24 March 2017
On Wednesday 15 March Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) joined a film director from Gaza and academics from King’s College London (KCL) and University College London (UCL) to discuss healthcare under occupation. The panel event, Healthcare Under Fire: Health Challenges in Occupied Palestine, was organised by KCL’s Global Health Society.
Mohamed Jabaly, a filmmaker from Gaza, shared an excerpt from his powerful documentary, Ambulance. During the 2014 Israeli military offensive on Gaza Mohamed followed the dangerous journey of an ambulance crew as they assisted the severely wounded and sick.
You can see a full screening of Ambulance this Sunday in London at the BBC Arabic Festival and later this month and early next month in Wales.
Hanna Kienzler, a lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at KCL, shared her research on mental health system reform in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). She discussed how attempted reforms have failed to acknowledge the influence of large-scale political events, the demands of donor agencies and funding scarcity, and have been reduced to patchy, project-limited practices.
Pennie Quinton, a PhD student from the same department at KCL, discussed the detrimental impact of the demolition of Palestinian homes on psychological and physical wellbeing. This was an issue she witnessed first-hand in the West Bank when working for a grassroots media organisation, the International Middle East Media Centre, during the second intifada.
The audience also heard from Rawan Kafri, a Palestinian student from the West Bank currently studying at UCL, who shared her experience of how restrictions on freedom of movement endanger Palestinian patients in need of urgent medical care.
Rohan Talbot, MAP’s Campaigns and Media Officer, discussed MAP’s work and how 50 years of occupation of Palestinian territory and 10 years of blockade and closure in Gaza have affected the health of Palestinians. He discussed the themes of accessibility of care and accountability for attacks on medical facilities and personnel, as outlined in MAP’s two new briefings: Access to Healthcare and Protection of Healthcare.
He also shared our recent video about Maryam, a baby the MAP team met in January 2017 at a hospital in East Jerusalem whose family, just 50 miles away in Gaza, were prevented from visiting her for 6 months.
MAP would like to thank KCL’s Global Health Society for organising event.