Shatha Odeh is a member of the Global Steering Council of the PHM and we condemn her arrest in strongest terms. She is also the director of the Health Work Committees (HWC), one of the most prominent Palestinian non-profit health care providers. The HWC itself has been facing unjustified attacks by the Israeli occupying forces (IOF). Last month its office was raided and forced to shut down for six months. The actions of IOF against a health organisation come in the middle of a raging COVID-19 pandemic, which is most unfortunate.
PHM calls for Shatha’s immediate release and safeguard the important work of the HWC. We urge international organisations and foreign governments, who are genuinely concerned about the fate and health of the Palestinian people, to join us in our condemnation of the increasing criminalisation and delegitimisation of humanitarian and civil society organisations.
Read our full statement here. English Arabic Spanish French Korean
Relevant articles, statements and appeals:
- PHM petition urging the World Health Organisation to intervene immediately
- The Left in the European Parliament appeals on Twitter to support PHM petition urging the World Health Organization to intervene
-
Palestine global mental health network condemns the detainment of Shatha Odeh
- Ongoing harassments against Health Work Committee, statement by Frontline Defenders
- Appeal for Palestinian health worker’s immediate release, statement by the Philippine’s Civil Society Organisations
-
Les attaques israéliennes contre la société civile palestinienne doivent cesser
- Free Shatha Odeh, an online sign-on petition demanding her release
- Appeal by Shatha Odeh’s family to Michelle Bachelet Jeria, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, July 9, 2021
- Israel detains Shatha Odeh of the Palestinian Health Work Committees, People’s Dispatch, July 8, 2021
- Israel’s arrest of Shtha Odeh is an attack on the right to health of Palestinians, International Association of Health Policy, July 8, 2021
- Director of leading health organization among ten Palestinians detained from West Bank, WAFA News Agency, July 7, 2021
- Shatha Odeh in a discussion on “Against Privatisation and Commercialisation of Health“, May 28, 2021