[News] Every third child in Gaza stunted by hunger

[Anti-Imperialist News]

"Every third child in Gaza stunted by hunger": 
interview with renowned doctor Mads Gilbert

<http://electronicintifada.net/people/sami-kishawi>Sami Kishawi
http://electronicintifada.net/content/every-third-child-gaza-stunted-hunger-interview-renowned-doctor-mads-gilbert/11363
7 June 2012

For many people around the world, Israel’s 
three-week attack on the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-strip>Gaza 
Strip in late 2008 and early 2009 provided a 
stark glimpse of the reality that Palestinians 
endure on a regular basis. It was a scene 
straight from a horror film, a cause for concern 
and outrage. For others, including Norwegian 
physician 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mads-gilbert>Mads 
Gilbert, it was a call to action, beckoning 
solidarity workers back to Gaza’s pockmarked streets.

Gilbert was all-too-familiar with the scene. A 
veteran anesthesiologist who had been deployed to 
help handle emergency medical situations in 
Palestine and in 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/lebanon>Lebanon, 
Gilbert instinctively made his way to Gaza City’s 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-shifa-hospital>al-Shifa 
Hospital when the bombing began. His experiences, 
shared of course by the Palestinian physicians 
and hospital employees he sought to aid, are 
still today widely regarded as some of the most 
testing instances of solidarity work.

Although Israel’s air and land invasion of the 
Gaza Strip ­ known as 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/operation-cast-lead>Operation 
Cast Lead ­ happened three and a half years ago, 
its after-effects are still relevant today. 
Gaza’s infrastructure has yet to fully recover 
and no one has been held accountable over the hundreds of civilian casualties.

Gilbert’s eyewitness accounts are shared far and 
wide in order to shed light on these tragic 
consequences and to encourage others to remain 
steadfast in their solidarity work for Palestinian rights.

Mads Gilbert spoke to The Electronic Intifada contributor Sami Kishawi.

Sami Kishawi: How did you become involved in the 
solidarity movement for Palestinian rights?

Mads Gilbert: In 1967, when the Israeli-Arab war 
broke out, I actually volunteered to go to 
Israel. Like a majority of Norwegians, I was 
brought up with the narrative that Israel was a 
heroic, growing little country constantly 
attacked by its neighbors. So when the war broke 
out, the Israeli embassy issued an appeal for 
Norwegians to volunteer as kibbutz workers. It 
was presented as some form of novel socialist movement. I signed on.

That same evening, I was contacted by a friend of 
my sister, Ebba Wergeland, who had heard that I 
was planning on volunteering in Israel. I went to 
her dormitory where we had tea ­ and that’s where 
she told me about Palestinian history, a history I had not heard about.

The next day, I went back to the embassy and 
withdrew my volunteer forms and instead chose to 
became a member of the Norwegian Palestine Committee (NPC).

SK: What were your experiences like during your 
first medical missions to Palestine and Lebanon?

MG: In 1981, I witnessed first-hand Israel’s 
aerial bombardment of West Beirut and the 
destruction of the Fakehani neighborhood where 
the <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/plo>PLO 
[Palestine Liberation Organization] was 
headquartered at the time. Palestinian leaders 
issued an appeal to the international community 
to come to the aid of the wounded. Through the 
NPC, I organized the first Norwegian emergency 
surgical team and that was my first encounter with the Palestinian diaspora.

In 1982, when the invasion of Lebanon fully 
commenced, we again sent emergency surgical teams 
as a measure of solidarity. We managed to enter 
the besieged West Beirut where we worked in an 
underground makeshift hospital installed in the 
Near East School of Theology. Together with 
Lebanese and Palestinian doctors and nurses, we 
performed lifesaving surgeries around the clock, 
mostly in makeshift operating rooms located in 
the three underground stories of this Catholic school.

I think my devotion and my dedication to the 
Palestinian people were forever etched into my 
heart and mind during the dreadful summer of 1982.

SK: What brought you to Gaza during Israel’s invasion in 2008 and 2009?

MG: For the last fifteen years, I’ve been working 
in Gaza on and off. I teach at al-Azhar 
University and I’ve been working on numerous 
projects with the paramedics and staff at al-Quds and al-Shifa hospitals.

When the invasion began on 27 December 2008, I 
had just gotten back to Norway from teaching in 
Gaza. I was extremely worried because I was 
already aware of the toll the brutal 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-siege>siege 
of Gaza took on the health sector, food, 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/water>water 
and security of the civilian population there.

My home city, Tromsø, has been a formal twin city 
with Gaza since 2001, and I immediately decided 
to make an effort to go back to support the 
hospitals, not because they cannot manage, but in 
solidarity and to be a witness and a voice. When 
my good friend Dr. Erik Fosse called me that very 
same afternoon, we quickly decided to make an 
emergency medical team and pack up to travel to Gaza.

SK: What caught your attention during your time in Gaza?

MG: First and foremost, I was extremely impressed 
by the Palestinian healthcare workers who were 
bravely working day and night to save their 
fellow people under the most difficult conditions 
possibly imaginable. The heroes were the 
Palestinians and not us. My impression also 
included the stoic bravery and unyielding courage 
of the Palestinian civilian population in the 
midst of death and suffering during the brutal Israeli onslaught.

