http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/727657.html
Last update - 11:51 16/06/2006

Low funds deprive Palestinian children of marrow transplants

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/727657.html
Low funds deprive Palestinian children of marrow transplants

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/727657.html
Last update - 11:51 16/06/2006

Low funds deprive Palestinian children of marrow transplants

By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent

Mustafa Ahmaro, two and a half, from Hebron,
was released from the hospital Tuesday.

He was hospitalized for 17 days to
receive preventive treatment for lymphoma.

Dr. Ghassan al-Banura,
his doctor from Al Husseini Hospital in Beit Jala,
told Haaretz that

"Mustafa's condition is greatly improved
and he seems to have recovered.

However, Mustafa must undergo a bone
marrow transplant so that the disease does
not recur."

But Mustafa will not be able to
undergo that transplant soon.

It is not performed at hospitals in the territories,
and no backer has been found to pay for the
$40,000 transplant in Israel or overseas.

Mustafa is in relatively good shape,
but 27 other Palestinian children are
not as fortunate,

according to the records of Akhram Samhan,
who is in charge of outpatient care at the
Palestinian Health Ministry.

They are in urgent need of
a bone marrow transplant,
and there is no one to pay
the hospitals in Israel.

Until a few weeks ago,
the Palestinian Health Ministry
covered the costs of bone marrow,
liver and kidney transplants for
children.

According to Health Minister Basim Naim of Hamas,
the ministry's coffers are empty because of the
economic siege on the Palestinian Authority.

But the truth is more
complicated than Naim
and human rights
organizations
like to admit.

Since Hamas came to power,
the PA has not transferred
money directly to Israeli hospitals.

So the Israeli government takes the
funds from the taxes that it collects
on the PA's behalf and transfers them
to those hospitals.

But,
according to a senior Palestinian official,
the Hamas government has other priorities right now:

It needs the tax revenues to
pay Israel for electricity,
gas and fuel.

"Patients are less
important at the moment,"

he said.

Mustafa's father, Mohammed,
is in a desperate bind:

"We can't pay the amount required.

We appealed through various channels
to PA Chairman Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas],
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and other
senior officials.

None got back to us with an affirmative answer.

I asked for an entry permit to
Israel so I could go with him
to the hospital,

but the Israel Defense Forces
liaison office informed me that
I am prevented from entering
for security reasons.

They agreed to allow
Mustafa's mother into Israel,
but among us, a woman does not
go to another town by herself."

Jumana Alfahouri, 2,
a leukemia patient from Hebron,
is in worse condition.

She was initially hospitalized
at the local Alia Hospital,
where she was administered
pain killers.

Then she was moved to Hadassah
University Hospital, Ein Karem,
but every day,

her condition worsens and
her treatment costs rise.

She needs an urgent bone marrow transplant.

Quite a few volunteer organizations,
mostly Israeli, have come to the children's aid,
notably activists from Keshev -

the Center for the Protection
of Democracy in Israel,

and the Peres Center for Peace,
which has helped pay for the
treatment of some 2,500 Palestinian
children at Israeli hospitals.

But since the PA stopped its coverage,
the Peres Center cannot defray the
transplant costs on its own.

Adults are no better off.

Dozens of adult patients are
also waiting for coverage pledges
from the Palestinian Health Ministry
in order to undergo transplants and
even operations to remove growths
that can only be performed at
Israeli or overseas hospitals.

The pledges are not forthcoming.

Several of these patients talked
with at the office of Azmi al-Shiyukhi,
secretary general of the Popular
Resistance Committees.

Nadia Rahur, 37,
married with five children,
has a cancerous growth in her
head and cannot go to Israel
for an operation.

Maher Shuhada, 56,
has leukemia and needs special
treatment only available abroad.

Shiyukhi explains that
"many others might simply die.

Beside the ones we're fighting for,
there are those who have given up."

Shiyukhi is critical of both
the Israeli and the Palestinian
governments.

"Your decision to besiege Hamas
hurts the simple folk first of all.

But our government must also understand
that they may want jihad and 'resistance,'
but treating sick people -
that's the real jihad.

Our government must take
responsibility and take
care of its citizens."