Report: Gush Katif Residents’ Health Declining, by Hillel Fendel (Israel National News)
Commentary;
The consequences of the expulsion of Jews from their homes in Gush Katif and the 4 Shomron towns are many-fold. The collective decline in physical and mental health is just one consequence of the regime’s land and property robbery and seizure at legalized gunpoint and violation of fundamental human rights both of the expellees and expulsion opponents.
We can only surmise that there are many Bennie Daroms walking around among the expelling soldiers and many other side-effects affecting the national psyche on many levels. Where are the Jewish hearts and souls? May they speedily come out of the closet in manifestations such as this; Residents Plan to Re-Settle Homesh and Sa-Nur on Chanukah, that Hashem may save us all. MB
Full Text;
Barzilai Hospital and Ashkelon Health Office find: Former Gush Katif residents now have nearly twice as many health problems than they had before they were thrown out of their homes.
The findings of a study carried out by the regional health office in Ashkelon and the city’s Barzilai Hospital were presented at a recent conference of the American Public Health Association. The study compared statistics gathered at the health clinic in N’vei Dekalim, the largest community in Gush Katif, before the expulsion, and those amassed a few months ago in Nitzan, the largest neighborhood of expelled Gush Katif families. Some 500 families from the former communities of Gush Katif currently live in Nitzan, just north of Ashkelon.
The statistics show that before the expulsion, 1.2% of the residents suffered from high blood pressure, while now the number is close to 2.1%. Heart problems victimized 0.9% of the population before, and now — 1.7%.
Diabetes is also on the rise, from 1.3% to 1.8%, as are asthma attacks, from 1.25% to 1.7%. Even malignant growths have risen, from 0.6% to nearly 1.1%.
“I see a high rate of psychosomatic disease,” Dr. Alon Karni, a doctor in Nitzan, told Nava Stoler of HaTzofeh, “which is no less serious than other sicknesses.” He said that his clinic has hired a social worker, and that some patients have not taken the medicines he prescribed “because they don’t have enough money.”
Though nearly a year and a half has passed since the expulsion, no more than 50 families have a signed agreement with the government regarding permanent homes. Though some families have received part or all of their compensation money, many have received either nothing or just the first payment of 50,000 shekels – money which is eaten up on day-to-day expenses, including rent. Half of the expellees, many of whom were farmers, have not found work.