Physicians for Human Rights-Israel is honoured
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel is proud to be the winner of the 2010 Alternative Nobel Peace Prize. Here is the report carried in the British Medical Journal, 4 October 2010
Israeli medical humanitarian group is to share alternative Nobel prize
The Tel Aviv based Physicians for Human Rights-Israel will share the “alternative Nobel prize” for its work, which includes helping Palestinians, migrant workers, and refugees. The prize, the Right Livelihood Award, was established in 1980 to “honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges” and will be awarded in the Swedish parliament in Stockholm on 6 December, four days before the official Nobel prize ceremony.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, founded in 1988 by the Israeli physician Ruhama Marton, has Jewish and Arab Israeli members, who pledge to prevent serious abuses of human rights. It runs a free medical clinic in Tel Aviv for foreigners, including migrant workers and refugees from Africa who have no health insurance, and helps Palestinians, especially those from Gaza, to overcome Israeli bureaucracy that delays their access to urgent medical treatment in Israel. Dr Marton said that the prize gives “recognition and international and human solidarity, strengthening us in our struggle against sources of oppression and for justice and equality.”
The organisation’s director general, Hadas Ziv, said it was proud to receive the prize and thanked all its activists, partners, and supporters who made its work possible over the years. The non-profit group is committed to continue its activities to help everyone in Israel and the Palestinian territories to live with dignity, health, and equality.
So far 141 laureates from 59 countries have received the award, which has no categories and is usually shared by four recipients. Not all laureates receive a cash award, as often a special prize is given to a person or group whose work the jury wants to recognise but that is not in need of financial support. The prize money, €200 000 (£175 000; $275 000) this year, is intended to promote ongoing successful work.
Jakob von Uexkull, founder and co-chairman of the Right Livelihood Award, said that the prize “is widely recognised as the world’s premier award for personal courage and social transformation. Besides the financial support, it enables its recipients to reach out to an international audience that otherwise might not have heard of them. Often the award also gives crucial protection against repression. For the laureates, the award has opened many doors, including prison doors.”
The jury praised Physicians for Human Rights-Israel for its “indomitable spirit” in pursuing its aims. “Although they are physicians, they also see themselves as a political organisation. They participate in the debate about health policies in Israel,” Mr von Uexkull said.
The other laureates this year are Nnimmo Bassey of Nigeria, for his exposé of the ecological and human costs of oil production in the Niger delta; Bishop Erwin Kräutler of Brazil, for his fight for the human and environmental rights of indigenous peoples; and Shrikrishna Upadhyay of Nepal, for empowering the country’s poor people.
3 opmerkingen:
Dàt vind ik nu eens erg goed nieuws! Physicians for Human Rights-Israël (PHR-I) is een alternatieve arstenorganisatie die zich afzet tegen de schendingen van de mensenrechten van de Palestijnen.
Ze mogen d'er best trots op zijn dat ze de Alternatieve Nobel Vredesprijs wonnen.
Zij waren het, die wereldwijd protesteerden tegen het feit dat de Israëlische arts Yoram Blachar, die weigerde de folteringen in Israël aan te klagen, voorzitter werd van de World Medical Association (WMA) .Artsen moeten ten allen tijde protesteren tegen elke vorm van foltering. Yoram Blachar is een aanhanger van de 'officiële' IMA(Israëli Medical Association)
Activist Derrek Summerfield, een psychiater onderzocht heel veel slachtoffers van foltering, slachtoffers van het feit dat zieken, zwangeren enz veel te lang aan Check points moesten wachten onderweg naar een ziekenhuis. Hij en z'n team kregen de laatste jaren steeds meer kinderen te zien die de gedwongen getuigen waren van de verkrachting van hun moeder, of zelf verkracht werden terwijl hun moeder moest toekijken.
PHR-I werkt samen met B'tselem.
Ik ben erg blij met hun Nobelprijs, omdat hun zorg voor de slachtoffers van foltering de beste preventie is tegen extremisme of terreur. Een goed verzorgd en behandeld slachtoffer van foltering wordt immers geen tikkende tijdbom van haat en wraak.
Deze morgen mail gekregen van PHR-I:
PHR-Israel's Occupied Territories Department: Questioning Israel's Crossing Policy in the Aftermath of a Gaza Toddler's Death
Nasma Abu Lasheen died on Saturday, October 16, 2010 in Gaza after Israel failed to issue her an urgent entry permit for life-saving medical treatment at Ha-Emek Medical Center in Afula, Israel. She was two years old.
Abu Lasheen, a young resident of Gaza diagnosed with Leukemia was referred for emergency treatment in Israel on October 6, 2010. When requests to the Israeli Army for an entry permit went unanswered for several days, the family contacted Physicians for Human Rights- Israel (PHR-Israel) for additional help. The very same day, on October 13, 2010, PHR-Israel contacted the Gaza District Coordination Office (DCO) demanding a permit be issued immediately to the baby and her father to enable their entry into Israel. A military approval was finally granted the next afternoon, on October 14, 2010.
Abu Lasheen's medical condition began deteriorating rapidly and by the time the permit was received, the treating doctor in Gaza, Dr. Mohammad Abu Sha'aban, said she was too sick to travel. Nasma died in the early morning hours of October 16th.
PHR-Israel has lodged a complaint with the head of the Israeli DCO demanding an immediate inquiry into those responsible for the delayed response.
Abu Lasheen's death comes just days after PHR-Israel testified to the Israeli Turkel Commission investigating the Flotilla incident, on the humanitarian situation in Gaza Strip as a result of Israel's closure policy. In their October 13th testimony, PHR- Israel pointed to the rising numbers of Gaza patients denied exit for treatment in hospitals outside the Strip, a phenomenon that has intensified since Israel's closure policy worsened in June 2007. For patients, a delayed or denied permit could mean the difference between quality of life and preventable pain and suffering, and in some cases, even the difference between life and death, as demonstrated by the Abu Lasheem case.
PHR- Israel calls on the Israeli authorities at Erez Crossing to investigate those responsible for the delays involved in Nasma Abu Lasheen's case. PHR- Israel reiterates its demand that Israel fulfill its obligations vis-à-vis the residents of Gaza by ensuring them full and timely access to medical treatment not available in the Gaza Strip.
For more information, please contact Ran Yaron, Director of PHR-Israel's Occupied Territories Department by phone: +972-54-7577696, or via e-mail ranyaron@phr.org.il
PHR-Israel's Occupied Territories Department: Questioning Israel's Crossing Policy in the Aftermath of a Gaza Toddler's Death
Abu Lasheen, a young resident of Gaza diagnosed with Leukemia was referred for emergency treatment in Israel on October 6, 2010. When requests to the Israeli Army for an entry permit went unanswered for several days, the family contacted Physicians for Human Rights- Israel (PHR-Israel) for additional help. The very same day, on October 13, 2010, PHR-Israel contacted the Gaza District Coordination Office (DCO) demanding a permit be issued immediately to the baby and her father to enable their entry into Israel. A military approval was finally granted the next afternoon, on October 14, 2010.
Abu Lasheen's medical condition began deteriorating rapidly and by the time the permit was received, the treating doctor in Gaza, Dr. Mohammad Abu Sha'aban, said she was too sick to travel. Nasma died in the early morning hours of October 16th.
http://www.phr.org.il/default.asp?PageID=190&ItemID=875
Een reactie posten