Israel opens its borders to allow thousands of Palestinians access to medical care in its hospitals. The only time you hear about this is when there’s a complaint. The Washington Post’s Linda Gradstein is all too anxious to report Gazans’ Access To Care Faulted
Israel’s domestic security service requires Gazans who wish to enter Israel for medical treatment to submit to detailed interviews about their knowledge of political and militant groups, according to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, a nonprofit group based in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli security service “uses the weakness, the helplessness of the Palestinian patients in Gaza in trying to pressure them to be collaborators,” said Ruchama Marton, the group’s founder. In a report released Monday, the group documents 32 cases of Palestinians who said they were told that a permit to enter Israel for medical care was conditional on being willing to deliver information.
Israel, of course, denies the charges.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the charges in the report were “ludicrous.” He also criticized the report’s methodology, saying the group only interviewed Palestinians whose requests to enter Israel had been refused.
i.e. people with a grievance. Another spokesman explains:
Defense Ministry spokesman Peter Lerner said interrogations were not for the purpose of recruiting collaborators but to protect Israel’s security.
“We’re not talking about a friendly neighbor at the moment, and there are numerous cases of those who present security threats,” Lerner said. “The government has documented at least 20 cases of Palestinians who tried to abuse their medical access to carry out terrorist attacks.”
Lerner said that so far this year, 14,000 Palestinians, including patients and their escorts, have entered Israel from Gaza. In all of 2007, a total of 10,000 were allowed into Israel.
Israelly Cool! brings emphasizes the contrast:
How about the fact that Israel is providing medical treatment and humanitarian aid to palestinians at all, all the time while palestinian terrorists are targeting Israelis for death? And, in some cases, at risk to our soldiers.
Specifically, look at the record of Save a Child’s Heart. So far the organization has treated over 800 children from the PA, more than from any other area.
So whatever humanitarian efforts Israel extend to its enemies don’t get recognized until there’s a perceived reason to criticize Israel.
Israelly Cool sums up this phenomenon:
We are dealing with the mainstream media here. And they have a particular narrative in mind.
And that narrative serves to promote and prolong Palestinian grievances against Israel, rather than encouraging reconciliation.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
