Research with marginalised communities points to the need to understand political determinants of reproductive health. For residents of Kufr 'Aqab neighbourhood, Israeli biopolitics in East Jerusalem can be barriers to access to maternal health. This is manifested in women having to cross military checkpoints to give birth in hospitals located in Jerusalem to make their children eligible for "permanent residency", a document required for Palestinians to live in Jerusalem. A basic qualitative design is utilised, and semi-structured in-depth interviews with 27 women and 20 men were conducted and thematic analysis was used to extract themes and subthemes. Women reported exposure to risky conditions during pregnancy and worries of giving birth at checkpoints. Social support was restricted for some women due to inability of the husband/family to reach the hospital at the time of birth. Men reported distress related to inability to attend birth. Giving birth in a Jerusalem hospital, as part of passing residency to children, was perceived as reaffirming Palestinian presence in the City and transforming sites of suffering to sites of resistance. Israeli residency policies and segregation of Jerusalem affect Kufr 'Aqab residents' pregnancy and birth on physical, social and psychological levels. Results indicate the importance of incorporating political determinants of access to maternal care and safe pregnancy in the conceptualisation of reproductive rights.

AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to the women who gave their time and insights in our interviews. Thanks to Salam Abu Ghoush for her dedicated assistance with fieldwork. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. The research was funded by a grant from the Emirates Foundation through the LSE Middle East Centre. health maintaining and care-seeking behaviours as they age.

Background Population health surveys play a vital part in enabling the planning, implementation, and monitoring of national health programmes and policies. However, the construction of these surveys is often determined by international stakeholders' agendas and implementation is restricted by availability of local resources. We used the Palestinian Family Survey (PFS) 2010 as a case study to inform the discussion on health surveys in the Arab region. MethodsWe used qualitative research methods involving a detailed document review of all PFS materials (eg, questionnaires, interviewer instructions and training manuals, reports) to assess the construction and implementation of the PFS in the occupied Palestinian territories. We compared the of the PFS 2010 survey instruments with contemporary health policies and practices.Findings We found a mismatch between the PFS content and data requirements at the national level. Some PFS content appeared to reflect international agendas rather than local health needs-for example, detailed questions about HIV/AIDS in a context with fewer than 100 reported cases since 1988. By contrast, health issues that were important in the context, such as mental health or exposure to violence, were not included in the PFS. There were inconsistencies in data collection by age and sex. For example, women aged 54-59 years were excluded from all survey modules except for the household roster, and there were few questions on the health of women who had never married.Interpretation Although population surveys are an important source of evidence in resource-poor settings, these findings suggests a need to re-evaluate health surveys, taking into account the necessity of addressing health concerns within their specific national context, while retaining the ability to monitor international health targets. Funding Emirates Foundation, London School of Economics Middle East Centre.

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