Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August 2002, pages 32-33

Special Report

 

An American in Tel Aviv: My Ordeal in Israel

 

By Riad Z. Abdelkarim, M.D.

On April 26, I embarked along with another American physician on what was supposed to be an eight-day medical fact-finding and needs assessment mission to the West Bank and Gaza. We were traveling on behalf of International Medical Corps (IMC), an American medical relief and humanitarian organization working in some 20 countries.

We toured such areas as the devastated Jenin refugee camp, where we witnessed the wanton destruction of hundreds of homes, some with bodies still buried beneath the rubble. We toured the refugee camp’s clinic, operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), where looting and vandalism by invading Israeli soldiers spared not even an infant scale, which was riddled with bullets. We visited other clinics and hospitals in the area, where we heard tales of severely restricted access to emergency medical care for sick and wounded residents because Israeli tanks and troops prevented the movement of ambulances. I was so shocked by the enormity of the devastation that I sent out an e-mail commentary the next day to friends and family that subsequently was widely circulated on the Internet.

We later toured other affected areas, including Nablus, Ramallah, and Bethlehem, where we were told of the enormous psychosocial harm to Palestinian men, women, and especially children as a result of the ongoing violence.

While I was touring the Palestinian areas, Dalell Mohmed, executive director of KinderUSA (Kids in Need of Development, Education, and Relief), also traveled to Palestine, arriving May 2.

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