Palestinian Women Pay Health Toll at Checkpoints

[Scurrilous]

Strict security measures at Israeli checkpoints have claimed the lives of at least four pregnant women and 34 newborns.

<snip>

"At the entrance of this small village near Jerusalem, Palestinian grandmother Khadijeh Musa Alaan was told at an Israeli checkpoint that she could not leave to visit her daughter in a nearby village.

Two Israeli volunteers, Laura Sznajder and Tamar Bilu, politely tried to persuade an Israeli army official to let the 59-year-old woman pass on that hot August afternoon.

He refused. Alaan, a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, did not have a temporary permit from the district commander's office, he said.

She was also turned back at the checkpoint in July while trying to visit a doctor for treatment of her diabetes, she says.

Alaan is just one of many women whose health and safety have been placed in jeopardy as a result of Israel's nearly 40-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and increasingly restrictive security measures."

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[breakaleg]

1. I've also read reports where women have babies at checkpoints and

the infant mortality rate is quite high - somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-50%. There's no need for this.

[IntiRaymi]

2. The situation is an absolute disaster.

But try convincing some here that this is a matter that merits attention, and all you will get is callous disregard for the humanity of those caught in between.