Agencies-Gaza post
EU penalizes Palestinian cancer patients to please Israel
As part of a campaign to appease the Israel lobby in Brussels, the European Union is abusing Palestinian cancer sufferers.
It does so by withholding $230 million in money that had previously been committed to help Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.
The payment has been postponed since last year, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, “as the European Union continues to condition the delivery of the money on specific revisions to Palestinian school textbooks.”
The aid freeze, which is reminiscent of the cuts imposed by US President Donald Trump shortly after taking office in 2017, “is crippling critical sectors and services, including healthcare in occupied East Jerusalem, with dire consequences for patients needing hospital treatment,” according to the charity.
“These limits punish terminally sick patients who can’t access life-saving treatment and compel children to go hungry because their parents can’t afford to buy food,” said Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“Palestinians are paying the highest price for Brussels’ political actions.”
As a result, at least 500 newly diagnosed cancer patients at the Augusta Victoria hospital in occupied East Jerusalem have been unable to receive life-saving therapies. Others are facing significant delays in receiving life-saving therapy.
