wfn.org | UMCOR assists overwhelmed Palestinian hospital

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Oct. 12, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-71B{469}

NEW YORK (UMNS) - The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has come
to the aid of a Palestinian hospital overwhelmed by the recent violence in
Jerusalem.

During an Oct. 10 meeting with new directors, the Rev. Paul Dirdak, UMCOR's
chief executive, said the agency had responded to a request from Augusta
Victoria Hospital, a Palestinian institution registered with the Israeli
authorities by the Lutheran World Federation. An emergency grant was sent to
purchase medicine and medical supplies.

The hospital had treated more than 60 emergency patients as a result of the
fighting between Palestinians and Israeli troops, according to information
received by UMCOR. The soldiers had restricted access to the hospital and
had even shot Palestinians within its grounds, Dirdak reported.

In an Oct. 3 statement, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) strongly objected to the entry of Israeli forces
onto the hospital property on Sept. 29 and their continued presence on the
grounds.

Bishop H. George Anderson protested "the disproportionate and excessive use
of lethal force by Israeli forces, their increasing use of live ammunition,
their firing of rubber-coated bullets into the faces and heads of
Palestinian youth, and their disregard for humanitarian institutions such as
the Augusta Victoria Hospital.

Churches for Middle East Peace, a coalition of 15 denominations and church
organizations, including the ELCA and United Methodist Church, has deplored
the Israeli forces' use of helicopter gunships and antitank missiles against
Palestinian protesters. In an Oct. 4 statement, the coalition reiterated its
call for a shared Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians and among the
three religions that revere the holy city.

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United Methodist News Service
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