|
|
||
The Tel Aviv-based Association of Physicians for Human Rights has won this year's Alternative Nobel Prize (Right Livelihood). It will be awarded in a ceremony to be held in the Swedish Parliament building on December 6 this year - four days before the official Nobel Prize awarding ceremony. The prize committee noted especially the association's sending out mobile clinics to Palestinian villages under occupation which suffer from lack of adequate medical services. Gush Shalom, which itself got the award in 2001, sent heartfelt greetings to the physicians, with whom we are in contact since the association was established through the initiative of Dr. Ruhama Marton. On many occasions the dedicated activists succeeded in preventing serious abuses of Human Rights, including the saving of lives in cases where the occupation bureaucracy blocked Palestinians patients from getting essential treatment - especially as part of the siege imposed on Gaza. Physicians for Human Rights also undertook to provide basic medical services for migrant workers in southern Tel Aviv, who suffered a severe lack of access to such services by regular channels. It is hard to think of people and an organization who are more deserving of an award and of international honor and appreciation. Together with the Israeli association, this year's winners of the alternative Nobel Prize will include a Nigerian environmental activist, the founder of an NGO in Nepal which provides essential services to the poor, and a Brazilian bishop known for defending the rights of the indigenous people. Dr. Ruhama Marton, Honorary President of Physicians for Human Rights, is a cousin of Professor Ada Yonath who won the official Nobel Prize last year. Contact: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom Spokesperson 054-2340749 |
|
|
|
|
