The process of Judaization threatens to abolish national institutions from Jerusalem and constitutes a challenge to all sectors of the development process; the health sector in the city is one of the mainly affected areas.[1] After Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel took over the Government Hospital in Sheikh Jarah neighborhood and in 1985 turned it into police headquarters.[2] The occupation attached government services to the Israeli Ministry of Health. Primary health services such as maternity and childhood were given to the municipality of Jerusalem, leaving communities outside the municipal boundaries neglected.[3]
After the 1993 Oslo Accords , medical services to those outside the boundaries of the Jerusalem Municipality ,became the responsibility of the Palestinian National Authority The PA created 13 clinics covering 31 population centers outside the municipal boundaries, which are open only two days a week, except for Al-Azariya (is this a clinic?). UNRWA continues to provide health care for refugees. Palestinian inhabitants within the municipal boundaries are covered under the Israeli health system.[4]
There are six specialized hospitals in East Jerusalem offering treatment to the people of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip:[5]
1. Auguste Victoria – Al-Mutala’a
2. Makassed
3. Saint John – Eyes Hospital
4. Mar Youssef
5. Red Crescent
6. Princess Basma
These hospitals provide health care, specialized consultations and surgery for children and adults. The Palestinian Authority has transferred 3,000 patients a year to these hospitals and a large number of patients visit them without remittances.[6] However, Jerusalem towns and villages are isolated from the city by military checkpoints that only allows entry by walking. This forces the patient to walk to the ambulance and be subject to harassment and inspection. Sometimes patients are not even permitted to cross the checkpoint and thus have to go to a hospital in Bethlehem in a trip that takes another 45 minutes.
Problem suffered by the health sector in Jerusalem:
The health sector in East Jerusalem suffers from many problems; here are number of them:[7]
Permits: military barriers and the Apartheid wall pose challenges for patients and medical personnel from the West Bank and East Jerusalem;
Jerusalem is isolated from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and prevents patients from reaching hospitals in a violation to all international customs and conventions;
Doctors, ambulances, nurses and medical staff are denied access to their work without permits and sometimes face outright refusal;
Apartheid Wall isolated Jerusalem neighborhoods and towns from each other and from the center of the city;
The Israeli government follows a policy of marginalization and the provision of a minimum of services, infrastructure and facilities to the Arabs of Jerusalem while preventing the PA from providing services there;
Weak access to physical health services and reluctance of international donors to provide support for a variety of reasons;
Lack of health references in the city and poor coordination between health service providers.
Many obstacles caused the number of patients visiting Jerusalem Arab hospitals to decline, threatening the sustainability of Arab hospitals. In 2005,the Arnona tax was levied on hospitals, although they are charitable institutions, retroactively until 2003, which put them in a financial crisis and threatened some hospitals to go bankrupt, forcing them to reduce their services to patients. The total of these taxes amounted to 120 million dollars on Al-Makased hospital alone.[8]
This section will be devoted to address all about the health sector in Jerusalem.
