Gaza,
April 7, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - Israeli occupation forces said they
would limit the use of a controversial “radioactive” screening
room at Rafah border checkpoint after medical experts warned of its
life-threatening impact on Palestinian travelers.
“The
Israelis told us on Wednesday, April 7, that they would use the
radioactive machine to check suspects only,” Emad Mikhamer, the
public relations office at the checkpoint, told reporters.
Mikhamer
gave no further details on the Israeli decision.
Walid
Al-Salhi, the director of preventive security at the Rafah crossing,
said the room is made of lead-coated glass and is holding inside it a
one-meter high cylinder-shaped device.
Palestinian
medics said that potential diseases include thrombocytopenic,
sterility, congenital anomalies, cancer, leukemia, mental retardation
and ductless glands disorder, warning that Palestinians are slipping
toward slow death.
The
Gaza Community Mental Health Program has launched a campaign against
the Israeli use of the radiation inspection system.
It
threatened to file a compliant to the Israeli Supreme Court if Israel
did not respond to the complaints.
‘Collective
Punishment’
Meanwhile,
a workshop was organized by Woman Medical and Information Center in
Gaza, on the Israeli practice on Wednesday.
The
participants, Palestinian experts and specialists, described the use
of such machine as a “war crime” and “a breach of international
law,” according to the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA).
A
radiology expert at Al-Shifa Hospital, Dr. Fatima Al Hindi,
highlighted the risks of radiation on pregnant women, warning the
practice is the most dangerous during the first three months of
pregnancy.
He
affirmed that such radiation may cause “fetal mutations” and
“physical deformations”.
“Israeli
occupation forces have no exceptions, as pregnant women, children and
cardiac diseases patients are also subjected by the said machine,”
said Anwar Atallah, a physicist specialized in radiological
protection.
Director
of Public Relation at Al-Shifa Hospital, Dr. Jum'a Al-Saqqa, posted
the participants on his experience with the machine.
He
said the passengers enter the small room, raise their hands and stand
up on a specific point spreading legs.
The
operation is repeated twice in different positions, according to
Al-Saqqa.
He
added that a woman suffered abortion and several others suffered
vomiting and nausea from the screening.
A
radiation specialist, Dr. Anwar Diab, said that unlike the X-Ray
machines in hospitals - that produce a high energy radiation that
penetrates the body and does not remain inside - the radiation
produced by the Israeli machine produces a very intensive low energy,
and tends to remain inside the body, causing various side effects.
On
the legal consequences, representative of Al-Mizan Center for Human
Rights, lawyer Jamil Sarhan, said that in the case of assuring the
harmful affects on human health, it means that Israel implements
“organized killing” of the Palestinian people.
International
laws, he added, state that the occupying power must protect the
occupied people and provide them with health care and treatment.
He
said the Israeli machine is a “war crime” in the case of assuring
its affect on human health, affirming that such procedure is a
“humiliation” to the Palestinian people.
Israel
usually shuts down the Rafah crossing under security pretexts.
The
suffering of Palestinian travelers swelled in August when the
occupation army closed the checkpoint for up to 17 consecutive days.
Some
3,000 men, women and children of all ages were crammed into a parking
lot about half the size of a soccer field with only two doors for
ventilation and straw mats serving as beds.
