Many medical and health care jobs involve high levels of stress. But the pressures and stresses of UK hospitals pale in comparison to the working conditions faced by medics in Palestine.

Olive Cooperative are offering a unique tour of Palestine and Israel focusing on medicine and healthcare. While designed with medics in mind, the tour is open to anyone with an interest in health care in the region, and anyone looking for a general introduction to the situation. The tour will be guided by a UK medical student with extensive experience as a long term volunteer in the West Bank. Visitinga broad range of medical settings and meeting with medical professionals in Palestine and Israel, this tour aims to offer an understanding of the challenges facing medics.

The tour will visit emergency services who face Israeli army searches and gunfire in the 'normal' course of their work; and meet the organisations planning long term health care provision in this unstable situation. Tour participants will also meet with medical students who have to cross military checkpoints to get from their lectures to the teaching clinic.

The tour will offer an insight into access to medical care in the West Bank, visiting a clinic in Hebron fenced in by settlers. Participants will meet key Israeli groups working for better access to health care in the West Bank. The group will also visit an unrecognised village in Israel, denied access to healthcare, electricity or even sufficient clean water.

And in the light of the discussion in the BMJ of a proposed boycott of the Israeli Medical Association, the tour will ask what medics could, or should, do to change the current situation.

For more details, please contact Xen on xenATolivecoop.com or call the Olive Cooperative office on 0161 273 1970

Itinerary

Wednesday, 11th June

Transfer to hotel in Jerusalem to meet with tour guide for orientation session. Overnight in hotel in Jerusalem.

Thursday, 12th June

Travel to Hebron for tour of the Old City, and hear how the presence of settlers and soldiers in Hebron affects the lives of the Palestinian residents. Visit a clinic in Tel Rumeida area suburb, where West Bank Palestinian residents come under direct Israeli control, living next to extremist settlers. Visit the Ibraimi Mosque and Tomb of the Patriarchs, a mosque and a synagogue sharing the same building, a building with great significance to both faiths, and soldiers and checkpoints separate the two sides of the building.

Overnight with in hotel or with Palestinian families in Bethlehem.

Friday, 13th June

Tour with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions – ICAHD tours take you to the “Security” Wall, point out roads and tunnels that connect to Jewish settlements while isolating Palestinian neighborhoods, and stop at sites where Palestinian homes have been demolished. Additionally, they provide you with a wide range of information about social, cultural and historical issues that will help to link together the sites you see and your previous knowledge about the region into a coherent perspective on the conflict. www.icahd.org

Afternoon free time in Jerusalem.

Overnight with in hotel or with Palestinian families in Bethlehem.

Saturday, 14th June

Travel to Ramallah

Morning meeting with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) a grassroots; community- based Palestinian health organization, founded by a group of Palestinian doctors and health professionals seeking to supplement the decayed and inadequate health infrastructure caused by years of Israeli military occupation. It is non-profit, voluntary, and one of the largest health NGOs in Palestine. PMRS's national health programs emphasize prevention, education, community participation, and the empowerment of people. www.pmrs.ps.

This might be a joint meeting with the Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute (HDIP), an independent non-profit Palestinian organization. HDIP is devoted to policy research and planning regarding the Palestinian health care and development system in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. www.idealist.org/en/org/4473-323.

Afternoon meeting with Red Crescent, who provide a range of humanitarian services, particularly health care and social services, both in the homeland and the diaspora.

Overnight in hotel in Ramallah.

Sunday, 15th June

Travel to Nablus.

Visit AnNajah University and Medical School; Rafedia Hospital; UN health clinic in Balata refugee camp; Meeting with the mothers organising the new Mother's Schools teaching first aid and literacy and numeracy skills in the refugee camps, and/or meeting with Project Hope, an NGO providing grassroots educational spaces for children in the refugee camps and old city of Nablus. www.najah.edu and www.projecthope.ps and http://nablusguide.com

Overnight in AlYasmeen hotel in Nablus.

Monday, 16th June

Travel to Tel Aviv

Meeting with Physicians For Human Rights-Israel - struggling for human rights, in particular the right to health, in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Human dignity, wellness of mind and body and the right to health are at the core of the world view of the organization, whose activities integrate advocacy and action toward changing harmful policies and direct action providing healthcare. www.phr.org.il/phr/

Overnight in Jerusalem

Tuesday, 17th June

Tour with Bustan to the unrecognized village of Wadi el Na'am. Unrecognised villages are denied health services, electricity, sewage, access roads, welfare, educational facilities, or adequate provision of water. Wadi el Na'am, also referred to as "Village #32”, is adjacent to Ramat Hovav, a hazardous waste dump site. Villagers live under high-voltage electric pylons which provide electricity throughout the northern Nege, but there is no electricity in Wadi El Na'am. Bustan, a partnership of Jewish and Arab eco-builders, architects, academics, and farmers promoting social and environmental justice in Israel/Palestine, built the Medwed medical clinic, a pioneering project merging traditional, indigenous Bedouin building techniques with modern, alternative, sustainable approaches. www.bustan.org/wadielnaam/

Overnight in Jerusalem

Wednesday, 18th June

Travel to the airport and depart.