In response to a recent Haaretz article (highlighted here) showing that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has nearly stopped paying for Gaza medical patients to receive treatment in Israel, the PA responded exactly how one would expect:

It blamed Israel.

The PA claims that it is Israel — not the Palestinian government — that is preventing patients from being treated in Israel. A spokesman for the PA health department explicitly denied that there was any change in their own policies.

But the Haaretz article was well-sourced. For example, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel documented that some 90% of Palestinian requests to the PA for medical treatment in Israel were being ignored. The article also featured interviews with a number of family members of sick children who spoke about their frustration regarding the sudden change in PA policy.

It is, of course, no coincidence that the PA’s new policy towards patients in Gaza coincides with its policy limiting medicines, anesthesia and electricity in Gaza’s hospitals.

The Palestinian Authority is literally complicit in killing its own people. But it is embarrassed when that fact is publicized.

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