Diana Buttu speaks with Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a physician, human rights advocate, and member of the Palestinian parliament based in the occupied West Bank. Dr. Barghouti heads the Palestine Medical Relief Committee. Along with a team of hundreds of volunteers, Dr. Barghouti has been on the front lines providing assistance to Palestinians during the COVID-19 pandemic.
MB: So far in the West Bank, only 16,000 tests were done. And Gaza only 2000 and that means there is very high probability that there are people who have the infection and we don't know about it.
DB: Welcome to this is Palestine, a podcast that highlights people, issues and events in and around Palestine. My name is Dianna Buttu. In today's episode we speak to Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a physician, activist, and member of the Palestinian Parliament based in the occupied West Bank. Dr. Barghouti heads the Palestine medical relief committee, and he, along with his team of hundreds of volunteers have been on the frontlines trying to provide assistance to Palestinians during this pandemic.
Welcome Dr. Barghouti. So how have you been keeping? I know you've been keeping busy I've been following all of the work that you've been doing, which is very excellent. But how have you been?
MB: I'm fine working every day and medical relief is fully functional. We didn't stop for any day. I mean, I'm so proud of the teams. They're doing a great job. We have about 50 centers and projects functioning all the time. And we have six mobile clinics that go to area C to about 82 communities. We concentrated a lot on prophylactic approach. So we distributed so far more than 220,000 leaflets and brochures and posters. I think that activity is going very well in West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. We face difficulty in Jerusalem because the army arrested our volunteers that were trying just to distribute health messages. But everybody is working very hard. It's not easy, but it's fine.
DB: How would you assess what the Palestinian authorities response has been? I know that they placed measures, I think, as far back as, if I'm remembering correctly, March the fifth, and these emergency orders have been extended. But how would you rate their performance to date?
MB: I think the fact that the restrictions were imposed very quickly, was very good, because it was timely and it was serious and before we started getting many cases. There is very good cooperation between us and the Ministry of Health, I mean, civil society and the Ministry of Health. These measures help us a lot. I think everybody understands that in Palestine, the strategy should be prevention. We simply cannot afford to have so many cases and especially cases that are in political conditions, since we don't have more than now 182 respirators or ventilators in the West Bank, no more than 82 in Gaza. You know how crowded the situation is in Gaza and how poor the infrastructure there because of Israeli seize that has been going on for so many years, already 14 years. And the infrastructure in the West Bank is also very poor, so we cannot afford to have cases and we don't have the facilities that other countries have. That's why I think this approach of prevention has been very helpful and the continuing. The problem we face is that the first cases we got were practically people who were in contact with foreign tourists. They represent up to now 15% of the cases. Then we had 11% of the cases of people who were abroad that came back. Today, 73% of the cases from workers working in Israel and Israeli settlements, and these people come back and infect their community or their families, including 40 children, by the way. All the efforts or pressures to force the Israeli side to do tests for these workers fail. And that's why we are doing everything we can to convince these workers not to go and come back and and when they come back to go on 14 days quarantine because I think the biggest risk now is that since Israel has more than 9000 cases and all we have now is 263 cases, we could have an explosion of cases because of these workers and because tests are not done. One major force in the West Bank and in Gaza, but more in Gaza, is the small number of tests we have. So far in the West Bank, only 16,000 tests were done in Gaza only 2000. And that means there is very high probability that there are people who have the infection and we don't know about it. And that is a very serious issue that we have to deal with.
DB: We've been hearing a lot about a great deal of cooperation that exists between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and what I'm hearing from you is the exact opposite. That there isn't a great deal of cooperation that is, in fact, hindrances or hampering the efforts on the part of civil society and on the part of the Palestinian Authority. So you've mentioned already the lack of testing. Are there are other ways that the Israelis are hampering your efforts? Are there other things that they are doing that can be eased in that can be actually stopped?
MB: I don't know where this nonsense comes from about this cooperation, maybe there is a cooperation at the security level. But what we see today, what has happened with this epidemic, is a proof of how poor the authority of the Palestinian Authority, so no authority practically under occupation. Like the people in Gaza are under different form of occupation and the authority is unable to control borders. This ties that and being without civil society, the situation would be even much worse because the authority is mainly concentrating or mainly present in area A and B, which is no more than 38% of the West Bank. Now, the civil society is taking care of area C, which is about 60%. And the civil society is the one that is working in Jerusalem. And to a large extent, it's the one that is working together, so that is one aspect. The other aspect is that the Israeli side has done so many harmful things to the Palestinian side. First of all, not testing the workers. Second, they said they will keep the workers and they will provide them with proper facilities to live in. We discovered that the facilities that were provided to workers were very poor, from sanitary perspective, horrible, and these poor workers are living in horrible conditions and deprived from the proper protective material. The other thing we are facing is the problem of discrimination in East Jerusalem. There is a very big difference between what is done in West Jerusalem and what is done in East Jerusalem in terms of testing, in terms of provision of protective material, and educating the public about how to how to prevent the disease. When we took the responsibility as Palestinians, they started arresting our guys, those who are volunteering to send health messages. Although what they were distributing was were leaflets of Palestinian medical Relief Society, which is a non governmental organization. It's not even an authority structure. But they arrested them and they deprived them they give them orders that they cannot enter the city for 14 days. More than that, volunteers who were trying to spray places to disinfect it they arrested them also and deprived them from the ability to work. They are cracking down on local committees who are self help committees that are formed by the people themselves to help themselves in communities like with Beit Hanina and the old city and so on. So on the contrary, I don't think they are helping, I think they are taking measures that are harming our ability to help our community. Besides that, the closure on Gaza is very dangerous and very serious. People in Gaza, lack medications, lack equipment, lack support, lack electricity. The least that Israel can do is to allow more electricity into Gaza Strip, because how could people find the disease if they don't have enough electricity, if they don't have electricity to treat the sewage systems that are running in the streets? We are quite worried. So far, we've been well, because we've taken very good measures and there is very good cooperation between everybody in the community. But I'm really worried if we start to get high number of cases
DB: What, if anything, can the international community do to help slow the spread of the virus in Palestine? Is there anything that they can be doing or think they should be doing now or even in future?
