The impact of this involuntary mass "return" to Jordan in the wake of the Gulf crisis

"This article investigates the impact of the involuntary movement to Jordan of about 300,000 Palestinians in the wake of the Gulf crisis of 1990-91. It explores the character of the population that arrived en masse in Jordan and whether their arrival burdened or benefitted that country.... The involuntary migration compounded other effects of the Gulf crisis on Jordan and exacerbated the country's already serious economic problems. Integration of the returnees was painful. But contrary to initial expectations, the mass arrival did not result in unmitigated disaster and may have contributed to an economic recovery in Jordan, suggesting that there may be potentially beneficial windfall effects of sudden population influxes, even when they are involuntary and disorderly."

Fertility of Palestinian women between national perspective and social reality

"This paper investigates the social content of fertility patterns in four Palestinian conglomerations, viz., the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Galilee and Jerusalem, on the basis of an analysis of fertility data derived from official sources and field work conducted by Palestinian demographers. It seeks to identify meaningful relationships between these data and variables related to the household's place of residence, social class, and vocational and educational background. The paper also reviews the demographic history of Arab citizens in the occupied territories since 1948 to determine the effect on fertility trends.... The paper finally touches on the impact of the Palestinian intifada...."

Profiles of refugee and non-refugee Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza

Relying on demographic and labor surveys which the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics collected in 1995, this article investigates the profile of West Bank and Gaza refugees. Refugees are better educated and have higher fertility than non-refugee Palestinians, but the difference is small. However, they have a significantly lower participation rate, a higher unemployment rate and a higher incidence of arrests and work stoppage than the corresponding rates among non-refugee Palestinians. A smaller proportion of Palestinians commute to work into the Israeli labor market and refugees earn lower wages than nonrefugees. Returns to investment in education are small for both groups. High fertility among refugees imposes a future challenge for policy makers in terms of resources required for the provision of appropriate education and health facilities. Employing future labor market entrants is another serious policy challenge.

Infant and child mortality rates among Palestinian refugee populations

We estimated infant and early child mortality rates among Palestinian refugees using maternal and child services in Jordan, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. Early childhood mortality per 1000 live births was 35 in Jordan, 36 in Gaza, 37 in Lebanon, and 32 in Syria. Infant mortality rates were 32 in Jordan, 33 in Gaza, 35 in Lebanon, and 29 in Syria.

Operational problems of an iron supplementation programme for pregnant women: an assessment of UNRWA experience

Assessed is a large-scale iron supplementation programme for the 70 000 pregnant refugee women cared for by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). For this purpose, a retrospective survey of 1267 antenatal records was conducted in health centres located in the West Bank, Gaza, Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan, and Lebanon. The following operational problems were identified: late entry to antenatal care; high drop-out rate from antenatal care; low compliance in follow-up haemoglobin examinations; and misdirected continued testing of women who were not anaemic at registration. Routine iron supplementation of all pregnant women should be considered only in those countries where severe anaemia is prevalent and should always be coupled with additional interventions that are effective at improving iron deficiency anaemia in a given population. In most countries attention should be directed towards changing dietary habits to enhance the availability of local foodstuffs that are rich in iron. One initial haemoglobin test may help in focusing on the relatively few initially anaemic subjects who need further attention. Repeated testing during pregnancy is unwarranted.

Patterns of infant mortality from Armenian parish records: a study from 10 countries of the diaspora, 1737-1982

Using parish records from 10 different countries with small Armenian communities, this study compared patterns of infant mortality in these countries over a period of 245 years. Deaths registered as aged < or = 1 year were used to estimate the numerator for the infant mortality rates (IMR) while the denominator was estimated from births in the same year based on baptisms in the appropriate registers. To check on the validity of using the baptisms as the denominator for the IMR, records of infant deaths were linked with the baptismal records. Thus, from a sample of 273 infant deaths 78.4% had a baptismal record in the registers of the same church in which the death was recorded. Of the deaths 60% had a recorded cause of death. Over the past 245 years, IMR have fallen substantially in all parishes. However, there were notable exceptions to this general pattern of declining IMR over time. For example, the IMR was tripled in Palestine during the decade of the First World War, possibly as a result of the influx of refugees deported from Turkey. A study of the seasonal occurrence of the deaths revealed peaking of deaths between May and August, a pattern influenced by the relative importance of gastroenteritis as a cause of death during the summer months in Egypt where the majority of these infant deaths were recorded. A review of the most important causes of death helped identify an outbreak of undetermined cause in Belgrade in 1737 and an outbreak of dysentery deaths in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1909.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Palestinian labour mobility

