The Oak Institute for the Study of International Human Rights at Colby College enthusiastically welcomed Hadas Ziv of Israel as its 2009 Oak Fellow.
Ms. Ziv is the Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel). Born in Israel as the daughter of a Jew and a Christian,
Ms. Ziv has worked with PHR-Israel for 14 years. She began work at the
organization in 1995 as an Intervention Coordinator where she received
appeals from Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)
whose right to health had been violated by Israeli practices. From 1998
to 2004, she served as Director of Projects at PHR-Israel, when the
organization led advocacy campaigns for - among others issues - the
right to health for residents in unrecognized Bedouin villages; the
prevention of deportation of migrant families of chronically ill
children; the prevention of deportation of refugees, children, and other
migrants from Tel Aviv; prevention of torture; access to health care for
Palestinians under the Israeli closure system in the OPT; and the right to
health for Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem who were threatened
with deportation. She was promoted to Executive Director of PHR-Israel
in 2004. As such, she is responsible for guiding the mission of
PHR-Israel and managing a full-time staff of 17 and over 1,500 members.
Even as Executive Director, Ms. Ziv continues to be on the front line
of human rights work, leading her team in their campaigns including,
but not limited to: helping Palestinians under siege in Gaza to gain
access to health care; the promotion of health rights of Palestinian
women married to Israelis, but denied civil status; the promotion of
the rights of migrants living with HIV/AIDS in Israel without health
insurance; and perhaps most successful, a campaign to pressure the
Israeli Health Ministry to support health care provision for the influx
of refugees and migrants from African conflict zones seeking asylum in
Israel. Hadas, her husband Sani, and their three
children joined the Colby Community for the fall of 2009 as the Oak Fellow.
For more information on Hadas Ziv' class at Colby, please click here.
PHR-Israel's Work
Healthcare Conditions in Israel and the Occupied Territories
Operation Cast Lead in Gaza and Medical Ethics
For more information on the Oak Institute, please click here.
