Human Rights and the Politics of Deteriorating Health in Palestine

The purpose of this paper is to review the deteriorating health situation of the Palestinian population and situate palestinian health conditions within a political and humanrights framework. It seeks to provide current evidence of the direct impact of Israel's policies and human rights violations on the health status of the palestinian population based on documents and research in the field. The Israeli authorities' disregard for Palestinian health care has been escalating, especially with the construction of the Wall in the West Bank, and is directly responsible for a vast number of Palestinian deaths. Israel's multifarious obstructions to the coordinated functioning of a health care system in Palestine increase morbidity, degrade health, promote premature deaths, and damage the medical infrastructure. Moreover, the Israeli actions transgress international law and, ultimately, make peace in the region much less likely. This analysis provides further evidence of the human right violations and the wide-ranging effects on health experienced daily by the Palestinian people as a direct result of the Israeli military occupation.