Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Palestinians fake cancer to flee blockaded Gaza

Palestinians fake cancer to flee blockaded Gaza
By DIAA HADID (AP)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A healthy man in blockaded Gaza faked cancer, 
hoping the deadly disease would be his ticket out of the territory that 
has become an open-air prison for its 1.4 million residents.
His ploy failed, but several thousand others succeeded in fleeing this 
shabby sliver of land this year using bribes and fake medical reports, a 
sign of Gazans' desperation over growing poverty and misery under the 
strict border closure enforced by Egypt and Israel since Hamas militants 
overran Gaza in June 2007.
The blockade has few loopholes. Israel allows passage to top business 
people and a limited number of Gazans seeking treatment for serious 
illnesses. Egypt sporadically opens its border for university students 
and those with residency abroad.
Everyone else is stuck, even as Palestinian polls suggest nearly half 
the population would like to leave if they could. Deepening the Gazans' 
sense of imprisonment, they must now also obtain permission from the 
Hamas government before attempting to leave, further complicating an 
obstacle-ridden path to freedom.
Those trying to bribe their way out usually approach middlemen who put 
them in touch with local doctors, Palestinian health officials or 
Egyptian bureaucrats and military officials.
Akram Ghneim, 31, an unemployed father of six living off food handouts, 
told The Associated Press he promised $260 to a Palestinian middleman, 
who obtained for him a bogus medical report saying he had cancer. Ghneim 
said he hoped he'd get a rare spot on the list of Gaza patients with 
life-threatening illnesses who are allowed to enter Israel for treatment.
Once in Israel, he planned to disappear and work illegally. But Israeli 
intelligence officials, who review applications, rejected him last 
summer, saying his cancer report was forged.
"This is what the blockade does," said Ran Yaron, of the Israeli group 
Physicians for Human Rights, which helps bring Gazans into Israel for 
treatment by lobbing Israeli defense officials.
"Most are frustrated and devastated people."
Yaron said fakers are a minority, but clog up the system for real 
patients who have to go through longer checks as a result.
Of more than 7,000 Gazans who crossed into Israel this year to seek 
medical treatment, some 500 haven't returned, said Col. Moshe Levi, an 
Israeli defense official.
Some stay in Israel, while others move to the West Bank, a territory 
controlled by Israel but partly administered by Palestinians loyal to 
Fatah, bitter rivals of Hamas.
One Fatah loyalist, a healthy 30-year-old woman, said she was desperate 
to leave Gaza after being harassed by Hamas officials.
She bribed a Gaza doctor with $100 to certify she had "whatever cancer 
could only be treated in Israel." The doctor then paid off a physician 
serving on a Palestinian committee that certifies medical reports for 
Israeli military officials, the woman said. She eventually succeed in 
reaching the West Bank and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of 
being sent back to Gaza by the Israeli authorities.
Israeli intelligence officials investigate Gazans applying to enter 
Israel to ensure they are not militants and to check whether medical 
certificates are genuine, but tend to rely on the Palestinian committee 
to confirm that the patient is actually sick.
The head of the Palestinian committee, Bassam Badri, denied members 
accept bribes. Omar Masri of the Palestinian Health Ministry in the West 
Bank said the issue was "too stupid for a response."
But Palestinians who have successfully used bogus transfers said some 
health officials accept payments, anything from $100 to $500. They spoke 
on condition of anonymity because of the illicit system.
Others pay bribes to get out through the Rafah border crossing into 
Egypt, said a senior Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity 
because he did not want to alienate Egyptian authorities.
Payments range from $400 to $5,000, according to Rafah residents 
familiar with the system, known among Gazans as "Egyptian coordination."
An Egyptian security official at the border denied Egyptian officers 
take bribes to allow crossings. He said that three months ago, two 
Palestinian officials posted on the Egyptian side were removed on 
suspicion of taking bribes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity 
because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
Depending on the sum, the middleman's talents and luck, bribe-paying 
Gazans can sometimes leave immediately through the crossing, with 
Egyptian officials stamping them through, even when it's closed, Rafah 
residents said. Otherwise, bribe-payers wait for one of the official 
border openings by Egypt, usually lasting for around three days every 
month or two.
About 2,000 Gazans get through each time the border opens. Only half are 
on the official list and the rest are handled directly by the Egyptian 
authorities, said Ehab Ghussein, the Interior Ministry spokesman in Gaza.
Thousands more have applied to leave but don't make the list, he said.
Numerous tunnels run under the Gaza-Egypt borders in a thriving 
smuggling trade bringing goods into the territory. But few Gazans use 
them to sneak into Egypt, because once on the other side they would have 
no official status and be more vulnerable to Egyptian police.
But even paying bribes isn't a guaranteed exit strategy.
Hazem Riyashi, 27, says he paid a middleman $1,000 in July to cross 
through Egypt, hoping to reach the Gulf emirate of Dubai, where his 
family lives. But the middleman disappeared and has not returned his 
calls. Riyashi hasn't given up, and is looking for someone else to pay off.
"I think everybody should leave Gaza," he said. "Even the air smells 
cleaner abroad."
Associated Press Writer Rizek Abdul Jawad in Gaza City contributed to 
this report.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ggX78Tni5cM0rtJOnMItFBDKOX4AD9CGA1880


"One Fatah loyalist, a healthy 30-year-old woman, said she was desperate
to leave Gaza after being harassed by Hamas officials."
Non credo che abbiano bisogno del canarone, se sono buoni musulmani come 
dovrebbero. Comunque s�, c'� da vergognarsi, a fare s� che il proprio stesso 
popolo abbia voglia di fuggire.

 Roba di cui andate fieri, voi del canarone.
tanto per dire quanto sono buoni i (NON) assedianti, i benefattori
israeliani hanno aspettato le prime cataste di morti per influenza
aviaria prima di mandare una partita di vaccini.
Mengele si starà spippettando nella tomba

amaryllide ha scritto:

Toh, un'altra equivalenza. Qui tra uno dei peggiori orrori della Shoah e 
una balla.
Bombacci deve essere molto solo, mentre se lo mena pensando a Mengele.
Molto disperato.
Tb (bieco illuminista)
-- 
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the user."
~ Theodore Roosevelt