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PHR-Israel 2008 Annual Report

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Foreword

In summarizing a certain time period, a look back helps us to examine principle actions and the thoughts that guided them. In retrospect, we see not only the past year, but the succession of time as well. Quite naturally, we then look to the future and ask, "Where are we headed?" This annual report is our twentieth - it signals twenty years of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel activism. The very fact that the organization has existed for twenty years and has maintained its clear voice and objectives all along is not trivial. It provides us with a source of empowerment in an era of despair and confusion that typifies Israeli society today.

The great majority of Israeli society, that which is Zionist- Jewish, is characterized by an indiscernible, muffled and hollow voice. Within such a society, it is very difficult to voice a clear and unified opinion against the general spirit, the dominant consensus, which supports out of fear and hatred, a belligerent military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. PHR-Israel, as an organization that does not fear nor succumb to intimidation (see in this report, "GSS Intervenes in the Work of the Occupied Palestinian Territory Department), makes its voice heard even in the most difficult of times, such as that which befell us all during the attack on Gaza. Our clear voice enables us to work in partnership with "the other side," the Palestinians. This is an immense responsibility we have taken upon ourselves, a responsibility, which is expressed, in true, close ties with Palestinians. With this responsibility also comes a need to influence Israeli- Zionist society and change its hostile, racist views to try and educate an entire society to respect human rights in an atmosphere in which human rights are not respected, particularly those of Palestinians in Israel and in the Occupied Territories.

It should be said that this responsibility is disproportionate to our abilities. Our recognition of this magnanimous responsibility in relation to our limited power is frightening, and often causes us moments of helplessness and despair on both a personal and a group level.

What can help us continue to act and feel that our actions are meaningful?

Our inner strength as individuals and as an organization is based on the understanding of the complexities of Israeli society and our place within it. Out of this understanding and from these insights, we create the principles that guide the organization's activities. This is done by dedicating ample time for discussion at staff meetings, board meetings and seminars of principle issues integrated with practical actions.

We must know and understand that by our very essence as a human rights organization we are also, by nature, a political organization. We are political in that we desire to bring about social change, to undermine the repressiveness of Israeli society. This long awaited change will not come about by binding ourselves to repressive power structures. Rather it will occur through the creation of suitable alternatives.

Our place outside the consensus is therefore by choice, not by compulsion. Our conscious desire not to be part of the center and the government is an important and decisive element in PHR-Israel's struggle to emphasize the difference, and not to resemble the dominant hegemonic current. For example, we are not asking to resemble the Israeli Medical Association, or other groups within the consensus.

Our struggle against the Occupation, our attempt to deeply understand the essence of prolonged occupation, as well as our connection with Palestinians in Israel and in the Occupied Territories, all stand in contrast to the Israeli line that aspires for ethnic ghettoization for all intents and purposes. We do not accept the perception that identifies Israeli with Jewish. We struggle for equal rights for Israel's Palestinian citizens, its migrant workers, refugees, trafficked women, and other minorities. Our perception also opposes racism and separation. For all these reasons we choose to remain outside the consensus.

Our instrument sounds a moral, ethical, and egalitarian call, one that respects the human rights of all. Joined to our call is a practical facet, grounded in reality. Our power is found in the integration of the moral and the practical, which allows us to propose realistic alternatives to hegemony which itself only offers belligerent military solutions grounded in separation.

We oppose intra-governmental policies which seek to privatize health, a broad field reaching beyond purely medicine.

This report describes our activity in 2008 and demonstrates the practical aspects of the organization within Israeli reality.

But from where shall we draw the energy required of us so that we do not give up in the face of large tasks?

We do not know the full answer to this question. We do know, however, that as human beings we can invent the future. Within every thought, every action lies a simultaneous view to the past, the present and the future. The future, certainly our perception of it, involves the need to educate our fellow man/woman and ourselves. It demands that we open eyes of those who refuse to see, those who are entrenched in denial. This is the responsibility which we have taken upon ourselves. It is a source of strength (and of fatigue). Ask any parent and he or she will tell you the same.

We bring facts into the public eye, information which the public often prefers not to know. The hard work of gathering facts inside Israel itself, in its prisons, its Unrecognized Bedouin villages, its deteriorating public health system, and in the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, that helps us open our own eyes and understand the mechanisms of control that nurture consensual lies and ignorance of the facts.

PHR-Israel's first publication was published in Hebrew, Arabic and English, and described the state of Gaza Strip's health system about twenty years ago. Since then, we continue to collect facts and publish reports and for this reason, our knowledge of the facts and of reality is deep and continuous, and enables us to think critically about established opinions disseminated by the media.

The materials we need to strengthen our critical understanding will be located in the archives of the organization and accessible to PHR-Israel staff, its board members, and researchers alike.

The knowledge that we do not wish to be part of the establishment, together with our ability to identify the advantages of remaining outside of it is a conscious choice that can give us the power to continue to be what we have chosen to be: the alternative, moral voice. A big thanks to those who pursue this alternative daily: PHR-Israel's outstanding staff.

Dr. Ruhama Marton
President and Founder, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel