[News] Israel to Gaza patients: Be a TRAITOR and you can get Medication

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Israel to Gaza patients: Be a TRAITOR and you can get Medication

http://www.imemc.org/article/60225
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  Monday May 04, 2009 16:07
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 by Palestine Telegraph 
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Israel's Shin Bet internal security service has increased its 
interrogations of people seeking to leave Hamas-run Gaza for medical 
treatment, a rights group said in a report on Monday.

Data collected by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel "indicates a 
rise in the number of Palestinian patients interrogated and forced to 
provide information as a precondition to exit Gaza for medical care," it said.

"Between January 2008 and March 2009, at least 438 patients have been 
summoned for... interrogations... as a precondition for the review of 
their applications for an exit permit for the purpose of accessing 
medical treatment outside of the strip," the report said.

Whereas in January 2008, 1.45 percent of people who had submitted 
applications to Israeli authorities to leave Gaza were questioned, 
that number rose to 17 percent in January 2009, the group said.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel say Shin Bet had interrogated 
minors, photographed patients against their will; harassed, cursed 
and intimidated patients during questioning; and returned to Gaza 
patients who did not cooperate.

A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister's office, which oversees 
the Shin Bet, rejected the report's accusations.

A total of "13,000 sick are treated every year in Israel," Mark Regev 
said. "To suggest that all of them are required to provide 
information is simply ridiculous." However, the number is totally 
down since the blockade. Many Palestinians died trying to cross but 
Israel didn't allow them.

But he said "the authorities have a duty to proceed with security 
checks to assure that the people entering Israel will not take 
advantage of this to commit attacks, as was the case in the past."

In December 2008, Israel launched a massive military offensive in 
Gaza led to killing of more than 1,400 Palestinians in 23 days. Gaza 
is one of the world's most densely-populated territories where the 
vast majority of the 1.5-million population relies on UN aid.




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