To the Northern Palestinian Bantustan

By Bill Dienst MD

(March 6, 2005, in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Ramallah)

Washington PSR delegation landed at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv at 2

am this morning, and made it up the hill to Jerusalem, then South though

our first Israeli military checkpoint, arriving at 4 am local time at the

Casa Nova Hotel in Manger Square in Bethlehem, about 200 feet from the

Church of the Nativity. We are allotted 3 hours rest, and then begin our

first day in the Holy Land ten time zones ahead of our circadian rhythm,

which we left back in Seattle. We're off!

Our mission today will be to visit the Ramallah/El Bireh area in the

Northern West Bank, which is now essentially sealed off from Bethlehem, in

the Southern West Bank. Although Ramallah and Bethlehem are only 35 km

apart, we must traverse two major Israeli military checkpoints in and out

of Jerusalem to get there. We are fortunate, for our delegation members

carry American, Canadian, and Swiss Passports. We just flash them as the

young Israeli soldier boards our bus, and he waves us through; a

relatively minor inconvenience. Not so for your ordinary Palestinian.

They risk humiliation, verbal and physical abuse, detention and may be

turned back at any time. Our Palestinian guide has been unable to visit

the Northern West Bank for over a year now. He is quite grateful

traveling with us, so he can finally do so.We cross the Bethlehem checkpoint where we see The Wall in the daylight

for the first time. We travel mostly across East Jerusalem, which was

annexed by Israel after the 1967 Six Day War, violating the Geneva

Conventions and international law. We see the Palestinian town of Al-Ram

being walled off from its economic center in Jerusalem on 3 sides,

becoming an Enclave or Ghetto. Finally we cross Qalandia checkpoint, the

busiest checkpoint in the entire West Bank, and into Ramallah.

We arrive at the main Palestine Red Crescent Society hospital in El Bireh.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society, or PRCS, initially evolved as the

Palestinian health services in exile, its institutions developed in

parallel with those of the PLO, and they have services in Lebanon, Syria,

Egypt, Iraq, etc., where there are significant Palestinian refugee

populations. During the Oslo years, the PRCS was allowed to set up

services in the West Bank and Gaza. Its former leader Dr. Fathi Arafat

died a month after his brother, in December, 2004.

We file into a meeting room and meet Sana Itayim, information officer of

the PRCS. We also meet Dr. Hikmat Ajjuri and Dr. Abdul-Aziz-Al Labadi,

who are current and former regional vice presidents of the International

Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). They share this

position with Dr. Ernesto Kahan, an Israeli, whom we will meet later. We

learn about the aging Dimona Nuclear Reactor, in Israel's Negev desert,

which is now over 50 years old, when most reactors are decommissioned

after 40 years.

We are briefed on various current aspects of the occupation. Some

highlights of our conversations were that the poverty rate in the West

Bank has increased from 20% to over 50% during the past 4 years. In Gaza,

the poverty rate is well over 70%.

We heard about the effects of the wall; 85% of it is being built not on

the Green line, but instead inside the West Bank. Although it is being

billed as a means to protect Israeli's from terrorist attacks, the reality

is quite different. 274,000 Palestinians are left in a series of

enclaves, and are cut off from their communities. Over 93,000

Palestinians will be trapped on the Israeli side of the wall. West Bank

residents who are Palestinian are being separated from their communities,

farmers from their farms, in a massive and illegal land grab.

International, especially United States, support of Israel is relieving

the Jewish State of the financial consequences of this occupation and is

indirectly financing the building of the wall.

PRCS is finding it more difficult to transfer patients needing tertiary

care services to the Palestinian Medical Center, Al Maqassed, in

Jerusalem, since its ambulances are unable to pass through the Qalandia

checkpoint, and Israeli ambulances want $200 to take the patient the

additional 10 km to Al Maqassed.

Next, we are given a tour of PRCS hospital in El Bireh by Dr. Ziad Abu

Assi, a pediatrician, who completed his residency through the State

University of New York, before returning to Palestine to serve his people.

PRCS-El Bireh has emergency room services, and is largely a maternity and

pediatric hospital.

Next, our delegation visits the grave of the late Yasser Arafat, and then

visits the Palestinian Authority foreign affairs department, where we meet

with Dr. Jauher Sayej, a member of FATEH, and head of Medical

Administration for the Palestinian Authority.

Day one was full. Tomorrow, we meet with Israeli peace groups in Jerusalem.