"Following an overview of demographic and migratory trends since the late 1960s, the article examines labour force participation and analyses the distribution of Palestinian workers between the three labour markets in which they participate: the domestic market of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Israeli market and the Arab market, consisting chiefly of Jordan and the oil-rich Arab states. Since 1982 there has been a contraction of employment opportunities for Palestinians in the latter two labour markets. Domestic job creation is one of the main tasks confronting the Palestinian administration to be set up under the 1993 Israel/PLO agreement."

Planned emigration: the Palestinian case

"This article examines the UN policies encouraging emigration from the Palestinian refugee camps through educating Palestinians and sending them for work abroad. Data show that emigration is more related to certain types of employment, especially skilled labor and white-collar jobs, than to employment per se. The data were collected, through personal interviews, from Dair El Balah refugee camp in Gaza Strip in 1986. There are 291 observations representing individuals who are 19 years old or over. A major conclusion of this study is that the educational policies initiated and operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) contributed to the dispersion of about one third of the refugees in the 1960s and the 1970s."

Transfer of population as a solution to international disputes: population exchanges between Greece and Turkey as a model for plans to solve the Jewish-Arab dispute in Palestine during the 1930s

The author explores the reasons for the failure of a plan for population exchanges that took place between Jews and Arabs in Palestine in the 1930s. Special focus is given to the success of previous exchanges between Greece and Turkey that took place during the 1920s and why this model failed in Palestine. The author concludes that "the Zionist plans which assumed that one could encourage voluntary transfer by creating attractive economic conditions in the target areas, did not take into account the factors of nationalism, ties to place of residence, religion, etc. These factors carried no less weight than the economic factor and they could effectively prevent any voluntary transfer of the Arab population."

The Arab uprising and Jewish migration patterns in Judea, Samaria and Gaza

"The current study analyzes Jewish migration patterns in Judea, Samaria and Gaza in relation to issues identified by previous studies to be related to migration in general and to Jewish migration specifically, namely, economic, physical security and ideological-religious factors." The focus is on the impact of the Arab uprising, or intifada, that has occurred since 1987. The author concludes that economic factors tending to encourage Jews to leave the occupied territories are balanced by political factors influencing Jews to move to those areas. (SUMMARY IN FRE)

The condition of health services in the Gaza Strip

The Association of Israeli and Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights was established during the first months of the uprising, against the background of a severe situation in which people were killed and wounded daily. AIPPHR works for the protection of human dignity and human life; defending physicians and patients in a state of political conflict out of loyalty to the principles of universal morality which constitute an inseparable part of the medical profession. This report, which is the result of months of research and investigation, is aimed, among other purposes, at bringing reliable information to the knowledge of the medical community in Israel and the Israeli Medical Association (IMA)--the body which organizes them. The silence of the medical community in the face of the phenomena described above is foreign to the spirit of doctors and medicine. The association's activity is aimed at creating a change in this situation out of the belief that the silence on the part of a large section of the medical community in Israel stems from a lack of regular and reliable information. In order to describe the situation of the medical services in the Gaza Strip, one must note two contrasting trends: on one hand, there is advancement in the population's health conditions, which is expressed by a decline in the infant mortality rate (from 86/1000 in 1970 to 28.1/1000 in 1988); a decline in the number of cases of whooping cough among children (30.1 in 1970 in contrast to 0 in 1988); and a decline in the number of cases of polio (14.3 in 1970 in contrast to 1 in 1980). On the other hand, the tendency of stagnation must be noted, especially in the development of independent local health services. Medicine in the Gaza Strip has been during the entire period of the occupation, and remains, completely dependent on Israeli medicine. Modern equipment and modern medical technology have been at the service of the residents of the Gaza Strip in Israeli hospitals, but they were not given the chance to develop high-standard medicine in their own hospitals. The Gaza Strip population has no representation at the decision-making level on issues of budget, development and distribution of resources--which are completely in the hands of the Civil Administration and the Israeli authorities. During the uprising there was a steep rise in medical needs. Residents in need of medical services are completely dependent on the decisions of the military government and the state leadership and the giving of these services is tied to political, not medical/professional policy. Since the beginning of the uprising in the Occupied Territories, a new tendency has appeared; the use of medicine as an additional means of repression against the population. This means that medicine has been removed from the status of a basic human right and recruited as a means of punishment. This is a phenomenon which no physician or person of conscience can accept.

