Reflections on peace-through-health: the first Canadian, Israeli and Palestinian maternal and child health programme for medical students

摘要

War and conflict affect human health both directly, through the violence, and indirectly by disrupting economic and social systems that address health needs (Levy and Sidel 1997). Nowhere is this more prominent in our minds and on our television sets than the Middle East. Co-existence programmes have been developed to bring Israelis and Palestinians together in attempts to foster peace, including 'surfers for peace', 'rappers for peace', summer camps for peace and even developing a cooking oil made by Israeli and Palestinian farmers (The Economist 2007). Yet the questions are starting to be asked: do these programmes achieve anything and should this approach change?