wfn.org | FEATURE: The Hospital Is a Link between Israelis and

["Frank Imhoff" <Frank.Imhoff@elca.org>]

FEATURE: The Hospital Is a Link between Israelis and Palestinians
Separation Wall Impedes Access to Medical Care Provided by LWF-run AVH

JERUSALEM/GENEVA, 22 December 2004 (LWI) - Dr Tawfiq Nasser stands high
up on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem and points to the distant
landscape below. He indicates the long wall circling Jerusalem and
extending far into northern Israel and west Jordan. From up here, from
the Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH), where Nasser is Chief Executive
Officer, the mighty wall looks almost harmless. Like a ribbon it winds
through the hilly landscape, sometimes clearly visible, sometimes partly
hidden. Yet Nasser knows firsthand how dangerous this wall is. He lives
on the other side of it, and whenever conflict breaks out or the Israeli
army closes the checkpoint for other reasons, Nasser is cut off from
home. That is why he always has a small bag with spare clothes in his
office.

But he is not the only one affected by the construction of the
separation wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The entire
hospital's existence is at stake, he says. The Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) has been running the AVH since 1950. The health institution is one
of the projects of the LWF Department for World Service (DWS) program in
Jerusalem. Around 75 percent of the AVH patients come from the West
Bank. If the checkpoints are closed, they cannot reach the hospital.
This is particularly serious if they are dialysis patients, as the
hospital has the only dialysis center for children in the West Bank. 

Eight-year-old Rafi Waits for a Kidney Transplant

Eight-year-old Rafi can no longer come to the hospital for his
three-times-a-week dialysis, but has to stay there throughout. His place
at the dialysis equipment is decorated with many children's drawings.
Always smiling, Rafi has not given up hope. He is firmly convinced that
he will soon get a kidney transplant and be able to live at home and
attend school normally. But at the moment he suffers - he hardly ever
sees his mother, father, sisters and brothers. Nazareth, is home, but it
is too far away for a daily family visit. To make it worse, the
"separation wall" has practically prevented free access.

"How can I heal people in view of such a terrible thing as the wall?"
Nasser asks bitterly. But the doctor and musician, born in August 1964
in the very room which is now his office, is a good organizer, and one
who never gives up hope. He is planning a community bus tour. The
patients will be picked up daily, smuggled through the only entrance in
the wall, and brought to the AVH. The hospital's presence will also be
strengthened through the use of mobile clinics in the Palestinian parts
of the West Bank. It should be possible to fulfill the ambition of the
hospital to be there for the poorest of the poor and, at the same time,
to provide excellent services.

Making Modern Medical Care Available to All Patients

The AVH is a general hospital and offers medical care to all needy
people regardless of their religion or origin. The is an increase in the
number of  patients seeking the services there which are not available
in the West Bank. Besides pediatric dialysis, the hospital also
specializes in ear, nose and throat surgery for children,
gastroenterological treatment and pediatric neurology. In addition, it
runs the only radiotherapy center for cancer patients in the West Bank.
Nasser is proud to show the new modern radiation unit in the hospital
basement, built with assistance from international partners. 

And because he wants to make this new method of treatment available to
as many people as possible, he is fighting on all fronts against the
wall's ongoing construction and other injustices. One example is
Israel's plan to impose an "employer's tax" on the hospital, although
the tax exemption status agreed in 1966 between the LWF and the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan after the Six-Day War was adopted by the
state of Israel in 1967. The costs of the tax are estimated at USD
350,000 annually, representing 13 percent of the hospital's total
operating costs. "If this is implemented, it would mean the end of the
hospital financially," Nasser cautions. "It would endanger the health
provision for thousands of Palestinians."

The AVH has a great symbolic status in the coexistence of Palestinians
and Israelis in Jerusalem, according to Tawfiq Nasser. "The hospital,"
he says, "is a link between the two groups and we want to keep it that
way."*(759 words)

(Reported for LWI by Klaus Rieth, Stuttgart.) 

*This article is part of the ongoing LWI Features on Healing under the
LWF Tenth Assembly theme, "For the Healing of the World." The Assembly
was held 21-31 July 2003 in Winnipeg, Canada.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 138
member churches in 77 countries all over the world, with a membership of
nearly 65 million Lutherans. The LWF acts on behalf of its member
churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith
relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights,
communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work.
Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service.
Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent
positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the
dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be
freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

*    *	   *

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