West Bank city of Nablus opens new medical center thanks to Boulder group’s efforts
share
BOULDER, Colo. — A group of Boulderites have helped establish a medical center in the Palestinian West Bank city of Nablus just a year and a half after purchasing an ambulance for the same community. The center will open for service later this month.
The center is on the east side of the city, where there are no hospitals and very few clinics, according to Essrea Cherin, president and co-founder of the Boulder-Nablus Sister City Project, a nonprofit she formed in 2011.
“[Up until now], if anybody had any serious medical needs, they had to get themselves to either a private clinic or a hospital on the other side of the city and it’s all very cost prohibitive,” Cherin said.
The only available nearby public clinic, operated by United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) works minimal hours, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day, and offers limited services.
Cherin’s efforts are part of a broader humanitarian effort two years after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, in which more than 64,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, scores of others gripped by famine, and 48 hostages from Israel remain held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The ongoing war started Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel. While much of the war’s destruction has been centered in Gaza, violence in the occupied West Bank is on the rise.
The eastern part of Nablus hosts the West Bank’s three refugee camps — old Askar, new Askar and Balata — all inhabited by Palestinians displaced by the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel. Those living in the refugee camps experience higher rates of poverty and unemployment compared to the rest of the Palestinian population.
“Affording even a taxi to and from hospitals on the western side of the city is a challenge for a lot of people [on the east side], so there was a lot of buy-in and community support to make this project a success,” said Cherin.
When a delegation from the Boulder-Nablus Sister City Project, including Cherin, visited Nablus in April 2024 to deliver an ambulance they had raised money for, they got the idea to build a medical clinic.
“All of the ideas come from Nablus so we don’t impose our ideas upon them,” said Cherin. “We sort through the various ideas that we have heard [from local NGOs and the municipality] and try to come up with the one that will have the greatest impact on the greatest number of people.”
“The ambulance and medical center really struck us as ‘wow, we could really save lives,’” she said.
Cherin said the new medical center — officially named Askar Boulder Medical Center — will be able to serve 170,000 people, including the 30,000 people living in the refugee camps. It will operate seven days a week from morning until midnight, and will be staffed by a team of 23 medically-trained professionals.
Over the past few years, violence has escalated in the West Bank between Israeli settlers and Palestinians — though tensions have existed for decades. There are currently about 530,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and that figure is growing.
Palestinians living in the West Bank have reported an increase in Israeli checkpoints and delays across the territory, as well as frequent raids by Israeli soldiers since the start of the Israel-Hamas war two years ago.
Israelis have killed approximately 1,000 Palestinians in the area since the war began, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Israel, meanwhile, says threats and violence against its citizens in the West Bank are on the rise, including instances of Palestinians opening fire on Israeli vehicles.
Every few weeks, when thousands of Israeli settlers gather to pray at the historical site of what Jews believe is the site of Joseph’s tomb in eastern Nablus, they are accompanied by Israeli soldiers.
The soldiers add checkpoints and block off the main artery connecting the eastern part of Nablus from the western part, said Hatem al Hafi, a civilian leader in Nablus who has been working closely with the Boulder-Nablus Sister City Project. During these checkpoints and delays, the area becomes rife with conflict and travel times increase precipitously, he said.
Al Hafi said Israeli soldiers killed his business partner, Rasmi Arafat, in 2023 during a military raid on the refugee camp of Balata in east Nablus. Arafat was on his way home from al Hafi’s house when he was killed, said al Hafi.
Due to the road closures around Joseph’s Tomb, friends and family had to wait for three hours in the wee hours of the morning for an ambulance to transport him to the western side of Nablus to get to a hospital. He succumbed to his wounds at the hospital, al Hafi said.
With the creation of the new medical center in east Nablus, al Hafi said, “our goal is to save the lives of the people here.”
The Boulder-Nablus Sister City Project, which has 70 community members mostly in Boulder County, raised $170,000 for the medical center. The donations — solicited through a Walk for Palestine, a fundraising gala and large-scale individual donations — went toward the medical equipment for the new center, including an x-ray machine and an ultrasound machine.
Nablus is one of 10 sister cities that the City of Boulder has partnered with over the past 40 years to foster international cultural and educational exchanges. Other Boulder sister cities include Lhasa, Tibet; Yamagata, Japan; and Ramat HaNegev, Israel. Each sister city project operates as its own nonprofit and is fiscally independent from the city and county of Boulder.
Before Oc. 7, 2023, about 140,000 Palestinians from the West Bank worked in Israel and Israel-controlled industrial zones. Since the war, that number has shrunk to just 11 percent of what it was, according to The Times of Israel.
Unemployment in the West Bank has skyrocketed, as have food prices. More than 500 people applied to just 23 openings at the new medical center.
“We have a lot of doctors and nurses without jobs,” said al Hafi.
Cherin visited east Nablus this past April, and met with five of the nurses who will work at the clinic. Most had just graduated from nursing school.
The new medical center is projected to be self-sustaining. A local charitable organization offered up the space, and area businessmen donated the furniture, computers and IT infrastructure.
It will cost about 15 shekels to be seen at the clinic — $4 to see a doctor and $4 for lab work — and will be free for people with limited means.
“It’s very cheap,” said Al Hafi. “To go to the hospitals and clinics on the western side of Nablus, they need $10 just for the taxi.”
The next project on the Boulder-Nablus Sister City’s docket: raising funds to replace a 50-plus year old fire truck that specializes in going through Nablus’ Old City’s narrow alleyways.
The group will be hosting a walk in Boulder October 19 to raise money for the new fire truck.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.