At the end of September I will be taking part in a 5-day sponsored bike ride around the West Bank to raise money for MAP. We begin in Nablus in the north, take in Qalqilya and Ramallah, freewheel down to Jericho 300m below sea level, slog uphill for 75km to Hebron in the southern hills, and finally go via Bethlehem to Jerusalem. 

I first went to these places in the early 1980s when I spent a couple of years living and working in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In those days the occupation was a cause of much hardship but it is immeasurably worse now, especially with restrictions on movement caused by checkpoints and the separation wall. In Gaza the suffering is even greater as a result of devastating bombardment and blockade. Thousands have been killed and maimed, and malnutrition is rife. Meanwhile in Lebanon, where Palestinian refugees live in poverty and without rights, their numbers have recently been swelled by many more fleeing Syria.

In these circumstances MAP provides vital support for the hard pressed Palestinian health services.