Israel’s health care system is recognized globally for its high quality of care and advanced technology, but according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel there are tremendous health disparities and inequality between Israel’s Jewish and Palestinian populations. This is especially true of those Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.
Dr. Lina Qasem-Hassan, Board Chairwoman of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, describes her experience as a Palestinian doctor in the Israeli healthcare system, and how the Israeli healthcare system neglects Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territory.
As told to producer/director Ghousoon Bisharat and cinematographer/editor Thomas Dallal.
Shu al-Qusa/What’s the Story is a video series by Ghousoon Bisharat and Thomas Dallal that illuminates Palestinian life and politics through intimate first-person interviews with Palestinians. View the series here.
Ghousoon Bisharat
Ghousoon Bisharat is an experienced journalist and producer, as well as a strategic communications and international cooperation expert. She has more than 20 years of experience working with leading international broadcast news outlets and the European Union.
Thomas Dallal
Thomas Dallal is an award-winning photojournalist and cinematographer currently based in Haifa. His photographs have appeared in leading international newspapers and magazines thousands of times over three decades, including The New York Times and Der Spiegel among many others and his cinematography work has been broadcast by Aljazeera Documentary.
The Physicians For Human Rights Israel website, it has lots of information –
https://www.phr.org.il/en/
Dr. Qasem-Hassan’s story is to the left.
https://www.phr.org.il/en/prisoners-rights/?pr=183
Human rights organizations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory warn of a dangerous escalation in violations of Palestinian prisoners’ rights due to the radical policies of the new Israeli government….While Palestinians imprisoned by the Israeli authorities have always experienced a wholesale violation of their human rights, Israel’s new extreme-right-wing government has taken numerous steps to implement a particularly hostile, radical agenda to harm Palestinians in prisons, their families, and Palestinian society as a whole. The arbitrary and punitive measures imposed by the new government indicate that further grave rights violations may follow if immediate action is not taken by the international community.
Re public health in Israelistine: there’s another way Israel is making its minorities sick, but if you’re not reading the science journals it’s going to be news: most primate societies are hierarchical in nature, and the science community has known for a long time that being on the bottom of the heap induces physical stress and shortens lifespan. There is now evidence that the same applies to our societies:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/well/live/weathering-health-racism-discrimination.html
“For Arline Geronimus, avoiding the limelight had become a way of life….Three decades ago, she put forward an idea that was unconventional for the time: that the constant stress of living within a racist society could lead to poor health for marginalized groups.…”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weathering_hypothesis
“The weathering hypothesis was proposed to account for early health deterioration as a result of cumulative exposure to experiences of social, economic and political adversity. It is well documented that minority groups and marginalized communities suffer from poorer health outcomes.”
Roughly 20% of Israeli citizens are of Palestinian heritage, but 25% of citizens aren’t Jewish. When Israel declares that it is a state of the Jews, as it did in the Nation State Law, it is making one quarter of its population sicker than they would otherwise be.