Behind the Wall - 'Medical Conditions caused by Political Decisions'

Tweet Portion below; whole article here at Uruknet.info: http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=35921&s2=03

"September 2, 2007

"On Christmas Eve in 1952, a Swiss priest called Father Schnydrig was on his way to Mass at the Church of the Nativity. He had come to Palestine to celebrate in the birthplace of Jesus. He walked past a huge area filled with tents and saw a man attempting to bury a child.

"This was Dehaishah Refugee Camp. The man was digging in the mud to create a makeshift grave for his own son. His son had literally frozen to death. Father Schnydrig began to question his own place in Bethlehem and wondered how he could be in the city to celebrate the birthplace of Jesus whilst children were suffering so much within a kilometer of the church. Upon returning to Europe he began to fund raise and soon opened Caritas Children's Hospital in Bethlehem. In 1978 Caritas opened a new building, it now has excellent facilities. Conditions at the hospital have improved greatly from an initial fourteen beds in the mid 1950's to being able to treat over 34,000 babies and children in 2006.

"Life has also changed greatly in Bethlehem over this time. Dehaishah's refugees now live in houses instead of tents. Bethlehem itself is now an Occupied city.

"Earlier this year a man walked into Caritas Hospital carrying a small baby in his arms from a refugee camp. The child's feet were blue, they were frozen.this time the child's life was saved.

"Palestine in 2007 is geographically hardly recognizable from Palestine in 1952. Go back a further five years and 'historical Palestine' still existed.

"Now only around 12% of 'historical Palestine' is accessible to Palestinians. Caritas cannot even cater to all of this 12%. Children from Jenin, Nablus, and other cities in the northern section of the West Bank cannot get to the hospital due to travel restrictions, checkpoints, and the series of Bantustans which the Occupation is dividing the country into. Because of this Caritas can only treat children and babies from the southern West bank, the areas around Bethlehem and Al Khalil. Despite this massive reduction in its catchment area, last year saw the largest ever number of patients treated at the hospital.