nearly a dozen they've documented in which Israelis allegedly have tried to recruit ailing Palestinians as informers in the low-intensity war with the militant Islamic group Hamas. Since June, at least five Palestinians have died after being denied permits to leave Gaza for emergency medical treatment, according to Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli human-rights group that's working to help patients in Gaza. Human Rights Watch's Abrahams warned that the Israeli strategy could create risks for Palestinians who're allowed out of Gaza because militants will suspect them of being collaborators. "It casts a shadow of suspicion over those who succeed to leave Gaza," he said. "People will wonder what they did to be able to get out."

Palestinian cancer patient denied entry from Gaza into Israel for hospital care

Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem, The Independent, 26.10.07. A 21-year-old cancer patient in urgent need of specialist treatment was stopped from entering Israel from Gaza despite securing prior permission from the Israeli military to cross the border. The incident, the latest in a series which the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) claims is part of a tough new policy by the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet towards seriously ill patients from Gaza seeking treatment in Israel, came as Israel separately stepped up its response to the firing of Qassam rockets by Gaza militants. The patient turned back from Erez on Monday. Mahmud Kamal Abu Taha, was sent back to hospital in Khan Yunis after waiting two-and-a-half hours in an ambulance at the Erez crossing while he was receiving oxygen and on an intravenous drip. Shin Bet agents also arrested his father at the crossing even though he had also been told he had permission to accompany his son to a hospital in Tel Aviv.

In testimony to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, the patient's brother Hani, 34, explained that his brother had lost about a quarter of his body weight, prompting fears for his life after 75 centimetres of his small intestine had been removed when doctors had found a cancerous growth.

He added that, unable to eat, his brother had been fed with four to six doses a day of vitamin solution but that the dosage had been reduced to one because the hospital was suffering a shortage of the solution. He said that specialists decided to transfer him to Tel Hashomer hospital in Israel. He added: "Mahmud is melting away in front of our eyes like a candle."

Une ONG israélienne dénonce le chantage sur les malades de Gaza

De notre correspondant à Jérusalem P. S.-P., Le Figaro, 17.10.07. S'ils veulent être soignés en Israël, les Gaziotes doivent collaborer avec les forces de sécurité. Selon l'ONG israélienne PHR (Physicians for Human Rights), le gouvernement israélien a progressivement durci les conditions de délivrance de permis de sortie pour les malades nécessitant des traitements qui ne sont pas disponibles dans la bande de Gaza. Les rares « privilégiés » qui parviennent à obtenir le précieux sésame n'ont pas la garantie de pouvoir sortir pour bénéficier de leurs traitements. Les patients sont retenus au point de passage d'Erez pendant plusieurs heures. Ensuite, ils sont appelés par le « capitaine », le coordinateur du Shin Bet (service de renseignement intérieur) chargé de recruter des agents. Le « capitaine » leur demande des noms de militants armés et des renseignements concernant les diverses milices de la bande de Gaza. Ceux qui refusent de se soumettre aux questions ou de collaborer avec Israël sont refoulés vers la bande de Gaza sous le prétexte qu'ils représentent une « menace à la sécurité » d'Israël. « Prends des jumelles, Israël est encore loin », s'est vu conseiller, après son refus de collaborer, un malade risquant de devenir aveugle s'il ne subit pas une opération de la rétine.

LES GAZIOTES n'en finissent pas de payer le prix du coup de force du Hamas, qui a pris le contrôle de la bande de Gaza le 15 juin dernier. Depuis quatre mois, ils sont soumis à un blocus économique, qui a provoqué leur ruine. Un million et demi de Palestiniens sont hermétiquement enfermés dans cette bande sablonneuse longue de 41 kilomètres sur 12 de large, où ils survivent grâce à l'aide internationale. Et depuis qu'Israël a déclaré Gaza « entité hostile », il y a un mois, même les malades dont la survie dépend d'un traitement à l'extérieur n'ont plus le droit de quitter Gaza.

Tirs de roquettes quotidiens

La collaboration avec Israël est passible de la peine de mort dans les Territoires palestiniens. « Les patients craignent pour leur santé et sont prêts à tout pour quitter Gaza afin de pouvoir suivre un traitement. Mais ils ont peur de coopérer avec Israël », explique le Dr Ran Yaron.

PHR s'est saisi du cas de six patients souffrant de cancer, d'une hépatite, ou nécessitant une opération cardiaque urgente, et dont les jours sont comptés. « Un patient en oncologie ou une jeune fille âgée de 16 ans avec une malformation cardiaque congénitale... ce sont des cas urgents, s'indigne Dr Danny Filk, directeur de PHR. La santé de ces patients se dégrade de jour en jour et les semaines de délais peuvent rendre leur condition irréversible. Il s'agit de l'exploitation de personnes très malades. Ces pressions sont contraires à l'éthique médicale et à la morale. »

Les services de renseignements israéliens espèrent ainsi combattre les tirs de roquettes, lancées quotidiennement depuis la bande de Gaza vers le sud d'Israël. Abasourdis par ces nouvelles restrictions, les Palestiniens dénoncent, quant à eux, une nouvelle forme de « punition collective ».

Still campaigning for co-existence

The Economist, 30/08/07. There is still no shortage of Israeli-Palestinian co-existence projects, but serious activists are more sceptical of them than they used to be. Seven years after the last serious peace talks collapsed, polls show that most Israelis and Palestinians still think a two-state solution is the only viable end to their conflict. But their views on the details, such as the borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees, remain far apart, and most doubt it will happen in the next few years. When Israel's main peace groups called a rally in June to mark 40 years of occupation, perhaps 4,000 people turned up. The many hundreds of Israeli and thousands of Palestinian deaths during the second intifada have hardened hearts; Israeli security measures have rendered most of the projects that brought together Israelis and Palestinians across the Green Line (the pre-1967 border) impossible.
The start of the intifada, says Amnon Be'eri-Sulitzeano, the director in Israel of the Abraham Fund, was “a big bang in the co-existence world. Many activists realised that just bringing people together isn't enough.” Palestinians were unhappy that such projects often ignored the inequalities between them and Israeli Jews, or acted as a conscience-salve for the Israelis. “Existence first, co-existence later”, became a common Palestinian slogan.
Arab-Israelis, who, though a fifth of the population, contribute less than a tenth of GDP.
A study earlier this year by Israel's Haifa University found that a seven-month peace-education programme for teenagers did very little to change basic attitudes about each other, and any changes were lost again a few months later. Seeds of Peace, which brings Israeli and Palestinian children to summer camps in the United States (pictured), realised after some years that it had to involve them in follow-up projects too.

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