ebrei contro l'occupazione

Turin, 9 July 2007

To the Regional Council, the President and Delegate for International Cooperation, Agazio Loiero, of the Calabria Region
To the Regional Council, the Regional Counsellor for International Cooperation Gianluca Borghi, the President, Vasco Errani, of the Emilia-Romagna Region
To the Regional Council, the Regional Counsellor for International Cooperation Anna Maria Rozza, the President, Riccardo Illy, of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region
To the Regional Council, the Regional Counsellor for International Cooperation Angelo Bonelli, the President, Piero Marrazzo, of the Lazio Region
To the Regional Council, the Regional Counsellor for International Cooperation Massimo Toschi, the President, Claudio Martini, of the Toscana Region
To the Regional Council, the Regional Counsellor for Health, Maurizio Rosi, the President, Mauro Tippolotti, of the Umbria Region
To the Prime Minister, Romano Prodi
To the Foreign Minister, Massimo d'Alema

To the Peres Center for Peace - Department of Medicine and Health Care
Cc Ministers of Health - EU Nations
Cc Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR)
Cc Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees (UPMRC)
CC Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC)
CC Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Cc Médecins Sans Frontières

Sir, Madam,

Various Italian Regions have signed co-operation agreements with the Peres Center, especially with regard to the programme 'Saving Children', the aim of which is to cure Palestinian children with complicated diseases in Israeli hospitals. These Regions consider the support given to the Peres Center as something which benefits Palestinian health care. Related to this support is a conference which was held between the 11 and 13 June 2007 in Tuscany, in which many NGOs participated. We would like to express our disagreement with the funding of the Peres Center, allegedly on behalf of Palestinian physicians.

Needless to say, I recognise the importance of any action taken, of any words communicated and of any, even slight, gesture made to contribute to a viable peace between the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples. I believe that, to have a lasting effect, these gestures have to be between equals, as in the relations between Palestinian and Israeli physicians in the Israeli organization Physicians for Human Rights. I do have a problem, nevertheless, when those who are occupied are forced to bow to the occupier, because it grants them, in a few and selected cases, medical care.

Financial contributions to the Peres Center from Italian regional governments are problematic. Every Euro donated to Israeli organizations and institutions is effectively a deduction from the support and funding of Palestinian organizations and institutions by public institutions of my or of any other European country. This is in contravention even of what the Peres Center itself declares, since it claims that the primary mission of its Department of Medicine and Healthcare is “to assist in the long-term development of an independent Palestinian medical system through human resource development, support for the build-up of secondary and tertiary medical services, fair and equitable partnerships, and shared access to information and know-how.” In addition, it declares that it wishes “to build up independent Palestinian medical capacities”.

Financing Israeli hospitals to cure Palestinian patients undermines the building of a truly independent Palestinian medical and health care: it does not seem very plausible that the Palestinian people, its organizations and institutions will gain independence and the right of self-determination via Israeli institutions, and this policy strengthens the domination of Israeli organizations and their control over the Palestinian people. Palestinian hospitals, if resources are not cut from them, are perfectly capable of providing primary and secondary medical care. Palestinian institutions should have the right to decide if, while developing their own tertiary medical services, they prefer to use Israel's, other countries' or specialized NGO services, such as those of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF).

The Italian Regions which decided, in the name of 'supporting Palestinians', to finance the Peres Center, are, however, supporting the Israeli health system. Israeli departments of medicine and health care, including the one of the Peres Center for Peace, are entitled to use the money in a wholly self- determined way, i.e. by conducting research and development or modernizing apparatuses, equipment, facilities and techniques. Meanwhile, the infrastructure of the Palestinian medical care has deteriorated to a state of a crisis.

My disagreement and criticism focuses on Israel's policy of domination over the Palestinians, in this particular case, by making use of better public relations and infrastructure facilities and -  more dangerous - by competing with Palestinian NGOs and governmental institutions, thus increasing their weakness even more.

As stated above: Any Euro that is donated by my or any other European country to the Peres Center is a loss for a Palestinian Health Care Center in Gaza, Ramallah or Nablus. The two- tier approach of saving lives on the ground and contributing to a health service structure of co-operation and peace would be far more convincing if Italian regions supported the fundraising policies of Palestinian service centres, and the free choice, of Palestinian institutions, instead of the fundraising policies of a centre bound to a political leader, and to the health system, of the occupying state.

I would be grateful for a reply to my comments.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Paola Canarutto, physician - S. Giovanni Bosco Hospital, p. Donatori di Sangue 3, Turin, Italy - on behalf of the Executive Committee of EJJP (European Jews for a Just Peace):

Jeremy Hellman (J. Stimme - Zürich)

Rachel Osterwalder (J. Stimme - Zürich)

Vreni Osterwalder-Bollag (J. Stimme - Zürich)

Rafael Ullman (J. Stimme - Zürich)

Samuel Weiner (J. Stimme - Zürich)

Fanny Michaela Reisin (Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost - Deutschland)

Ellen Kösten (Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost - Österreich)

Peter Melvyn (J. Stimme - Österreich)

Samuel Welber (J. Stimme - Österreich)

Barbara Agostini (Rete-ECO - Ebrei contro l'Occupazione)

Giorgio Canarutto (Rete- ECO)

Giorgio Forti (Rete-ECO)

Miryam Marino (Rete-ECO)

Ornella Terracini (Rete- ECO)

Rudolph Bkouche (UJFP - Union Juive Française pour la Paix)

Viviane Cohen (UJFP)

Liliane Cordova Kaczerginski (UJFP)

Georges Gumpel (UJFP)

Claire Mialhe (UJFP)

Jean Claude Meyer (UJFP)

Michèle Sibony (UJFP)