Health and the Wall: Human Rights and Art
NGO latest
Date: 02-14-05
Médecins du Monde (MDM) - UK (Doctors of the World)
Website: http://www.healthandwall.org
Health and the Wall: Human Rights and Art Launch of a joint Palestinian-Israeli-French campaign on the health impact of the Wall
Three health organizations, Médecins du Monde - France, Physicians for Human Rights ? Israel and the Palestine Red Crescent Society are launching a joint campaign on the health impact of the Wall. Based on the work of leading Israeli and Palestinian artists, the campaign will target the Israeli and the Palestinian public before travelling to different cities in Europe.
Since June 2002, the construction of the Wall has steadily added another layer of obstacles isolating, fragmenting and thus deteriorating the Palestinian health care system.
Facts: · 622 Kilometers is the full length of the planned Wall- twice the length of the green line. 255 kilometers have already been completed or they are in the process of being put up. 85% of the planned Wall encroaches into the West Bank Territories. · 93,200 Palestinians will live in areas between the Wall and the Green line. · 32.7% of the West Bank villages will suffer from lack of access to health system in each region once the Wall is completed. This number will rise to 80.7% in the enclaves. · 10,000 chronic patients suffer from lack of access to essential health services. 117,600 pregnant women, out of which 17,640 are high risk pregnancies, may suffer from the lack of access. 133,000 children under the age of 5 may not be able to get all vaccination necessary on time or at all. · 26 local clinics have already been cut off from the general Palestinian health system. Upon completion of the Wall, the number of isolated clinics will rise to 71, out of over 500 local clinics throughout the West Bank. 52% of the doctors working in these clinics are delayed on their way to work, or are not able to reach work at all due to the Wall.
The Wall appears as the final and most visible part of a network of barriers, both physical and administrative, which restrict Palestinians? right to life and freedom of movement in the occupied Palestinian territories. Since it does not follow the Green Line and encroaches within the West Bank, the tracing of the Wall is both disproportionate in its health impact and illegal. It violates both International Humanitarian Law and Human Right Law.
The presidents of the three health organizations, Dr Françoise Jeanson, Dr Ruchama Marton and M. Younis Al Khatib will speak out in a common voice on this issue and present a joint position paper during two press conferences, on 14 February in Tel Aviv and on 15 February in Ramallah. On that occasion, Médecins du Monde France will issue a report entitled The ultimate barrier, impact of the Wall on the Palestinian health care system, based on 83 testimonies collected in the field over patients and medical staff.
In order to address this issue to the public at large, the organizations have decided to work together with 14 leading Israeli and Palestinian artists to produce a booklet of artwork on the subject. The curators for this project are Mr. Miki Kratsman, an Israeli photographer and Mr. Amer Derbas, a Palestinian photographer and painter. Their artworks present different expressions of the Wall. They also underline the collaboration between civil societies, as a way to bring positive change to the region. On 17 February the booklets will be published in the Tel Aviv newspaper ?Ha?Ir? and in the Palestinian paper ?Al-Quds?, along with information pertaining to the health impact of the Wall. They will then be adapted in an exhibition that will travel to different cities in Europe.
To have access to the campaign: www.healthandwall.org
Press contact: Laure Weisgerber: Médecins du Monde Jerusalem / tel: +972-57-727-0229 ? +972-2 582 66 60 Michelle Hawkins: Médecins du Monde UK / tel: +44-(0)20-7516-9103
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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