WAFA, the PLO news agency reports that Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights demanded of Israel’s Deputy Min. of Health and the Police Chief of Jerusalem that they stop requiring police escorts for ambulances entering Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem, even in emergency.
“Ms. Reut Katz of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel stressed that 'the police escort of ambulances to transport patients coupled with their presence alongside medical staff during the treatment process also constitutes a flagrant violation of the privacy rights and medical confidentiality of the patient.” It may be a violation of medical ethics and international prohibition of cruel and degrading treatment. [No international law was cited.]
Ambulances are instructed to wait in adjacent Jewish neighborhoods for the escort. If families try to transport patients to hospitals on their own, they risk aggravating the illness. The ambulances do proceed directly to Jewish enclaves in Arab neighborhoods, a seeming inconsistency that bespeaks discrimination. That is the only consideration in the Israeli rule (www.imra.org.il, 11/23).
If we have learned anything from events and not preconceptions over the years, Israel is humane and the Palestinian Arabs are inhumane. Fatah just confirmed its policy of armed struggle, while it defers ostensible peace negotiations until Israel makes further concessions. PLO Arabs went into an Israeli nursery and shot toddlers; the Israeli security forces often abort missions when they know a child is in the building. Israel lets enemy Palestinian Arabs into its hospitals and free, but the PLO, Jordan, and Egypt have kept Israeli medics away from Israelis, who were left to bleed to death. There must be more to this ambulance story.
I checked with my source, to confirm my recollection of the real background. Dr. Aaron Lerner explained that the ambulances aren’t allowed into Arab areas without police escort to protect them from likely assault. That puts a different light on the story. Even though the ambulance would be entering to save the lives or health of Arab neighbors, fellow Arabs attack those medical saviors unless deterred by police.
Now we see which people is callous about the lives of Arabs, who may not make it to the hospital if the ambulance attendants themselves are incapacitated. Those purported humanitarian organizations, that claim to be outraged by alleged Israeli discrimination, are frauds. And the Palestinian Authority, which complains against Israel is trying to reap public relations benefits at the expense of its own people. What a people, those Palestinian Arab “innocent civilians!” Will any anti-Zionists, who purport to care about those Arabs, condemn the Palestinian Authority and the “humanitarian” groups for harming them?
(To see that Adalah is the prejudiced group, click here, but ignore the article's comment on Adalah-NY, which is a different organization )
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