Fifty four Palestinians died in Gaza while awaiting a medical travel permit from Israel.
This is according to a joint statement issued last week by several NGOs (non-governmental organizations): Human Rights Watch (HRW), Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), that slams Israel for a 54% decrease in medical travel permits to residents of Gaza.
Except on closer examination, it appears that in most cases relevant to this 54% decrease, Israel didn’t deny the permits: the Palestinian Authority did.
Joint statement
The joint statement statement purports to be based on a report by the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO).
The NGOs (including the WHO) placed blame primarily on Israel, as in the following statement from HRW:
Israeli authorities approved permits for medical appointments for only 54 percent of those who applied in 2017, the lowest rate since the World Health Organization (WHO) began collecting figures in 2008. WHO reported that 54 Palestinians, 46 of whom had cancer, died in 2017 following denial or delay of their permits.
Yet what the statement leaves out is that the WHO numbers are actually related to permit denials by the Palestinian government.
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The Palestinian Authority
Israel may not allow a Gaza resident into Israel until the Palestinian Authority first approves a travel permit. Here’s why:
- In 1993, as part of the Oslo accords, Israel agreed to recognize the Palestinian Authority as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
- Accordingly, all applications for residents of Gaza to enter Israel must be approved by the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry for Civil Affairs.
- Throughout 2017, the Palestinian Authority: reduced medical travel permits, stopped them entirely, and then resumed issuing them, only to cut them again by as much as 80%.
Indeed, Israel will sometimes deny a permit, typically for security reasons: like the sisters Diana and Nadia Hawila who were caught attempting to smuggle pipe bombs and fertilizer explosives into the clinic where they were being treated for cancer, or Wafa al-Biri, who smuggled a 20 pound bomb in her underwear into the clinic that was treating her for serious burns.
However, neither the WHO, nor the NGOs presented any evidence that Israel’s permit approval practices have changed since prior years. We were not able to find such evidence either. We did, however, uncover the vast decreases implemented by the Palestinian Authority.
Why?
The Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah party has been engaged in an intense power struggle against Hamas throughout the past year. As part of this contest, the PA has variously cut funding for electricity, imposed new taxes, and (as detailed above) variously reduced or eliminated medical travel permits.
Direct dealing
One might reasonably ask, why doesn’t Israel deal directly with Hamas to allow travel permits?
- Israel would be violating its agreement under Oslo to treat the Palestinian Authority as the sole representative of Palestinians (detailed above).
- This would dangerously undermine the PA’s ability to govern. Here’s why:
Hamas is designated as a terror organization by most of the Western world (including Australia, Canada, Egypt, the EU, Israel, the UK, and the United States).
To recognize travel documents from Hamas would be the equivalent of recognizing a passport issued by Islamic State (ISIS).
Israel’s obligations
Israel has enacted a legal maritime blockade around Gaza.
According to the Articles 93-108 of the 1994 San Remo Convention, a country may enact a maritime blockade to protect itself in a state of war, and this is most definitely the state of affairs with Hamas.
The blockading power (in this case Israel) has a duty to allow for the humanitarian needs of the local population (San Remo articles 102-103). This creates a certain obligation on Israel with respect to Palestinian medical needs. Israel lives up to this obligation in a variety of ways:
- Israel moves on average 800 trucks carrying some 20,000 tons of food, equipment, goods and medical supplies into Gaza each day: this comes to about four tons per person annually.
- While no sovereign nation has an obligation to allow anyone to enter its territory, Israel nonetheless issued some 80,000 licenses per year to residents of Gaza, until the Palestinian Authority began preventing these permits in 2017.
It is also worth noting that Hamas spends roughly $100 Million per year on military infrastructure, including rockets and terror tunnels targeting Israel: funds that could have been used instead for hospitals and medical schools.
Pattern of bias
The organizations involved in last week’s joint statement have a pattern of repeated bias against Israel. Of particular note for this article is the WHO and the United Nations itself:
- At the UN’s annual assembly in 2016, the WHO singled out Israel for investigation on health abuses: making Israel the only country in the world subject to a country specific resolution.
- The WHO investigation was prompted partly by a UN report from the Commission on the Status of Women, blaming Israel for (among other things) Palestinian domestic violence. Yes, according to the UN, if a Palestinian man beats his wife: it’s Israel’s fault.
- The WHO report itself appears to be rampant with inconsistencies and entirely devoid of any consistent methodology.
The organization NGO Monitor has exposed significant bias and distortions of fact by the WHO and the other NGOs listed in the joint statement.
NGOs and the media
NGOs tend to enjoy a “halo effect” in the media: a certain credibility based on their name and status, even when their reports or statements are biased or faulty. Due to the halo effect, journalists will often fail to independently investigate an NGO’s claims in the same way they would with respect to most other sources.
In this case, articles in Newsweek and The Independent did exactly that: presenting the joint statement and quotes from the NGOs involved, but neglecting critical context: about the central role of the Palestinian Authority in denying medical travel permits, the shortcomings of the WHO report itself, and the non-credible history of the quoted NGOs on the topic of Israel.
Accuracy matters
The safety and health of Gaza residents matters, and when agenda driven NGOs divert attention away from the real causes of health problems, they become complicit in perpetuating those problems: by delaying or denying real solutions. The media worsen the problem by failing to hold the relevant organizations to account, through even the most basic fact checking.
To paraphrase Golda Meir: the world will be a better place when the WHO and these various NGOs care more about helping Palestinians than they do about demonizing Israel. And the media should say so.
