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ADALAH'S NEWSLETTER
Volume No.3, July 2004

Following Adalah’s petition against the Ministries of Health and Finance: Family Health Clinics to be Operated in Naqab Villages of Hura and Lagiyya

On Thursday 8 July 2004, the Supreme Court of Israel delivered its final decision on a petition submitted by Adalah, which demanded that the Court issue an order obligating the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) to open and operate family health clinics in the villages of Lagiyya and Hura in the Naqab.

The petition was filed by Adalah attorney Marwan Dalal in January 2004, on behalf of eight individuals from Lagiyya and Hura, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, the Regional Municipality of Lagiyya, the Galilee Society, and in Adalah's own name. The petitioners argued that the MOH was aware of the shortage of clinics in Lagiyya and Hura, as it has previously acknowledged the need to establish and operate additional clinics in the two villages. Furthermore, although two additional clinics were actually constructed in each of the villages, the MOH subsequently decided not to open them, blaming a lack of necessary funds to finance physician and nurse positions.

In the petition, Adalah argued that the MOH’s decision not to open and operate the clinics is illegal, violates the constitutional and human rights of Palestinian Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel, primarily their rights to life, health, respect and privacy. Adalah emphasized the need to open the two clinics in Lagiyya and Hura, which is particularly acute given the high rate of infant mortality amongst the Arab Bedouin residents of the Naqab: 17.1 per 1,000 births, as compared with 4.7 per 1,000 births among Jewish Israelis living in this region, representing the highest rate in the country.

Adalah further contended that the two clinics currently operating in Lagiyya and Hura (one in each village) are inadequate for delivering the necessary health services to the villagers, as they suffer from severe overcrowding, which substantially impairs the standard of health services which they offer. The petition includes data, and affidavits from mothers living in Lagiyya, which illustrate the poor services provided by the existing clinics in the two villages.

In April 2004, the Attorney General (AG) replied to the Court that the MOH has recognized that the family health services provided in the two villages are substandard, and that it has decided to transfer three registered nurse positions and one half-position for a physician from other regions to the Naqab, whose services will be made available to the two villages on a needs basis. The AG added that this step would allow the two clinics in Lagiyya and Hura to open.

Adalah replied to the AG’s response to the Supreme Court in June 2004, arguing that the designation of half a physician's position does not answer the needs of the residents of the two villages, nor comply with the MOH’s own criteria. According to these criteria, the MOH should allocate one gynecologist for every 800 pregnant women, and one pediatrician for every 1,000 children under the age of fourteen registered at a clinic. At the hearing held in July 2004, Adalah stressed that the MOH had failed to explain how the designation of half a physician's position will lead to the provision of appropriate health services for the mothers and children who use the health clinics in Lagiyya and Hura.

At the end of the hearing the Supreme Court decided that, "The petitioners have received what they demanded in the petition," and ordered the MOH and MOF to pay the petitioners' legal expenses in the amount of 5000 NIS. The Court's decision also stated that the petitioners, "… reserve the right to approach the Court again, should the two clinics fail to provide suitable health services for the residents of the two villages."

 To the petition

 Supreme Court decision