MB: From one side, as you know, the world community is so busy. Each country is with it's own problem, we understand that, but that does not mean they should not pay attention to supporting the important work in the field of health in Palestine. They have done some through WHO, and through some UN agencies, but I think the needs are much much bigger than that. And civil society organizations are also suffering from lack of resources. With this emergency, I mean, especially health NGOs, and maybe some other structures do not work because of the closure, but health organizations like medical relief are working not only hundred percent, but 125% because they cannot stop working. And they need protective equipment they need support to get that. The problem is that in the market so many things got much more expensive. For instance, a mask that people need used to cost less than half a Shekel now they sell it at 22 Shekels per piece. Protective clothing is also expensive, but it's very much needed because you can't send medical teams to outside to help people without providing them with protective material. That's why I think the needs in Palestine will not be huge, like in the United States or Britain or Germany or other places, but I do think that the international community has a responsibility in two ways. One way is to force Israel to fulfill its duty as an occupying power, which it is not, or at least stop harming our efforts to pressure them to stop harming the Palestinians. And second to provide, of course support to Palestinian health institutions.
One area we didn't speak about, which is asked a lot, is the situation of Palestinian prisoners. As you know, there are 5,500 prisoners, and almost every day the Israeli army still arrest more people. In other countries, they have released prisoners who were put in jail for civil case for civil problems. Our guys are political freedom fighters, or they are political activists who are political prisoners. And we said they should be released, or at least those who are very old should be released because they are at high risk in prisons. And especially patients who are old people with cancer, or people with heart diseases, with diabetes with hypertension. I really do not understand why they don't release them. Now one major reason to worry is that we had two people who finished their sentences and were released. And when they came back home, we discovered that they were having the infection, the virus, the Coronavirus, and some of them infected other people as well. That makes us very worried because Israel does not provide any information about the health status of the prisoners, about how many of them have got the disease. We know we have heard reports from Israeli media that some Israeli soldiers and officers who work in prisons have got the disease which means they could have passed it to prisoners the fact that we have two prisoners already released because they finished their sentences and came back with the disease is also very, very alarming. They don't give us information, and of course, families do not visit the prisoners, and lawyers do not see them. So there is a big amount of worry among the Palestinian community about the status of the health of prisoners in Israel.
By the way, there was an incident when the Israeli army tried to get into Bethlehem during the curfew that is imposed there, or the closure and the quarantine, and they violated the quarantine and that almost led, as we were told, to a clash between them and the Palestinian police. So they don't care. They come in at night, violating current procedures, soldiers dressed fully in protective equipment and protective clothing and they just enter people's houses and arrest people, frightening people also. We had incidents in Hebron we have some settlers and some soldiers, of course, trying to frighten them and then people were worried that they might have the disease.
DB: This reminds me a lot of 2002, you recall, when the army invaded the West Bank, and I recall at the time that you were the person who gave us the sage advice of staying home, and I remember you telling me to keep exercising and to keep reading and keep writing. Is there any advice that you have to give people today?
MB: You'll know it's very ironic, really, that at this time, the Palestinians who are used to having curfews during the first Intifada, the second Intifada, during the invasion and 2002, and if you remember during the Gulf War when we were put under curfew for 40 days, and I remember then I expected we will have a bit of an epidemic of measles, which actually happened. And ironically, it has infected my daughter who was 10 months old at that time. The things we have been through, including the curfew and so many times, is happening now for many people in the world. So at this time, we are sharing with the world what we have been living through for so many years, without even being noticed sometimes by some people. I think that has been very helpful at this time, in the sense that Palestinians have developed a certain sense of resilience and ability to survive the difficult conditions and I share the opinion of our friend, Mohammed Hadi, who wrote an interesting article in New York Times, sort of advising the world how you should do when you are under curfew or under closure. And the best advice is really, don't let it get to you, stay active, of course, exercise and of course do work. It's important to continue to work, it's important to keep up your morale, to communicate with people, and try to stay healthy in every possible way. But at this moment, saying that home is a key to survival. That is our advice.
DB: Thank you very much Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, for this excellent podcast. Thank you for all the work that you do and your volunteers do and I hope to see you in person very soon. Thank you.
MB: I hope we'll get through it. Thank you.
I'd like to thank our guest today Dr. Mustafa Barghouti for joining us, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti can be reached at the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. That's www.pmrs.ps.