Criminal proceedings lodged after Palestinian dies in ambulance denied permission to cross checkpoint

Date: 17 / 08 / 2007 Time: 16:20

Bethlehem - Ma'an –

Unprecedented criminal proceedings have been lodged against an Israeli Civil Administration health coordinator in the case of an 18-year-old Palestinian boy who died at an Israeli checkpoint after the ambulance he was in was denied permission to cross into Israel, an Israeli newspaper has reported.

Radi Al Wahash was being taken to hospital from Bethlehem to Jerusalem on June 29 after being critically injured in a road accident. The ambulance carrying him was denied permission to cross into Israel and he died of his injuries.

Ha'aretz reported that a criminal complaint was lodged with the Tel Aviv police on Wednesday by the group Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) against the Civil Administration's health coordinator, Dalia Basa. They are accusing Basa of negligent homicide.

The case is the first time criminal proceedings have been lodged although many Palestinians have died after not being allowed through checkpoints into Israel from the West Bank to gain access to medical treatment.

According to a report by the PHR, Basa told the Red Crescent that although Alwahash could only receive the life-saving treatment he needed in a Jerusalem hospital he was prevented from entering Israel for "security reasons."

Neither the Israeli Defence Ministry nor the Civil Administration have given any information as to why Al Wahash posed a security risk, Ha'aretz reported.

Ha'aretz quoted a statement from the Civil Administration in which they said they were "unaware at this time of an official complaint against the health coordinator, Dalia Basa. The Civil Administration is aware of the tendentious claims against Basa by the Physicians for Human Rights, both in this and in other cases, and rejects them. The circumstances of the case have been checked following the organization's inquiry of the Civil Administration, and Basa's actions were found to be blameless."

A member of the Israeli Knesset is holding Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak personally responsible for Radi's death and expects him to take steps to ensure such "crimes" are not repeated.

Ha'aretz reported that Said Nafa, from the Israeli Balad party, sent a letter to Barak in which he stated: "The responsibility for this killing lies solely on your shoulders, as head of the establishment... what happened is not only a criminal crime. It is a crime against humanity."

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