Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) was founded in 1988 with the aim of striving to promote medical human rights in Israel and in the territories under its effective control. The basic values of PHR-Israel are human dignity, protection of bodily and mental integrity, and promotion of the right to health and medical care. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) was founded in 1988 with the aim of striving to promote medical human rights in Israel and in the territories under its effective control. The basic values of PHR-Israel are human dignity, protection of bodily and mental integrity, and promotion of the right to health and medical care. These values guide the association's activities and campaigns. We believe that it is our duty to be fully informed of human rights violations, to disseminate this information and to struggle against such violations and for the right to health, for individuals and for the community. These values guide the association's activities and campaigns. We believe that it is our duty to be fully informed of human rights violations, to disseminate this information and to struggle against such violations and for the right to health, for individuals and for the community.

Major Projects 1. Occupied Territories 2. Migrant Workers ( “ Foreign Workers ” ) 3. Prisoners and Detainees 4. Right to Health of Residents of Israel 5. Unrecognized Bedouin Negev Villages

Occupied Territories  Since 1967 the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem has lived under Israeli occupation. The State of Israel, as the occupying power, is obligated to respect, protect and realize the right to health for all residents of the Occupied Territories.

Restrictions on Freedom of Movement

Closure, Curfew, Blockade, Roadblock

Ramifications  Red Crescent ambulances evacuate only 30% of the patients directly from their homes. The rest are required to reach the roadblocks on their own.  Until September 2000: 95% of women gave birth in hospitals.  Since September 2000: 50% of women give birth in hospitals.  Since September 2000: a rise of 500% in the number of stillbirths in the rural regions.

Attacks on Ambulances Red Crescent ambulance in Jenin which was shot in April As a result of the shooting Dr. Sliman Khalil, Director of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Jenin, was killed.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Protest, Tel-Aviv

The Mobile Clinic

Goals  Primary care to patients who cannot access medical care.  Exposing the situation to the medical team, thereby passing on the information to the Israeli public. Re-humanization of Palestinian society in the eyes of the Israeli public.  A gesture of solidarity with the Palestinian population.  Cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian physicians.  Protest against the government's policies of closure and occupation.  Resistance to the government ’ s attempts to lock Israeli human rights activists out of the Occupied Territories.  Use of the information gathered during mobile clinics for advocacy and campaigns.

Migrant Workers

Overview In 21 st -century Israel, hundreds of thousands of people live without rights and without access to the Israeli public healthcare system. This includes migrant children and adults, with or without work permits, women trapped in the sex industry, asylum seekers, refugees and others. All arrived in Israel mainly in order to find a livelihood, and some have lived in Israel for many years, gradually becoming part of Israeli society and economy.

Refugees and Asylum Seekers  In 2001, when the world celebrated the jubilee of the signing of the Refugees Convention, Israel began to take the first steps towards implementing the convention. Israel has done very little over the years to protect migrant people who were persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality or political stand. For years, Israel refrained from establishing a system for recognition of refugees. As a result, many remained stateless for extended periods. Many came to PHR-Israel requesting medical treatment, with a background of extreme distress and severe human rights violations.

The Open Clinic  The Open Clinic was founded in 1998, with the goal of offering primary and secondary medical care to migrant workers. It is run by volunteers, and opens 3 evenings a week for general care, one evening for gynecology, and one morning for pediatrics. Since the clinic was founded, over 10,000 patient files have been opened.

Prisoners and Detainees

 The State of Israel holds thousands of people in custody. These prisoners and detainees are held by the police, army or Prisons Service, who are responsible for their welfare. The fact that these people's freedom has been taken from them cannot justify denial of their right to receive adequate medical care and decent living conditions.

Main Problems  Numerous cases of medical neglect; isolation of prisoners for extended periods; holding mentally ill patients in regular jailing facilities; overcrowding; poor sanitation conditions; shackling of sick prisoners to hospital beds; torture during interrogations.

Doctors' Participation in Torture of Palestinian Detainees under Interrogation

Police Detention Center Inspections  For the past 6 years, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel has been visiting and inspecting police detention centers. These visits lead to identification and publicizing of fundamental problems, and ultimately to improvements. The Israel Prisons Service and the IDF do not allow independent inspections of their facilities.

Health Rights of Residents of Israel

 The National Health Insurance law, passed in 1994, was intended to guarantee equal health services for all. Despite good intentions, the law and its implementation suffer from several faults: many services are not included in the free range of services provided under the law (e.g., in- patient nursing care, mental healthcare, dental care); The range of services is being eroded since the Finance Ministry prevents updates and does not transfer all payments to the HMOs; private healthcare has crept into the public and state medical institutions.

Hotline  Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Adva Center for Social Justice run a joint hotline to handle applications from residents insured by the National Health Insurance law. The hotline responds to questions regarding a range of issues and problems relating to rights under the law and to the definition of the law.

 Palestinians citizens of Israel suffer from ongoing systematic discrimination, expressed, inter alia, by the level and scope of medical services that are available, or not available, in Arab communities, e.g., a lack of national EMS centers and various language-related medical services (mental health, speech therapy); discrimination regarding budgets allotted to hospitals in Nazareth, and more.

Unrecognized Bedouin Villages in the Negev

 Even prior to the State of Israel there were many Bedouin villages in the Negev desert in the south of Israel. Today, there are 46 villages which are not "recognized" by the State, and they are home to about 76,000 people - all citizens of Israel. This "un-recognition" leads to a lack of infrastructure and basic services (such as connections to the electricity and water networks, sewage systems and waste disposal) – leading to health hazards and infectious disease – as well as a lack of proper access routes to the villages, limited emergency services, and substandard primary healthcare facilities.