Danon blasts Palestinian medics who didn’t help Israeli father and son

Likud MK to International Red Cross: Investigate repeat-offender Red Crescent.

By DANIELLE ZIRI, LAHAV HARKOV
Updated: NOVEMBER 18, 2015 01:13
HUNDREDS OF MOURNERS attend the funeral last night in Jerusalem of Ya’akov Litman, 40, and his son, Netanel, 18 (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
HUNDREDS OF MOURNERS attend the funeral last night in Jerusalem of Ya’akov Litman, 40, and his son, Netanel, 18
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to publicly condemn the refusal of Palestinian Red Crescent medics to treat members of the Litman family who were attacked by Palestinians on Friday.
Rabbi Ya’akov Litman and his 18-year-old son Netanel were both shot to death outside Otniel, near Hebron. Litman’s wife, Noa, three daughters and younger son were wounded by shrapnel and the resulting crash. They were on the way to a celebration for their fourth daughter’s upcoming wedding.
According to Noa, an ambulance from the Palestinian Red Crescent was on the scene before Magen David Adom arrived, but left without assisting them.
The Red Crescent denied the claims in a message on its website.
“When medical personnel fail to provide assistance to victims of terrorism, they are not only violating their code of ethics, they are ultimately, assisting the terrorists to carry out their murderous campaign,” Danon said. “By leaving the scene without assisting the Litman family, the ambulance staff disregarded the most basic obligations of all medical personnel and of basic human decency.”
Danon also noted that the “abhorrent conduct by the Palestinian Red Crescent crew is in contradiction to the core purposes and the principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.”
These principles, he said, mandate that “all medical personnel act to bring assistance without discrimination to the wounded and to prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found.”
Also Monday, MK Nava Boker (Likud) wrote a letter to the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation to Israel Jacques De Maio, asking that he open an investigation of the Palestinian Red Crescent.
After recounting the story of the Litmans’ murder, Boker wrote that “perhaps if the Red Crescent ambulance would have provided the necessary first aid treatment to the casualties of this cruel terrorist attack, they would have increased the chance, even if slightly, of rescuing them.”
“An incident such as this goes against all medical ethics and international treaties and obligations regarding medical treatment,” she pointed out.
Boker added that this is not the first time the Palestinian Red Crescent displayed such behavior.
“There are repeated complaints from citizens who live in the Judea and Samaria area about the dismissive attitude of the Red Crescent,” Boker wrote. “They have refused treatment to Jews who were injured in other events. This is unacceptable.”
Boker asked that De Maio form an investigative committee to examine Palestinian Red Crescent, or as she called it “Red Crescent in Judea and Samaria,” in general and on Friday, and that he update her about any developments.