Recently I went on a trip to the West Bank for Physicians for Human Rights. They take physicians who want to help people in need. Granted PHR has constituents who are politically opinionated and quite frankly I don't really care about that. In fact, I avoided talking politics to anyone on my trip because I wasn't there to make a political statement. I believe health care access is a fundamental right, and it was more of an excuse for me to see something I would not normally have the chance to see, and perhaps improve a couple people's lives at the same time, regardless of their political views. (In the photo you can see a picture of Yasser Arafat and the former leader of Egypt above the Palestinians hosting the welcoming).

That being said, I will try to give the most unbiased view I can of my experience of the Palestinian way of life in the West Bank. First of all, people need to realize that Gaza, which is in the southern portion is Israel, is not part of the West Bank. Gaza is a much more extreme area, that is not safe for westerners to travel to, people get kidnapped there frequently mainly on account of Hamas. The West Bank by contrast, is a much more stable place with a moderate Palestinian following. It is a center for Christian pilgrimage with sites like the Church of Nativity which is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists in Bethlehem every year. It's run by the PLO which in many ways is opposed to Hamas, it seems to be a stabilizing force in the West Bank. If peace is ever to be brokered for the Palestinians it would be between the PLO and Israel, not Hamas. Another misconception is that the majority of the West Bank is a beautiful place not a giant slum. Bethlehem resembles Jerusalem with limestone buildings lining most of the roads. However, what is true is that the surrounding Palestinian refugee camps are in bad shape. The Turkish Flotilla which was a political statement in support of human rights for the Palestinians, was trying to bring attention to these areas. (While on the topic, I live a couple blocks away from the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv. During this time, I saw hundreds of Israelis carrying flags, throwing objects, and honking horns at the Embassy which was intense but interesting to say the least).

However, if you have been to the favellas of Brazil, or seen City of God these areas of the West Bank are analogous minus the gun fighting. Ironically, while these two areas of the world are both in poverty, you don't hear about international rights movements asking for help in the favellas. The reason why all this attention is focused on the West Bank is obvious, the Palestinians in this region are being used as political pawns both by Israel and the Arabs. Human rights movements tend to make the situation in the West Bank seem worse than it is. That's not to say the refugee camps aren't in bad shape, but it does mean that there are human rights problems in this world such as Darfur or Haiti that that are much more cause for concern.

Jenin is the third largest city in the West Bank with views of farm land which are stunning in the sunset. PHR set up their operation at a local school and most of the patients were women and children. No male doctors were allowed in the women's ward mainly because of the conservative outlook of the Arab lifestyle and the nature of their consultation (most were OB/GYN).

I was with a pediatrician. Most of the cases we saw during the day were standard upper respiratory infections and colds, however there were a couple interesting cases worth noting. One child came from a consanguineous marriage (spouses that are related) and this increases the chance for genetic disease tremendously. Unfortunately, due to the contained nature of the West Bank, and also to some extent Arab tradition, many people marry within their own families - in some cases without even knowing about it. The child of this couple had a genetic disorder which could not be identified in literature, he was spastic and had brain atrophy. Additionally she aborted several other children. Anomalous genetic disorders arise all the time in cases of consanguinity. The woman has already consulted some of the leading geneticists in Israel about the nature of her son's disease, however they all told her the same thing. She refuses to believe that he can't be diagnosed without genetic testing, and because of the financial status of the family, this procedure is too expensive for her to do (this brings to light of the biggest problems in the West Bank, easily accessible healthcare). The worst part about this is that the father wants a "real" son, and the couple plans to continue trying. It seems due to the history of her failed pregnancies, that her son's disease isx-linked meaning that any male child born will most likely have the same condition.

Another genetic disease one of the nurse practitioners came across presented with three brothers who all had a familial form of epilepsy. When the nurse asked the father how he had been addressing the issue, he said he would bury the children up to their necks in the ground. On further questioning they realized that the father wasn't trying to be abusive, he was simply trying to ground the "electricity" that was emanating from his sons' bodies (he interpreted the tonic-clonic nature of their seizures to be waves of electricity passing through the body). Pretty crazy, but this may be a reflection of the lack of education in the West Bank. I believe this to be one of the worst things about the West Bank, mainly because without education or teaching progressive concepts, the Arab-Israeli conflict is likely to linger on in the face of ignorance.

As I mentioned I couldn't observe the OB/GYN clinic, however I did hear some pretty interesting stories. First of all, many of the women showing up were conservative Arabs, completely covered in a burqa with only the eyes showing. Yet apparently, there wasn't one woman who showed up who hadn't shaved! So I guess, while these women live strict lives, it's hard to imagine, but they seem to have a western orientation to their sex lives.

On a more serious and troubling note, there were many cases of obvious abuse. One woman came in with circular burn marks all over her body, including scalding that destroyed most of the skin on her right breast. On questioning, she explained that she had spilled boiling water on herself, which was obviously not the truth. When the doctors asked "Are you sure that's what happened", she stuck to her story. The bigger problem here is the fact that even if she admitted that she had been abused, there is no mechanism in the West Bank to help them out. In my opinion, while most people believe that the main problem in the West Bank is the Israeli conflict, people need look under a microscope and realize that many humanitarian problems facing these people could be prevented by raising awareness. It is so important that people realize that grassroots movements need to be put in place to prevent crimes against women in the West Bank, this is such a big problem and if you're reading this article, you probably haven't even heard about it.

Access to healthcare in the West Bank is not great, however if someone in a Palestinian territory has a serious medical condition, Israel does care for these patients. True, if a Palestinian has a minor to moderate condition, most likely they will not be able to get the same standard of healthcare as an Israeli citizen. I have seen many Palestinians in the hospitals where I have done my rounds in Israel, so from my own eyes I can tell you that people in dire need, have a relatively easy time getting help. For example, a Gazan man of 18 came into the orthopedic unit because he was shot by Hamas. His leg was completely shattered, and it was repaired after a very long and arduous surgery. A week later he had to go back to the operating room because he was going into septicemic shock. This man lived through the ordeal, and was able to go back to his family. This experience was a learning curve for me, because while Hamas is an organization that is supposedly an advocate of Gazan Palestinians, they are also brutal to their own people.

What I have learned about the Palestinians and especially the several that I have met, is that you really have to imagine such a conflict occuring in your hometown. Would you or any of your neighbors want to have to deal with rockets flying over you and impending war at any time? Most likely not, and the large majority of the Palestinians are friendly people and are the same way. They are just trying to live their lives in peace. Most of them aren't extremists, it just turns out that a small group of people with a lot of power (esp. the Hamas) ruin it for all the Palestinians, just as small but powerful group of ultra-conservative Israelis stifle political progress in the region. (Last picture of the Israeli checkpoint exiting the West Bank).