Arbitration for hunger strikers

Press, 28 June 1983, Page 11

Arbitration for hunger strikers

NZPA Jerusalem The Israeli Cabinet yesterday voted to submit to arbitration a 13-day hunger strike by Israeli doctors that has driven some Israeli patients to Palestinian West Bank hospitals for treatment. An arbitration commission, to be jointly formed by the Government’s judicial counsellor and the National Association of Physicians, will rule on the question of salaries and working conditions, irrespective of previous negotiations, said a Cabinet spokesman. The strike has pitted doctors in Israeli hospitals and institutions against the Ministers of Health and Finance. Observers said that the procedure chosen by the Cabinet after more than five hours of deliberation had corresponded to the demands of the striking doctors, while the Finance Minister, Mr Yoram Aridor, had called for arbitration ten the

entire conflict, including areas already won by the doctors. West Bank hospitals in Tulkarem and Nablus have now started treating patients transferred from northern Israel facilities, and Palestinian doctors in the occupied Gaza Strip also said that they would treat Israeli patients. Hospitals in Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Rehobot and Kfar Saba were reported closed to the public yesterday, while other main hospitals in Israel were accepting emergency cases only. Several fasting doctors were reportedly placed under medical surveillance. Strike leaders said that they will call off the fast only after the doctors approve a document on the terms of arbitration to be presented at a meeting today. The doctors’ legal advisers were to meet the Attorney General to draft the document. ‘jr