According to an 80-page report released recently by the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights, the Shin Bet security service has been trying to coerce ill Palestinians to become informants in exchange for medical treatment. The report, entitled Holding Health to Ransom, charges that the Shin Bet question Palestinians who have applied and often already received exit permits to enter Israel on their way to urgent medical treatment in Israel, the West Bank or Jordan. According to the report, the interrogators demand that the patients provide intelligence information in return for permission to leave. While the Shin Bet denied the charge, it said it does conduct security checks on Palestinians leaving
