In this Lancet opinion piece, Ruchama Marton, president and founder of Physicians for Human Rights – Israel writes, “Everything one can say about the health-care system in Palestine was summed up by the physician and political leader Haidar Abdel-Shafi … in September, 1993. He said: ‘We cannot take care of health and education as long as we live under occupation.'”

She writes, “Now, as the Palestinian Authority waits to hear whether the U.N. Security Council will back its bid for full membership, the situation is much the same. Israel has used health and medicine as an instrument of control and oppression of the Palestinian people and leadership in the occupied Palestinian territory,” adding, “There is no way that a future Palestinian state … can handle the health-care system (or any other socioeconomic system) if the Israeli occupation and control continues” (10/15).