Two bills passed by the Israeli parliament on Monday ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) from operating in Israeli territory and prohibit any contact between Israeli authorities and the agency. (The United States voted to ban Unrwa from Israel within 90 days). The bill would shut down all operations of Unruwa, which provides education and health services to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Unruwa's operations in the Gaza Strip, where the agency relies on cooperation with Israel to provide humanitarian aid, will also be severely restricted.
The onslaught of this bill is related to the Palestinian Authority's financial crisis due to the withholding of tax revenues by Israel, and the suspension of 40% to 50% of medical travel permits within Israel since October 7th. It comes on top of a related, existing health crisis in the West Bank. 2023 and is also associated with a decline in Israeli-provided medical care in the West Bank.
As an Israeli doctor who has been treating Palestinian patients for many years in volunteer-run clinics in Israel and in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with the help of humanitarian organizations such as Unruwa, I no longer feel comfortable contacting the organization. , as people without access to medicines and medical supplies. Dear patients, we feel the need to speak out against this blatant injustice.
Importantly, a number of Israeli doctors and medical personnel recently co-signed a letter of support for American medical professionals against the ongoing health crisis in Gaza and sent it directly to the White House, along with Joe Biden. He urged Biden and Kamala Harris to stop the disaster. In Gaza.
Israel's legislative plans for Unrwah threaten to devastate health care in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in addition to the unbearable catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.
Michal Feldon Pediatric Rheumatologist, Dafna Chochat Endocrinologist
Tel Aviv, Israel
