Barred from entry on ‘public security’ grounds, I had a moment to reflect on how far the country has fallen
E
arlier this week, I was denied entry into Israel while on a humanitarian parliamentary delegation organised by the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU). The NGO is one of the most active and respected bodies working on the Middle East in the British parliament. It promotes conflict resolution, human rights and civil society.
The purpose of my visit, alongside my parliamentary colleague Simon Opher, a doctor like me, was to begin to understand the state of healthcare for Palestinians in the West Bank. Unfortunately, we never set foot in Israel, let alone visited any hospitals in the occupied territories.
Instead, all I was permitted to see was the no man’s land of the Sheikh Hussein border crossing, the Jordan river reduced to a trickle. As I waited while the border officials made up their minds about me, I finished off the one thing I’d brought with me to eat – a small bag of KP nuts – and reflected on how low Israel has been brought by its current government and how much it has changed, almost beyond recognition.
