| The Palestinian Health Policy Forum (PHPF) conducted a series of consultative meetings, including a national workshop, in which Palestinian heath care leaders, representatives of health care civil societies and the private sector participated and concluded recommendations cautioning of the emergence of a humanitarian health and social catastrophe due to the economic deterioration and its implications on the health of the Palestinian people.
Discussions have repeatedly stressed that the financial and economic sanctions imposed on the Palestinians will have a long lasting effect, depriving Palestinians from meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and various UN recommendations.
Considering such implications and challenges, the Palestinian Health Policy Forum is presenting recommendations to the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Israeli Government, the international community and Palestinian civil society.
The PHPF finds that the PA should:
- move forward in the reform program, most of all, to ensure complementation among health care providers;
- stimulate the elaboration of a coordinated emergency plan with Palestinian health institutions;
- design a mechanism of monitoring health and humanitarian indicators, and periodically publish reports;
- deepen partnerships with local institutions and UN and other agencies;
- carry out a media campaign in order to show the responsibilities in the current situation.
In its recommendations, the PHPF also addresses the Israeli Government, asking that it:
- resume tax revenue remittances to the Palestinians;
- lift checkpoints and allow for free movement and access to basic health care services and specialized Palestinian health care services in East Jerusalem;
- stop impeding humanitarian aid and harassment of health care human resources and services;
- remove imposed trade restrictions and labor flows as well as economic and financial sanctions.
Emphasizing the Israeli Government’s role in the Palestinians’ lack of well-being, the Forum sees the continuation of occupation and the separation wall as the main obstacles towards the improvement of the health conditions of the Palestinian people.
Addressing the international community, the PHPF asks that it:
- lift economic and financial sanctions imposed on the Palestinian people, offering the needed financial aid;
- avoid selective health care policies through humanitarian aid, which reflect a bias and incongruities with human rights principles;
- avoid the utilization of financial sanctions over the health care system as a political tool, as health is an unconditional right, and should not to be sanctioned;
- accept that that the Ministry of Health cannot be surpassed, and that international organizations operating in the Palestinian territories cannot substitute or replace the it, not only due to lack of readiness and ability to shoulder additional chores but also because the Ministry of Health is the national propeller for the sustainability of health services towards meeting the health care needs of the Palestinian people.
In its recommendations, the PHPF notes the importance of the MDGs and principles like WHO’s “Health for All” policy, both currently put at serious risk because of the financial sanctions on the Palestinian people and the weakening of its health care system, at a time when Palestinian health leaders and decision makers are intensively working towards reforming and rehabilitating the system.
Ultimately, calling on Palestinian civil society, the PHPF asks that it:
- deepen the partnership with the Ministry of Health to face challenges and continue to hold consultative meetings to follow up on the situation.
- emphasize the primary, guiding role of the Ministry of Health for the health of the Palestinian people, a role that can only be complemented by other organizations;
- participate in producing an emergency plan identifying priorities, strategies and programs targeting the needy and those most affected by the situation.
It should, furthermore, challenge political and financial aid, lobbying with International Organizations and partners for support to lift economic and financial sanctions. In the Forum’s view, civil society organizations should conduct surveys on indicators to monitor the health status in the occupied Palestinian territory and improve their readiness to shoulder responsibility towards health care as a complement to the role of the MoH.
The Palestinian Health Policy Forum is an initiative of health care professionals and personalities interested in health planning and health policies. The initiative was launched in the year 2004 aiming to strengthen the planning process within the health sector and to improve the health policies, laws and regulations. |
