April 6th: Health Crisis in Palestine: A Panel of Canadian Health Care Professionals give First Hand Accounts

Presented by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East Right to Health Taskforce presents

Monday, April 06, 7:00 p.m.
Leslie Dan Pharmacy Building
Room B250
144 College Street, Toronto
Free admission.

Dr. Harry Shannon, Epidemiologist in Hamilton, spent one week in Gaza and has written provocative articles for the Hamilton Spectator.
Dr. Miriam Garfinkle, Family Physician in Toronto, is a strong and long time peace activist on health issues in Palestine.
Dr. Jim Deutsch, Psychiatrist in Toronto, has visited and worked in the West Bank in the area of mental health.
Judy Deutsch, Social Worker in Toronto, President of Science for Peace visited the West Bank and presented a paper on mental health.
Dr. Abdel Rahman Lawendy, Orthopedic Surgery Resident in London, traveled to Gaza as part of the international medical team and worked in a hospital in Gaza during this latest crisis in January, 2009.

For countless years now, world-renowned organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF and others have documented the effects of occupation on the physical and mental health of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. As the years pass, the health violations only continue to escalate, both in the West Bank, where access to health care is difficult at best and especially in Gaza, where a brutal blockade imposed as collective punishment by the Israeli government has denied Palestinians even basic supplies such as food and water, let alone health care. This blockade has been directly blamed and condemned by various health groups such as the International Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) and many more. Health is a human right - one that an occupying power is obligated to provide for the civilian population according to the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Come and learn about the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and hear first-hand accounts from Canadian health care professionals and researchers of all backgrounds who have traveled to Palestine -- one since the recent war -- and seen the damaging effects that this occupation has on the Palestinian civilians. We will be having a panel discussion and encourage participation from health care professionals and other citizens alike. To learn more, please see the five part series published in the Lancet (a prominent UK medical journal) being released this month entitled Health In the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

For more info please see the CJPME Website: http://www.cjpme.org/