Not formally affiliated with the U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights, PHRI is supported by more than 3,500 members and volunteer medical professionals who, via the organization's open and mobile clinics, provide free medical care to some 20,000 people annually. Most of the beneficiaries are migrants, refugees, and Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza.
1) The Occupied Palestinian Territory Department seeks to take “action against road blocks set inside [of that] territory, [against] the separation barrier, and [against] other restrictive measures which place physical and bureaucratic barriers between individuals and access to medical care.” By PHRI's telling, “the State of Israel has no authority to erect checkpoints or roadblocks … within the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” because such restrictions on the movement of Palestinians constitute a form of “collective punishment” rather than legitimate and necessary security measures.
In 2009, PHRI furnished the authors of the famous Goldstone Report — which accused Israel of having committed war crimes during Operation Cast Lead, a defensive military operation targeting Hamas and its affiliated terrorists in Gaza in 2008-09 — with a number unfounded allegations against the Jewish state.
In April 2009, PHRI published its own report on Israeli “violations of human rights in the Gaza Strip,” asserting that Israel's underlying objective “appears to be one of creating terror without mercy to anyone.” According to NGO Monitor, this “one-sided” report accused Israel, without evidence, of “specifically target[ing]” hospitals, mobile clinics, and ambulances; denying “wounded people access to lifesaving medical care”; using powerful “unconventional weapons” against civilians; and launching attacks against Islamic places of worship.
In October 2011, PHRI co-published a report titled “Doctoring the Evidence, Abandoning the Victim,” which, on the basis of numerous unverifiable allegations, accused Israeli doctors and institutions of involvement in the “torture and ill-treatment” of Palestinians.
In January 2015, PHRI released a report alleging that Israel had violated human rights and international legal norms during Operation Protective Edge, the Jewish state's 2014 military response to a massive barrage of Hamas rocket attacks originating in Gaza. Notably, the report made no mention of the fact that Hamas routinely: (a) used Palestinian civilians as human shields; (b) used ambulances to transport combatants and weapons; and (c) used hospitals, schools, mosques, and private homes as launching pads for attacks, as storehouses for munitions, and as shelters for armed warriors.
Over the years, PHRI has received funding from Christian Aid, the European Union, the Ford Foundation, and the New Israel Fund.
For additional information on PHRI, click here.