Expectations, information, and migration: the case of the West Bank and Gaza

"This study evaluates the determinants of Palestinian migration from the West Bank and Gaza. Data are employed for the post-1967 period of Israeli rule to specify and test competing models as well as the strucure of expectations in the migration decision. Results of the analysis support a simple static expectation formulation, as is consistent with much of the short-term, low mobility cost migration between the West Bank and Jordan. Findings further point to the importance of various Israeli-Palestinian economic and political economic interactions in the determination of this controversial movement of population, including those associated with employment opportunity for Palestinian labour in Israel, elements of Israeli West Bank settlement policy and changes in local standard of living. Various policy implications of the research are indicated."

Malaria, agriculture, and development: lessons from past campaigns

The author presents in this article a historical-epidemiological evaluation of several anti-malaria campaigns and of the relative contribution of various direct measures employed and indirect factors operating during these campaigns. Approaches and factors that may be essential or at least useful for successful malaria control are identified. The malaria story in Palestine/Israel and the experience of the Tennessee Valley Authority are analyzed in some detail. In both cases, direct anti-malaria measures were versatile and based mostly on reduction of mosquito breeding and elimination of Anopheles larvae. Efficient organization and coordination of anti-malaria efforts, strenuous research and understanding of the vector biology, and accompanying socioeconomic and agricultural development contributed to successful campaigns. Malaria control in other parts of the United States and in Italy is also considered. The World Health Organization global anti-malaria campaign is discussed in the light of these earlier experiences. The study concludes that no single measure is sufficient to control malaria and that future anti-malaria campaigns need to adopt strategies that are flexible, incorporated into local health services, and interrelated with agricultural practices. Moreover, a certain threshold of socioeconomic development, health services infrastructure, and educational level may have to be reached for the successful application and maintenance of direct anti-malaria measures.

Breastfeeding effects on birth interval components: a prospective child health study in Gaza

Data that were collected prospectively from a child health study conducted in Gaza show a strong relationship between breastfeeding and two major components of birth intervals, the postpartum anovulatory period and the waiting time to conception. The Gaza population is similar to other populations in the Middle East in having moderate durations of breastfeeding and short intervals between births. The finding of a strong positive association between breastfeeding and the length of postpartum amenorrhea is as expected from numerous other studies. The relationship between breastfeeding behavior and the waiting time to conception is examined using hazard model analysis. Women who are breastfeeding when menstruation resumes and continue to do so are less likely to conceive than other women, according to the analysis.

Evaluation of the impact of oral rehydration therapy on the outcome of diarrheal disease in a large community

Diarrheal diseases are a serious public health problem in the Gaza Strip, being the most important cause of hospitalization in infants and responsible for about half of postneonatal deaths, Oral rehydration therapy using oral rehydration solution (ORS), a formula recommended by WHO, has been proven effective in the treatment of dehydration in acute childhood diarrhea. The availability of a well-organized health service in Gaza provided an excellent opportunity to institute a large-scale project to evaluate the effectiveness of early ORS therapy in reducing diarrhea-related hospital admissions, mortality and malnutrition. A 3-year program was started in 1979, encompassing all community health centers and including intensive community education in the use of ORS. Compared with the prestudy year 1977, diarrhea-related hospital admissions were reduced by 35.3% in 1980 and 42.0% in 1981; hospital deaths from diarrheal diseases were reduced 34.4 and 37.4% in 1980 and 1981, respectively. Total deaths in the 0- to 3-year age-group were reduced by 28.7% in 1980 and by 41.7% in 1981. Diarrheal mortality was reduced by 35.6% in 1980 and 53.2% in 1981. This study succeeded in establishing active community and family participation.