By a Staff Writer
Some of the worst reports coming out of the occupied territories are those detailing the systematic deprivation of medical care for Palestinians with chronic illnesses.
Often it is Palestinian children who are sentenced to death when an Israeli blockade of their villages prevents their parents from procuring the medications or treatments they need.
On April 15, the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (upmrc.org) was contacted by the desperate parents of a two-year-old girl, Tabarak Jaber Fayez Odeh. She had a neurological disease that required her to take medication on a daily basis.
Her village of Deir Al-Hattab, located just outside Nablus, had been under curfew for 13 days, and her parents had not been allowed to leave their house to buy more medication for her. By April 15, when UPMRC was contacted, Tabarak had been without her medication for ten days.
Her family had called numerous hospitals and ambulances, trying to get a delivery of medication for Tabarak, or to have her evacuated and taken to a hospital where she could receive the care she needed.
However, Israeli forces prevented ambulances from accessing the village.
UPMRC launched an international appeal to pressure the Israelis to allow medical assistance to reach Tabarak, but help arrived too late. She became a martyr at 3 a.m. on April 17.
Sadly, her case is not unusual. Several other Palestinians, including the child of Dr. Ali Sha’ar, a pediatrician who works for Save the Children, USA, died during the third week of April when they were denied access to medical care by the Israelis.
Should withholding medical care from children be the prerogative of any nation? Don’t click to upmrc.org without a large box of tissues nearby.
The stories posted there are heartbreaking.
