British Doctors Hunger Strike at Rafah 9


Consultant Dr Chris Burns Cox is among a group of three doctors and five nurses from the UK and Belgium, who are on hunger strike at the Rafah crossing into Gaza, after being prevented from crossing by the Egyptian government. Chris has been on five previous visits to Gaza to train medical staff.

Egypt is under huge pressure from the United States and Israel, but nevertheless plays a most shameful part in maintaining the Gaza prison ghetto. The ethnic cleansing and confinement of the Palestinians remains one of the great crimes of the last century, still unmitigated in this century. The prevention of medical staff from entering Gaza is indefensible.

I have been contacted direct from Rafah and informed that the British Embassy in Cairo is refusing to help with the Egyptian authorities, which sadly sounds all too typical of Milliband. I am trying now with some of my own diplomatic contacts.


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9 thoughts on “British Doctors Hunger Strike at Rafah

  • The Fatsnacker

    Shame on us……

    Here we are in 2009…..have we really not progressed in Humanity……

  • Grumpy Old Man

    I am told by an Egyptian aquaintance that the consensus amongst the electorate is that Egypt has such dire pressures on population, food production and the economy that Palestinians must be kept where they are at any cost. I know that

    Egypt is the labour bank of the Middle East and there is not enough work in Egypt. Any comments from youself on that?

    How’s young Cameron. Still keeping you awake at nights?

  • mary

    The story is spreading thanks to the internet.

    http://www.uruknet.info?p=54392

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/19/british-medics-refused-gaza-access

    @ Abu Rene The Eqyptian Embassy never reply. They are following orders. There was a case last year when a couple from Scotland took a van full of medical supplies down to Rafah. They never got in despite many pleas to the Egyptians who are stooges of the US and Israel. They returned home and the supplies were left in Egypt in the end on the care of charities.

    It was all the more amazing that George Galloway and the Viva Palestina convoy got through to Gaza.

    Remember then the arrest on the motorway and subsequent detention of a dozen members from the Manchester area so that they missed the start in London but who later joined up.

    Best wishes to Chris (not a youngster if he won’t mind me saying) and the others in Rafah now. Thankfully it’s a bit cooler today (25C) than it was at the weekend when it was 36C.

  • Abe Rene

    @Mary “The Eqyptian Embassy never reply. They are following orders.”

    Thanks for letting me know, so I won’t hold my breath! But it may be useful pressure if a lot of people write anyway, because the fact of multiple protests will be reported. I’ve read in Amnesty International publications that prisoners sometimes have their conditions eased because of such pressure.

  • abualshawareb

    Mubarak’s grand son has died yesterday, he was 12 and fall ill two days ago..

    First they brought a surgeon from London, then they transferred him on the Presidential Plane to France where he died.

    This criminal regime of Egypt who summoned British Surgeons for the president grand son is keeping other doctors away from children of Gaza, they also put president plane at his disposal while Palestinian families can’t even use a donkey to transfer their ill children out of Gaza .. one of those children died yesterday from cancer, his mother has been campaigning for months to have him transferred outside Gaza for treatment..

    Egypt said NO

    Zionist entity criminal regime said NO

  • mary

    This e-mail just in =

    Islamic Human Rights Commission

    Thursday 21 May 2009 19.54

    Alert: Gaza/Egypt ?” Medics and aid workers remain on hunger strikes, Assed

    Baig blogs from Rafah border crossing

    Doctors and aid workers, still being denied entry into Gaza by Egyptian

    authorities, continue their hunger strike in protest amid the searing heat

    of southern Sinai.

    Assad Baig, an independent journalist participating in the hunger strike,

    blogs on location:

    “No mercy was shown by the Egyptian authorities, who kept the border

    closed, not even sick Palestinians were allowed through back into Gaza,

    they were simply told that the border was shut.”

    As he and the remainder of the group continue to wait for a response from

    the Egyptian authorities, he describes the situation on the ground:

    “70 year old Salaha Skeyg arrived with his 65 year old wife Salma at the

    Rafah crossing at 6am in the morning, only to be told that it was closed.

    Salaha Skeyg had been in hospital in Cairo suffering from kidney stones

    but could not afford for the operation he required to remove his stones

    that had blocked the passage between the kidneys and bladder and was

    therefore forced to return to Gaza. Now they wait in the blistering sun of

    the southern Sinai, sitting, waiting for the Egyptian authorities to show

    some mercy to allow them back home to be with their family in Gaza.”

    The dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza has led this team of medics and aid

    workers to go on a relief mission to set up a cardiac unit in al-Shifa

    hospital in Gaza. With the intention of training medical students and

    junior doctors there, they have been refused entry into Gaza since the

    beginning of this month.

    You can keep up with latest development on this story by visiting Assad

    Baig’s weblog at: http://www.assedbaig.blogspot.com/

    IHRC is urging the Egyptian authorities to allow the doctors and aid

    workers entry into Gaza to conduct their humanitarian mission.

    For more information, please contact the office on the numbers or email below

    IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social

    Council of the United Nations.

    Please help IHRC by visiting http://www.ihrc.org.uk/catalog and making a donation or buying an item from our on-line store.

    If you want to subscribe to the IHRC list please send an email to

    [email protected]

    If you are reusing this alert, please cite the source.

    Join the Struggle for Justice. Join IHRC.

    Islamic Human Rights Commission

    PO Box 598

    Wembley

    HA9 7XH

    United Kingdom

    Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222

    Fax (+44) 20 8904 5183

    Email: [email protected]

    Web: http://www.ihrc.org

    =======================================

    The Palestine Solidarity Committee are holding a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy tomorrow afternoon supporting the hunger strikers on Gaza Border at Egyptian Embassy – protests taking place in support of hunger strikes by Medics on the Gaza Border 12 noon until sunset

    Address: 26 South Street, London , W1K 1DW Nearest tube ?” Earls Court

  • Eva

    Dear Mr.Murray,

    I am an activist (with the international solidarity movement -ISM) and journalist in Gaza (www.ingaza.wordpress.com).

    Do you know if the 3 Hammersmith doctors eventually got into Gaza, or where they are? I’d like to interview them.

    My best,

    Eva Bartlett

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