Healing hate
‘For an Israeli to think about coming to the West Bank is seen as a death wish,’ says Carmel Dekel, a 36-year-old chiropractor and member of Christian Aid partner, Israeli Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).
‘My friends think I’m crazy. But I’ve never experienced any fear.’
It’s a warm autumn day and Carmel is in a van with other PHR volunteers, heading for a village in the northern West Bank. The road is rough and unpaved, and concrete blocks and earth mounds laid in the road by the Israeli army are forcing a detour.
Carmel thinks her friends’ fear comes from not knowing what lies on the other side of the border. Israelis are not legally allowed to travel into the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) by their own government and few have ventured across.
‘It shows them that we are not all big monsters'
But inspired by her Hippocratic oath and belief in breaking down boundaries, Carmel simply tells them: ‘try it once, and you will see.’
Every weekend, volunteer Israeli doctors, physicians and nurses like Carmel travel to the OPT as members of PHR to provide medical care to communities with little access to health services.
On this particular weekend PHR are travelling to Kafr Zibad. In order to reach isolated communities, they use mobile clinics – vans carrying doctors, nurses and medicine supplies.
They often run joint clinics with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, also a Christian Aid partner. Kafr Zibad is just 15 minutes from the town of Tulkarem, but Israeli military checkpoints and closures mean the journey for Palestinians seeking healthcare can take up to three hours.
If you’re ill in the West Bank, you are out of luck. Checkpoints, road blocks and restrictions on movement – of which there are over 500 in the West Bank – have cut many Palestinians off from healthcare.
Israel’s separation barrier, now nearing completion, also makes it almost impossible for Palestinians to visit the six main Palestinian hospitals in Jerusalem. On top of this, the victory of Hamas in last year’s election saw foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) stopped. This left 165,000 PA employees, including government doctors, without salaries.
Breaking barriers
‘Today I am treating Hassan, who is eight years old,’ says Carmel. Hassan has a form of cerebral palsy which means he cannot walk unaided and requires specialist treatment, available in neighbouring Israel. But for this he requires a permit from the Israeli authorities.
‘He may get permission to travel for physiotherapy once, but the question is: will he be able to get it again?’ says Carmel.
The clinics are also a chance for first-hand encounters between Israelis and Palestinians in a context far removed from the violence and conflict portrayed in the world’s media.
‘As well as the medical work, it’s about showing Palestinians that Israelis are not all like the ones they meet every day at checkpoints,’ says Naomi Stockwell, a physician who was born in the UK but moved to Jerusalem 30 years ago.
‘It shows them that we are not all big monsters. The most terrifying thing [about the conflict] is that children on both sides are growing up with hatred bred out of ignorance.’
Carmel and Naomi believe in breaking down barriers. They see that the seemingly simple act of an Israeli doctor taking the blood pressure of an elderly Palestinian has a deeper significance.
‘For me, it is a form of non-violent resistance to the occupation,’ says Carmel. ‘It’s about people saying “how can we stand as one voice and lead the leaders?” rather than waiting for them to lead us.’
‘I want to create a generation of children with healthy spines,’ she says matter-of-factly. ‘Healthy bodies, and healthy spines.’
Access to healthcare is a basic human right. As an occupying power, Israel has an obligation under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to ‘refrain from denying or limiting equal access for all persons…to health services.’ Christian Aid and its partners, including PHR, are calling for an end to restrictions on free movement within the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Israel’s 500 checkpoints and roadblocks are denying Palestinians their rights to healthcare.
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