Fighting Israeli Bureaucracy to Help Its Victims

By Jerry Levin

In May, 1988, two US-based relief organizations, Mercy Corps International and Roots Relief Fund, began a joint effort to raise $58,000 to buy a fully equipped US ambulance to help overcome the shortage of such vehicles in the occupied territories.

A 21-Month Journey

Its 21-month journey to Al AM Arab Hospital in Gaza is just one of many stories of Israeli bureaucratic obstacles raised against attempts by Palestinians and their supporters to build an effective ambulance service in the occupied territories. For example:

In the early 1980s, Israel would not allow Makassad Islamic Charitable Hospital in East Jerusalem to import a donated ambulance because it did not conform precisely to Israeli technical standards, despite the fact that it would have been acceptable anywhere else in the world. After standing idle for four years in an Israeli port, it was sold to a garage which broke it up and sold it off part by part.

In 1983, the Anglican church in East Jerusalem tried to import an ambulance given by the West German government. A Jerusalem Diocesan aide complained that, "we could never get it out of the Port of Ashdod. With the Israeli government you will never be able to satisfy all the regulations."

Those failed attempts indicated clearly to Mercy Corps and Roots the necessity of having an experienced on-the-scene expediter, and the need to ferret out and compile all regulations and technical specifications concerning the importation of ambulances before it was even purchased, and then to make sure that they were complied with as meticulously as possible.

Constantine Dabbagh, Executive Director of The Medical Services Program of the Near East Council of Churches Committee For Refugee Work, Gaza (NECCCRW), became local point man for the project. Although he started with the expectation that the job would be accomplished early in the spring of 1989, it took him until early 1990 to cut through the red tape.

After the first three months of countless phone calls and meetings with occupation officials in Gaza trying to arrange a duty-free charitable exemption, Dabbagh could report no progress, despite the fact that local authorities said—but never in writing—that they did not oppose the idea.

So Ellsworth Culver, Mercy Corps' president, and friends of the project, began briefing key US legislators on Capitol Hill. With congressional help, attempts were made to arrange a meeting at the Israeli Embassy, but the Israelis were not hospitable to the idea.

Culver decided to complain publicly. He bought a quarter-page ad in The Washington Post to appear on April 7th, 1989, the day of Prime Minister Shamir's White House meeting with George Bush. Written as an "Open Letter to the President," it said in part: Even though we have consulted with all the necessary United States and Israeli authorities, and waited several months for processing, we have yet to receive approval from the Israeli authorities to ship the ambulance to Gaza ... Mr. President, we respectfully appeal to you to intervene on our behalf with Prime Minister Shamir of Israel to facilitate the delivery and service of this ambulance."

There was no response from the White House and no progress in Gaza. On May 15th, an Israeli Transport Department functionary told Dabbagh that the kind of ambulance he was trying to bring in-a Ford could not be imported by anyone in Israel. At that moment five Ford ambulances were operating in the West Bank, and one in East Jerusalem. Four more Fords were on West Bank roads by the end of the year. A week later the objection was withdrawn. But there was still no action on the request for the duty free charitable exemption.

Going the Extra Mile

Back in the United States, on July 26th, Ellsworth Culver received a letter from Israel's ambassador in Washington in response to Culver's four-month-old open letter to President Bush. In his reply, Ambassador Moshe Arad asserted that "Israeli authorities feel that they have gone the extra mile to facilitate things for Mercy Corps. They have provided all the necessary clearances and tax exemptions for the ambulance."

In fact, neither Culver nor Dabbagh had received one piece of encouraging correspondence or enabling documentation. Finally, in mid-October, verbal assurances followed by documentation were provided, and the ambulance was shipped.

An Expensive Destination

When it reached the port of Ashdod, a few kilometers north of its Gaza destination, a shocked Constantine Dabbagh was handed a bill for $23,228 for a variety of charges that he had never encountered in "20 years" of "purchasing cars and equipment." Value Added Tax (VAT) alone was $4,778.00, even though the duty-free exemption was supposed to have eliminated the necessity of paying it. The remaining $14,450 was for a "bank guarantee" which amounted to 25 percent of the value of the ambulance. Dabbagh was assured, but not in writing, that the bank guarantee and the VAT would be returned when the ambulance was licensed. But that would not happen, he was told, unless the ambulance complied with all required technical specifications.

"With the Israeli government you will never be able to satisfy all the regulations."

Leaping that hurdle was difficult. Transport Ministry inspections turned up-one after another-a series of nagging defects that had to be corrected one at a time. First the "American style" headlights had to be replaced with "European style" headlights. Then it was determined that there were not enough reflectors. After that it was discovered that the ambulance's documents did not state the engine volume correctly.

Then, as 1989 was ending, a mid-level Transport Ministry employee ordered Dabbagh to produce a set of precise dimensions even though they had been provided, months earlier along with all other required documentation. On January 14th, Dabbagh reported that the official, after viewing the drawings, not only had not given his OK but had instead made a vague request for more documentation. Not sure exactly what the man wanted, Dabbagh submitted copies of everything in his files and hoped for the best.

Finally, on January 31, 1990, 21 months after the campaign to donate the ambulance began, it was licensed and turned over to Ahli Hospital. In late February the VAT was returned and return of the bank guarantee was reported as imminent.

Reviewing the long bureaucratic ordeal, Mercy Corps' Ellsworth Culver said "Maybe the Israelis think that this will discourage organizations like ours from getting involved. Well, the experience hasn't discouraged us. Instead it has made us determined to do more. The need is great."

Jerry Levin, former CNN bureau chief in Beirut, was kidnapped in Lebanon on March 7, 1984, and held hostage in solitary confinement until February 1985.