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In the Palestinian Gaza Strip, the lives of women with cancer depend on a role, an authorization from the Government of Israel so that they can leave this enclave blocked since 2007 and receive treatment in hospitals in the West Bank or East Jerusalem. 40% of applications are rejected for no reason. At Escala en París we spoke with the Spanish journalist Beatriz Lecumberri, co-author of the documentary ‘Condenadas en Gaza’, which tells the story of five Gazans sick with cancer.
The journalist for the AFP news agency has been a correspondent and special envoy in various parts of the world such as Brazil, Venezuela, Lebanon, Iraq or Israel, from where she has also collaborated for Radio France International. From his time in Jerusalem, this project came out: telling the ordeal suffered by women in Gaza in order to access chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
A project carried out with another Spanish journalist, Ana Alba, a journalist for the newspaper El Periódico, also a correspondent in Jerusalem and who could not see the work finished because of the terrible circumstance that she died of cancer at 48 years of age in 2020. A She, Beatriz Lecumberri dedicates this powerful work to her in which, without a voiceover, the viewer follows the journey of some women whose treatment and survival depend on a document.
“We wanted to talk about cancer patients because, unlike other patients, they have to request many permits because the cure depends on the periodicity of the treatment and second, we were very clear that it had to be the history of women because in addition to all the way of obstacles and the drama that men suffer, women have an additional obstacle and that is that since Gaza is such a conservative society, they are marginalized, they can lose their jobs or even be abandoned by their husbands ”, explains Beatriz Lecumberri.
The granting of permits is arbitrary
2 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip. The enclave has been blocked since 2007 by Israel, which considers the ruling party, Hamas, a terrorist group, as do the European Union and the United States. To leave you need the authorization of the Israeli government.
“It is important to understand that these people are simply asking for permission for Israel to open the doors for them and have access through a precarious Palestinian social security to treatment in Palestinian hospitals,” he clarifies.
The granting of these permits is very random. In the documentary there is the example of two sisters, both sick with cancer. Permission is granted to one, but not to the other. “People don’t know why they are being granted the permits or not. In most cases they do not receive any response ”, he emphasizes. “The case of the two sisters is very revealing to show that they really do not know, even the one who can leave feels guilty, the lack of transparency increases the anguish,” he adds.
Radiation therapy, war material for Israel
The treatment does not come for many reasons, but mainly because of the Israeli blockade. “This blockade imposed for 15 years means that many treatments do not enter because it is considered that they can have a double use, a warlike use, is the case of radiotherapy, which is essential for treatments after a breast cancer operation” , says the journalist.
But that is not the only reason. The rivalries between the different Palestinian factions do not help. “There is a lack of communication, a lot of cacophony and therefore sometimes chemotherapy does not come from Ramallah either,” adds Lecumberri.
Disowned for having cancer
Apart from this deprivation of the right to be cared for and receive treatment, there is the stigma that these women experience. Having cancer in Gaza is sometimes synonymous with social rejection, that your husband abandons you or that you even lose your job. “It seemed very important to us to talk about this, not so well known and that did not happen 20 years ago,” explains the author of the documentary.
“This closure favors this type of behavior and social reactions. There is a girl in the documentary whose husband abandoned her because her husband considered her deformed. During the filming of the documentary, we saw how some people stopped her on the street and said: ‘Hey, I see you very well, they told me you were deformed’, it is really like a cross, cancer, especially gynecological, that In the eyes of society, it can make you less of a woman ”, says Beatriz Lecumberri, who also denounces that this fear of rejection is causing many women not to go to the doctor and their diagnosis is delayed.
The documentary ‘Condenadas en Gaza’ has been awarded the Invisible Film Award ‘Film Sozialak’ at the Bilbao International Invisible Film Festival.
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