Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #120373

Allam Jarrar, MD, Community Based Rehabilitation Program, Palestinian Medical Relief Society, P.O. Box 51483, Jerusalem, Israel, 97222988234, afmeyers@bu.edu and Jihad Abdelhadi Mashal, MD, Director General, Palestinian Medical Relief Society, P.O. Box 51483, Jerusalem, Israel.

The Palestinian Medical Relief Society is a non-governmental organization whose objective is to protect and promote the health of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation, focusing on Primary Health Care and community health. The PMRS perspective on health is inseparable from the overall concepts of civil and human rights. The last five years of conflict, Israeli military siege and closure, and the building of the separation wall have left the country shattered into hundreds of isolated Bantustans, leaving the whole society vulnerable and creating a new geography of segregation. This has exacerbated the existing difficulties facing the Palestinian people, compromising their basic needs; in a society where families have inadequate resources for food, spending precious income on health services has almost ceased. Although external humanitarian aid is essential to overcoming such adverse socioeconomic conditions, it has a limited impact on overall health conditions. Assistance has not guaranteed growth or development for Palestinian society; it only extends Palestinians' capability to survive such circumstances. Planning for health in this environment takes place at the highest level of uncertainty, and consequently many assumptions must be made; response to emergency needs takes precedence; and the implementation of health plans or investing in health systems ceases. There is a strong belief that improving health services is possible if political constraints are removed. This presentation will focus on recent developments with regard to the Gaza disengagement plan and the erection of the separation wall in the West Bank and its impact on the Palestinian health system.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the impact of restrictions of movement on the health status of the Palestinian population
• Analyze the effect of the uncertainties of life under military occupation on health planning and health system development
• Assess current events in the Mideast from the vantage point of the public health of the Palestinian population

Keywords: War, International Health

Related Web page: www.upmrc.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation