WEST BANK: ARAB STUDENT START HUNGER STRIKE TO SUPPORT PALESTINIAN SCHOOLGIRLS HIT BY MYSTERY ILLNESS.

Record ID: 341920

  • Title: WEST BANK: ARAB STUDENT START HUNGER STRIKE TO SUPPORT PALESTINIAN SCHOOLGIRLS HIT BY MYSTERY ILLNESS.
  • Date: 7th April 1983
  • Summary: 1. GVs Crowds of Arab students sit and chant, clapping hands (4 shots) 0.27 2. GV Students applaud speaker (2 shots) 0.38 3. GV ZOOM TO SV Anti-Israeli placards 0.46 4. SCU Student Hisam Gabariel, speaks (SOT) 1.05 TRANSCRIPT (SEQUENCE 4): GABARIEL: "The Israeli authorities, they continue to say that the hysteria....not fact, but the things that we are saying to you, go and visit the hospital, and see what is there. It can't be something hysterical as they say." InitialsJS/BB Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 22nd April 1983 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BIR ZEIT, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAJQWNW8WEMQ14WJP7BXQKLMAJ
  • Story Text: BIR ZEIT, WEST BANK

    In Bir Zeit, several hundred students began a hunger strike on April 5 in support of Palestinian schoolgirls, who have been taken to West Bank hospitals suffering from a mystery illness. Since the last week of March, up to 850 girls have complained of strange smells and giddiness, and some Palestinians claim the girls had been deliberately poisoned. One student, Hisam Gabariel, said on April 5 that Israeli statements saying the girls were suffering from self-induced hysteria were unfounded. Israeli doctors who had examined the girls found no evidence to support allegations of mass poisoning, and reported to the Israeli cabinet by that the girls were suffering from a form of mass neurosis, created by sustained tension of life on the West Bank. Health specialists from the United States and the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived in Tel Aviv on April 5 to make independent checks. The previous day, 350 girls were taken hospital, complaining of dizziness. Like earlier victims with similar complaints, they were detained for observation and released after a few hours. Two US experts, Doctor Philip Landrigan and Doctor Bess Miller, of the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, have begun tests, with the Israeli cabinet awaiting reports from them, the International red Cross, and WHO.

    <strong>Source: REUTERS - ELI FASTMAN</strong>
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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