Shin Bet prevented medical care to Palestinian cancer patient

Taken from Haaretz, Israel, 24/10/2007
By Amira Hass

The Shin Bet is refusing to allow a 21-year-old Rafiah man who is sick with cancer and in need of immediate medical care to come to Israel, even though he obtained permission from the Israeli Defense Forces' Coordination and Liaison Administration.

The Shin Bet also arrested the patient's father, who accompanied him to the hospital. Mahmoud Abu Taha was diagnosed with cancer of the small intestine in August 2007. Treatment in Gaza was unsuccessful, and he lost a third of his body weight. In addition, he is not taking all of the vitamins he needs because of the shortage of medications in Gazan hospitals.

Because of his serious condition, the doctors decided to postpone chemotherapy and send him to Tel HaShomer hospital in Ramat Gan. According to Mahmoud's brother, Hanni Abu Taleh, on October 18, they received permission shortly after they filed a request with the IDF. The father and his sick son drove in an ambulance to Erez Crossing, and after a half-hour wait, the father's name was called on the loudspeaker. According to the brother, the patient continued to wait in the ambulance, lying on a stretcher and attached to an oxygen tank and an infusion. After two hours, it was announced on the loudspeaker that he was denied entrance into Israel.

They returned to the hospital in Khan Yunis. At the same time, a person who identified himself as an officer with the Shin Bet called Hanni and told him that his father had been arrested. The family filed another request for Mahmoud to come for medical treatment at Tel HaShomer, but they still have not received a reply. The Shin Bet maintains that "Abu Taha arrived at the Erez Crossing during a specific warning of a terror attack at the border crossing. Due to the fact that it was not allowed to carry out a security check on him, he was prevented from exiting to Israel." The Shin Bet also said that the father of Mahmoud was arrested on suspicion of involvement in terror acitivites.

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The Shin Bet security service have a history of preventing medication going into occupied Palestine as well as allowing medical treatment of Palestinians into Israel. Only a few weeks ago Israeli rights group - Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) reported due to the the Shin Bet organization, in many cases, patients have been denied urgent, life-saving treatment. The report says that the Shin Bet automatically refuses entry permits, and reconsiders its decisions only if legal action is begun. SO why is healt care so rubbish in Occupied Palestine? Could it be that Israel refuses to hand over Palestinian tax payers money so that Palestinians cannot finance themselves? Maybe. Here is a good talkback found in

A jewish racise on the website talkback asked "Give one example of a Jew treated in an Arab WB or Gaza hospital"

Here was a good reply from a sensible person...
Title: #17 Pt 1 - No Israeli would need it,
Name: Rebekah S, City:Washington DC
because Israeli healthcare has not been systematically undermined as it has for Palestinians under Israeli rule. In contrast, healthcare in Gaza was stripped so bare between 1967 and the Oslo Accords, that the PA - which cannot possibly afford to build from scratch an advanced health care system, and which in the case of cancer patients would not be able to do so anyway seeing as Israel refuses to allow radiotherapy equipment into Gaza for "security reasons" - has to pay for advanced treatments abroad. About one-sixth go to Israel, and the PA pays for it. About two-thirds go to Egypt, but the Rafah crossing to Egypt remains closed as long as Israel does not allow the EU monitors based in Ashqelon to enter the Strip and reach the crossing. So a cancer patient today cannot get advanced treatment in Gaza because the Israelis say that would be a security risk, he cannot go to Egypt for it because Israel keeps Rafah closed to punish the Gaza coup, and now he cannot enter Israel either.


LATEST UPDATE: 30 OCTOBER 2007
This week it has been reveale dthat Prime Minister Olmert is to undergo operation for prostate cancer but at the same time the Cancer patient that was prevented from entering the hospital has died.