Health and Human Rights

Ladies and gentlemen, participants of this great international conference, honored guests of the Palestinian people.

First of all, allow me to thank you on behalf of the Palestinian people and the thousands of health workers. We greatly value your presence here to hold this important conference in Gaza. The usual impression that forms when Gaza is mentioned elsewhere is that of barbed wires and explosions. Despite this, you have come here out of courage and faith. Therefore, welcome.

This conference is a significant turning point and a bright chapter not only in the history of the Palestinian people, but also in the history of human rights, and the enlisting doctors worldwide for the promotion of human rights.

Ladies and gentlemen, you are right to be proud of what you have achieved during the last few days and should be proud of what you do as activists. The noble message you carry, the message for the sake of which you bear the wrath of governments and rulers, people in power and their worshipers. Despite that, you persist in carrying the message with dedication and selflessness. You are the messengers of this age.

During the darkest ages throughout history, the Heavens have sent earth messengers of kindness carrying Allah's word to humanity. Now that these messengers are no longer sent, Allah has instilled kindness in people, men and women walking on earth and implementing Allah's will in preserving his creation, the human being.

In all religions and with all messengers, Allah ordered human beings to preserve fellow humans' lives, property, and dignity; ordered the strong not to do injustice to the weak; ordered the people in power not to oppress their people.

From Islam, I quote Prophet Mohammad's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saying: "The master of martyrs is Hamza, and a man who stands up to an unjust ruler and advises him what to do or not do, and is killed for that."

The message that you carry makes you extraordinary people. We have learned a lot from you. We have discovered the importance of things that we took for granted. The number of doctor, nurses, and health professionals advocating human rights are very few. We have just discovered this truth because we were busy trying to provide penicillin and aspirin to children and getting antibiotics through Erez to ensure that vaccinations are not stopped. We have had to make sure that our hospitals have bread.

I have discovered that before "Physicians for Human Rights" came along, we as doctors and nurses did not ask ourselves what the Medical Association could do to increase human rights awareness and enlist volunteers. I am certain that after this conference we will start to do so. God willing, next conference we will present you with a human rights record that we and you can be proud of.

I think that if we had ten people like Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj and Husam El-Nounou..., no, let us be modest, if we only had three more, our doctors would better value human rights and take more steps to preserve them. They would be stopping torture and confronting it strongly and selflessly.

Ladies and gentlemen, today, the Palestinian National Authority is paying a high price for not implementing Netanyahu's, and strangely enough Albright's, conception of security coordination and the American-Israeli understanding of security.

This concept is that of lists of orders: the first list had 85 names of people to be handed over to Israel, the second one had 170 names, the third had 130, and the fourth list was of organizations to be closed, like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other supporting organizations like them.

They say that the Palestinian Authority has a revolving door policy of arresting people and releasing them. They want us to hand people over to them. When we say no, they pressure us. We are implementing Palestinian law in which arrests are based on reasonable charges. Instead they pressure us on the following issues:

1. In December 95 and January 96 in Paris, the donor countries committed themselves to giving to the Palestinian Authority 880 million US dollars. What we actually received was 110 million. What happens to all our plans for the health, education, and infrastructure sectors which were laid out in Paris?

2. The last closure lasted 70 days. I do not need to explain the effects of the closure since this was covered in the workshops of the conference. The closure deprived 120,000 laborers and their families of their livelihood.

3. In an unprecedented gesture in the history of the Palestinian people and in dealings between states, Israel withheld Palestinian Authority money used to cover salaries and the running expenses of hospitals and schools. This was done days before the beginning of the scholastic year.

4. The American Government did not submit a routine, quarterly bill to Congress permitting the PLO diplomatic mission in Washington DC to operate. Congress then went into recess and the presence of the PLO representative in Washington, all of a sudden, became illegal. After negotiations, he was allowed to stay, but barred from entering the State Department or taking part in any negotiating team or delegation that meets with American officials.

5. The US Congress did not approve a grant to the Palestinian Authority which was previously promised to them. This grant was withheld awaiting an American official's certification that the Palestinian Authority has agreed to security cooperation according to the Israeli concept.

Despite the continuing suffering and deadlock in peace, all Albright talks about are security demands that have to be met by the Palestinian Authority. If these demands are met, Netanyahu will release the money and the diplomatic mission in Washington DC will be allowed to operate. But there will be no mention of the starving 120,000 laborers and 85,000 civil employees or the paralysis of the activities of Ministries.

Over the past few months, I have forgotten that I am a minister of health who should think of developing the health sector. I had to receive a long line of people: the contractor who supplies bread wants his money, the contractor who supplies food wants his money, the contractors who supply medication want their money, etc. They all ask me, "How do you expect us to keep supplying you if you do not pay?"

Friends, I am not trying to get you to support an authority in Palestine or elsewhere, if it does not respect human rights. I am trying to put the whole picture in front of you so that all of us can wonder how the super power leading this world can have such a double standard on human rights.

Friends, I know that you are exhausted, but I have a message from my mother that I must deliver. I will have to go back and see her after I leave you.

My mother, Um Saleem, is 89 years old. She tells me that she does not believe that I am a minister or someone that important because she sees my life and happiness deteriorating. She also said that she tested me when she asked to pray in Jerusalem with Um Hannah, our Christian neighbor. My mother wanted to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque and Um Hannah in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I told her that I could not get permits for them because the Israelis cited security reasons. Two days later I got the permits because the employee who informed me of the rejection saw my sadness and filed new applications under the excuse of going to St. John's Hospital in Jerusalem for eye examinations. My mother refused to lie in order to pray, and Um Hannah refused to lie in order to pray.

My mother has told me, "Tell your friends that I am like them, a human rights activist. I have been ridiculed by my grandchildren because I cry twice when I watch TV. When Palestinians are killed, as in Al-Aqsa and Hebron, I cry. When Israelis are killed, as in Mahne Yehuda and Lebanon, I cry. My grandchildren ridicule me and think that I cannot tell the differenbetween Palestinians and Jews.

I cry when Israelis die because they also have mothers who are saddened. I cry twice and say to both sides: 'enough death, enough destruction, enough blood for 50 years. Is it not time to respect God's creation and stop killing? Reach a compromise and live together'".

When my mother asked me about this conference, I had a hard time trying to explain human rights to her. I simplified it by telling her that these people are like you: "If an Israeli is killed, they cry; if a Palestinian is killed, they cry; if peace is achieved, they rejoice; if a human being is respected, not detained or tortured, they are happy; and if a human being is detained and tortured, they are angry.