Palestine Human Rights Campaign Waikato (PHRCW) would like to thank local businesses and the community for the support given to our December charity dinner for medical aid to Palestinian children. Over $2000 was raised for PCRF (Palestine Children’s Relief Fund) to continue the work led by renowned New Zealand paediatric cardiac surgeon Dr Alan Kerr.
PHRCW also wishes to thank the speaker-panel who shared their eye-witness accounts of the life endured by Palestinian families under Israeli military occupation. Dr Kerr spoke of the devastation in Gaza Palestine which forced PCRF to move its hospital to West Bank, Palestine. Dr Asad Khan emphasised the effects of the strangle-hold of 600 ‘checkpoints’ and roadblocks set up by the Israeli military. (Consequently, what should be a 10-minute ambulance trip becomes a two-hour ordeal for Palestinians.) Sister Barbara Cameron’s testimony was particularly prescient, considering the recent NZ sponsored UN Resolution condemning Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Sr. Barbara stayed with a family in the Palestine village of Huwara. She related the fear and terror experienced when, on her first night, a mob of Jewish settlers rampaged through the village attacking homes and breaking windows with the intention of torching the local school and place of worship.
PHRCW invites members of the public who wish to assist PCRF’s NZ medical team to continue their life-saving work for children in these grim conditions, to email PHRCwaikato@gmail.com.
Kate Hayward, Secretary PHCRW
