A third Comment documents the struggle of simply holding a research conference in the oPt, told be Professor Rita Giacaman and Dr Rhana Khatib of Birzeit University. But the academics say that the Lancet-Palestinian Health Alliance is helping to make a global issue of the health of Palestinians, not only regarding traditional indicators but also in the context of occupation.
The day the international visitors arrived for the conference, hundreds of Israeli settlers, escorted by Israeli security forces. The authors say: "There was tension in the air; the smell of violence everywhere; and denial or restricted access from one part of the West Bank to another and to East Jerusalem. And the country was engulfed with an unusual rain storm, which reduced many streets on the West Bank to muddy streams."
But they add: "Despite these challenges, most of our international and local guests arrived early on March 1 to attend the two-day conference. Full house, and overflowing; and a testimony to Palestinian resilience; to the moral and substantive support and solidarity of international colleagues and friends; and to the resolve of the Palestinian academic and professional community to engage in conducting, disseminating, and using research to assist in improving population health."
International contributors to the conference came from as far away as Japan, the USA, Sweden, Norway, and the UK, but most papers were presented by Palestinians from the West Bank (Ramallah, Hebron, and Nablus) and East Jerusalem. Some researchers from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon were denied entry. The authors say: "We live, teach, do research, and manage our academic life under Israeli military occupation; and insecurity and uncertainty mean that we never know if we are able to complete a teaching or research task until it gets done."
Applauding the varied content of the conference, the authors say: "The Lancet–Palestinian Health Alliance placed us and our local and international partners firmly into a new and stronger than ever level, the global level."
They conclude: "The Alliance conferences will take place every year in early March, and will help to support continued capacity building for health research. These conferences will help in giving Palestinian researchers the strength and the will to continue believing that they can persist in doing research, despite the many hurdles and the impossibility of the context at times; and that they can influence change, even when the political conditions produce generalised feelings of incapacitation. The conferences will also help to humanise images of Palestinians as either terrorists or hopeless victims. We are real, human, a people with agency; we are scientists and scholars who strive to link academic work to societal development; and we are here and, in spite of everything, we are staying put."
Professor Rita Giacaman, Birzeit University, oPT. T) +972-2298-2019 / +972-599-721841 E) rita@birzeit.edu
Full Comment: http://press.thelancet.com/optgiacaman.pdf
Journal
The Lancet