Pharmacy Education and Practice in the West Bank, Palestine

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 2009 – Vol. 73, No. 2, Article 38 - November 20, 2009 - Back to Resources Page [1]

The West Bank is a landlocked territory on the west bank of the Jordan River in the Middle East. Since 1967 most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been under Israeli military occupation. In 1993, the Oslo accords declared both West Bank and Gaza Strip to be partially under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). Before 1967 there were no universities in the West Bank. Since there were no universities in West Bank at that time, Palestinians could obtain degrees only by travelling abroad to places such as Jordan, Lebanon, or Europe. After 1967, several educational institutions began offering undergraduate courses, while others opened up as entirely new universities. In December 2007, an official Census conducted by the Palestinian Authority found that the Palestinian population of the West Bank (including Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem) was 2,345,000. In terms of health insurance, more than half of the Palestinian population have governmental insurance and can obtain medications from governmental medical centers.

Modern pharmacy in West Bank, Palestine, began in the very early nineteenth century. Before then, pharmacy practice focused mainly on Arab traditional medicine. In 1957, the Jordanian Pharmaceutical Association (JPA) was established. Palestinian pharmacists were registered at the JPA since West Bank was under the Jordanian rule. Most of these pharmacists were graduates of the American University of Beirut and practiced pharmacy in their private community pharmacies. After the Six Day War, particularly in 1973, a branch of JPA located in east Jerusalem started functioning as the organizational body of the Palestinian pharmacists in West Bank.

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American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 2009 – Vol. 73, No. 2, Article 38 - November 20, 2009 - Back to Resources Page [1]