PA reduced Gaza patient hospital permits by 75% last month

A Palestinian human rights NGO has confirmed the story we mentioned recently that the Palestinian Authority has greatly reduced the number of permits allowed for Gazans requiring hospitalization to leave the enclave.


Haaretz reports that over the past two months, the number of vouchers issued by the PA to allow Gazans to travel outside the sector for medical treatment has plummeted from over 2000 a month to a few dozen. Some 90% of the requests are being ignored.

People with cancer and heart disease who had been treated in Israel cannot resume their treatments. Children who have been traveling regularly to hospitals in Israel are stuck and their parents are frantic.

And, as I previously reported, the PA has stopped shipments of anesthetic to Gaza, meaning that most operations cannot be performed in Gaza itself.

Between this and the PA's refusal to pay for electricity and fuel for Gaza, we see a total disregard by Mahmoud Abbas for the lives and well-being of his people.

The only political leader in the region who shows as little regard for his own people is Syria's Bashar Assad.

Yet Gisha, the NGO that monitors travel and goods through Gaza crossings, has been silent about the Palestinian Authority's responsibility for the electricity crisis, the banning of medicines and anesthetic and the decision to not allow Gazans to leave for medical treatment. In fact, Gisha essentially exonerates the PA in its "fact sheet" about the electricity crisis:

Isn’t it the PA’s decision to cut supply? What does Israel have to do with it?

Even if the PA asks it to do so, Israel has its hand on the switch and would be complicit in and accountable for the certain devastation that would occur in the Strip as a result of further interruption in supply. 

As always, if Israel cannot be blamed, then these things are just not of interest to the vast majority of the media nor to alleged "Palestinian activists" and "human rights organizations."

And Mahmoud Abbas cannot possibly be blamed for indirectly killing his own people, because the media has invested so much space into the idea that he is a man of peace and a moderate. It simply would make the journalists and analysts look bad if they would suddenly report that he is a despot who willingly lets his own people die and who collectively punishes millions for purely political reasons.

It means the news media have had him wrong for the past 15 years, and they are way too invested in the myth of moderate Abbas than the facts. Stories that support their anti-Israel bias are highlighted  - and stories that contradict their pro-Palestinian bias are ignored or soft-pedaled.

PCHR has the statistics:

Data collected by PCHR indicates there is a gradual decline in the number of medical referrals issued for the Gaza Strip patients, as the number reached 2,190 referrals in March, but declined to 1,756 in April at a rate of 19.8%. Moreover, the medical referrals decreased in May to 1,484 at a rate of 32.2%. The information collected by PCHR shows that the number of referrals in June did not exceed 500, which points out that they declined at a rate of over 75%. On the other hand, the External Medical Treatment Department adopted a new mechanism when dealing with serious cases, under which patients are referred upon the approval of the Department’s Director, as the “financial coverage is offered later and following the coordination needed”. On Thursday, 15 June 2017, this mechanism stopped upon the instructions given by Ramallah’s Ministry of Health to the External Medical Treatment Department in Gaza. The number of medical referrals approved by the Higher Medical Committee in the Gaza Strip since early June is over 2,500 referrals so far for patients suffering from serious diseases that have no treatment in Gaza. These patients are awaiting for the approval on the financial coverage for their treatment abroad. However, Ramallah’s External Medical Treatment Department issued only 400 referrals. This raises concerns on the delay of about a month and a half, in addition to the decline in the number of medical referrals despite the approval of the Higher Medical Committee in the Gaza Strip.

Not only that, but patients that do get permission to go to the West Bank for treatment are being rejected by the hospitals themselves!

PCHR is shocked as the West Bank hospitals has started rejecting hospital appointments for the Gaza Strip patients with medical referrals from the External Medical Treatment Department although these hospitals used to reserve a bed for the referred patient under the term “financial coverage offered later“.  The new measure taken hinders the Gaza Strip patients’ access to those hospitals and aggravates the health situation.

The PA has shown time and time again that it doesn't care about its own people.

Why should the rest of the world prioritize helping those who actively and consciously allow their own people to die?

Is Abbas' decision to stop electricity, medicines, anesthetic, medical equipment and other life saving material from Gaza morally different from Bashar Assad's siege of Yarmouk? Yet Assad is considered a monster and Abbas a peacemaker.

It goes to show that facts have little to do with how (or even if) things are reported.


http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2017/06/palestinian-authority-barring-gaza.html

Yesterday I noted a Haaretz article about how Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority has essentially shut the door for Gaza medical patients to be treated in Israel.

Today, the Gaza Health Ministry announced the death of 9-month old Ibrahim Samir Tubail as a direct result of his not being able to travel to Israel for treatment.

He had a type of fibrosis.

Two other babies, both with heart problems, also died in the past 24 hours in Gaza after being denied permission to go to Israel for treatment by the PA.

According to Al Quds newspaper, 12 patients have died in Gaza this year from being denied permission to leave the sector. Six of them were children.



But a Ukrainian doctor who lives in Gaza, married to a Palestinian, managed to get her rare Persian long-haired cat to Israel for treatment who broke her jaw from a fall.

After she couldn't find any veterinarians in Gaza, Tatiana Zaqout contacted the  Brigitte Bardot animal foundation who eventually connected her with Israeli pet experts who helped her arrange for the transfer of her cat, Sonia, to Israel.

Sonia's treatment is costing about $3000 and Zaqout is raising the money to pay.

Sonia is the daughter of "Bessie" and..."Vladimir Putin."

The babies dying in Gaza don't get as much consideration as a cat.


http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2017/06/three-babies-denied-treatment-died-in.html