'5 Palestinians die while awaiting treatment in Israel'

Physicians for Human Rights: Delays in issuing entry permits into Israel risk Palestinian patients; Shin Bet: Palestinians bribe doctors to acquire forged documents
Meital Yasur-Beit Or
Ynetnews.com 03.20.08, 21:28

Five Palestinian patients died in recent weeks while awaiting entry permits for treatment in Israel. The five patients were terminally ill, with little hope for recovery. The Physicians For Human Rights advocacy group thus maintains that there was no foreseeable need for the Shin Bet to classify these patients as a “security risk” and deny them entry into Israel for life-saving treatment.

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One of the aforementioned patients was a 65-year old woman who died while awaiting emergency surgery to replace a defective pacemaker. Another deceased patient was a 77-year old woman who waited six months for entry permits allowing her to be treated for a cancerous tumor at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center.
In another case, a baby girl died while awaiting life-saving treatment for a congenital heart defect at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. Her parents were not allowed entry into Israel because they were deemed a security risk.
Physicians for Human Rights stated that “these deaths clearly illustrate that the Shin Bet, which often uses security concerns as a hollow excuse to deny patients entry into Israel, holds an unwarranted amount of power and needs to be more closely monitored.”
The advocacy group also noted another case in which delays in attaining entry permits cost a Palestinian patient her life. A 45-year-old Palestinian woman suffering from internal bleeding and an infected spleen could not enter Israel due to the closing of the Erez border crossing, and died of complications at Tel Aviv Sourasky’s Medical Center as a result.

Shin Bet defends policy
Ran Yaron, a member of Physicians For Human Rights, said that ever since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007, Israel has made it tougher for Gazans to enter Israel for medical treatment. “The State made a pledge to the High Court that it would allow patients entry into Israel for life-saving treatments, but of late even such life-saving procedures are being denied Palestinians, in some instances costing them their lives,” said Yaron.
“These patients await their fate, helpless,” he added, indicating that often such procedures mean the difference between life and death for the critically ill. He also stated that Shin Bet often denies patients entry into Israel “even though it is not conceivable that a sick patient lying in bed could possibly be a security risk.”
A Shin Bet representative stated in response that “Following Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip, Israel grants entry permits for humanitarian reasons alone. Many Palestinians take advantage of this policy and enter Israel using forged medical documents attained by bribing Palestinian doctors. Seeing as terror operatives could easily gain entry into Israel in this manner, this clearly poses a grave security concern for the State of Israel.”