I asked did any of them have any faith in Tony Blair and the Quartet’s initiative to build Palestinian infrastructures, especially in the medical field. They all laughed and Dr. Allawi added, “We have a very weak Health Ministry and there is no state authority. In 1994, when the PA started, its aim was that Palestine would assume authority and responsibility for ourselves, but the Israelis present a false front.”

When I commented that under International Law the occupiers are responsible for the needs and requirements of the occupied, the doctors laughed again, for it is the law of the jungle that rules the Holy Land.

Dr. Amro: “It’s a revolving door in the West Bank. We treat these babies as best we can, the parents don’t have the money to pay for the medicine and milk and the babies return to the hospital every ten days.”

Dr. Al-Qaisi: “We see lots of children with chronic metabolic disorders and there is no money to treat them properly. They should be on special milk for at least six months; we send them home with one bottle and a week’s worth of milk costs 230 shekels that the parents do not have, so they eat potatoes and tomatoes and come back here.”

The doctors see over one hundred children a day and admit a quarter of them. In the public hospitals in places like Hebron, the physicians will see five-hundred a day and admit a fourth of them also.

Dr. Al-Qaisi: “When we [resident doctors] graduate, we can’t find work in the West Bank; you graduate as a GP and you stay that way because there are no facilities to train in specialties.”

Dr. Amro: “The US Aid, the Fulbright Society; they all give food, drugs and money, but don’t support further education.”

Dr. Hafiri: “We need specialists here; this is a major disaster not having any in the West Bank.”

Dr. Amro: “The politicians live in a bubble. We live in the third world, and this is a heaven hospital, the government hospitals in the West Bank are hell! If we need blood for a child, we have to get it from Jerusalem and it takes five hours! So, we are supposed to predict six hours ahead, which child will require blood [stat: immediately]."

Dr. Allawi: “There is no plan, no aim to really change this situation. The world leaders are not serious about changing the situation and really building foundations. Some of us get the opportunity to go to the US and get specialized training, but they don’t come back here.”

But, Dr. Al-Qaisi is the exception to that rule. He offered me a ride back to Jerusalem in his ‘classic’ 18 year old Peugeot, for he had come in on his day off and was on his way home after stopping at his brother’s store to pick up some eggs. When he pulled back out into the congested streets, he rear ended a taxi van and dented it slightly. After a few words with the owner of the cab and apology, we were on our way; no insurance info was exchanged and no cop was called; in Palestine, the people give each other a break.

Dr. Al-Qaisi pulled out his USA citizenship and told me, “In 2004, I won a green card lottery. The USA grants 55,000 green cards a year and if you pass the security checks and all the other criteria, you can get American citizenship. I went to Toledo, Ohio for a while, but I came back home, because my family is the most important thing to me. I don’t care about making  a lot of money, I want to be with my family.”

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