Second, the character of the Israeli military 
attacks was unbelievably brutal and 
disproportionate. The attack on Gaza’s civilian 
infrastructure and population, the repeated use 
of illegal weapons like white phosphorus bombs, 
and the testing of new and extremely destructive 
US manufactured weapons like the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/dime>DIME 
[Dense Inert Metal Explosive] and other “small 
diameter bombs” all indicated that Israel used 
its force unjustifiably and disproportionately, 
clearly in violation of the international laws of war and humanitarian rules.

Also important is the very special fact that this 
onslaught fell upon an already besieged civilian 
society, already on its knees with a very young 
civilian population ­ the average age in Gaza is 
17.6 years, and 58 percent are 18 years or 
younger ­ unable to seek any safe shelter, 
imprisoned as they were by the Israeli siege. But 
the most impressive aspect of it all is that they 
did not collapse. They organized rescue and they 
did not lose their humanity. The dignity and the 
discipline of the Palestinian people moved me deeply.

SK: On 3 January 2009, you sent a text message to 
your international contacts. It read: “They 
bombed the central vegetable market in Gaza City 
two hours ago. Eighty injured, 20 killed. All 
came here to Shifa. Hades! We’re wading in death, 
blood, and amputees. Many children. Pregnant 
woman. I’ve never experienced anything this 
horrible. Now we hear tanks. Tell it, pass it on, 
shout it. Anything. Do something! Do more! We’re 
living in the history books now, all of us!” It 
was a very passionate, a very urgent message. 
What was happening? What were you seeing and doing?

MG: Our hands were full that day. In the early 
morning, there had been waves of injured coming 
in. We were quite exhausted, all of us.

Suddenly, all of the Palestinians in the hospital 
went to their mobile phones to listen to the FM 
radio. That’s when we got the message that Israel 
was bombing a vegetable market in Gaza. We heard 
the ambulance sirens and the first wounded 
started to come in. I was in the disaster 
reception area at the ground level of al-Shifa 
and it was just hell. Victims were pouring in. I 
had to step back a few steps. I stood by the 
window and looked out. I saw the condensation 
streaks of the Israeli bombers and heard the 
orchestra of sirens. That’s when I wrote down and 
sent the message, without drafting, without 
hesitating, like a desperate reflex.

It needed to be said. I sent the text to some 
media people based across the border in Israel 
and to people in Norway. It spread like fire on a 
dry prairie. It was translated and spread all 
over the world. I think the reason for that was 
because it was a passionate message, an authentic 
one, more intense than the media stories, maybe. 
This cannot go on, I said. And yet it kept going on for another two weeks.

This text message became graphic in Norway, and 
it was translated and spread all over the world. 
This message, in a way, connected people to the realities of Gaza.

SK: We are all too familiar with the stories of 
despair, but did you experience any hopeful or 
uplifting moments during your medical mission in al-Shifa?

MG: Every day at every moment, there were 
uplifting moments. Even under desperate 
conditions, the hospital staff was working day 
and night. We had little food. We had an endless 
current of the most horrible injuries coming in 
and almost all of the staff ­ the doctors, 
nurses, ambulance people, and volunteers ­ was 
confronted with wounded family members and 
friends. Yet they never broke down or gave up.

Of course, we wept. We were all sad and we were 
outraged. But there was this strong feeling of 
being in al-Shifa for a greater cause, to show 
that military power and oppression, racism and 
occupation will not win in the end. The 
Palestinians of Gaza once again showed me the true qualities and humanity.

All the windows in the eastern wall of the 
surgical block were shattered. It was ice cold. 
The generators were broken and power blackouts 
were hourly. We were lacking trolleys and 
operating tables. We had to do operations on the 
floor. It was tense, yes, but the Palestinians 
remained calm. We used humor as a form of 
medicine. There was Arabic coffee all of the time 
and maybe some food. At the end of the first two 
weeks, we were actually all receiving emergency 
food rations from the World Food Organization. Yet no one gave in.

SK: Is there anything to be said about Israel’s 
lack of accountability for the deaths of so many innocents?

MG: It is hard to understand how Israel has been 
vindicated without even being taken to trial or 
being faced with the same type of investigation 
that other state and governmental entities in similar situations have faced.

Given the moral responsibility of the Israeli 
government and its army, if you should judge 
Israel in accordance with the scale that we judge 
other states, I would say that Israel today 
presents itself as a failed state. They wage 
warfare against a basically unarmed, occupied 
civilian population, in sharp contrast to some of 
the most fundamental rules of humanitarianism and 
laws of wars. And Israel still chooses not to 
allow ­ let alone organize ­ independent legal 
examinations or investigations of the war crimes 
perpetrated by their political and military commanders and their soldiers.

I would also say that the international community 
is making a huge failure by not applying the same 
strict rules to Israel as it does to other 
countries. It’s an incredible double standard 
that allows Israel to go unpunished, attack after attack, war after war.

SK: What is the healthcare situation in the Gaza Strip like now?

MG: As a result of the Israeli siege, there has 
been widespread development of anemia among 
children and women due to malnutrition as a 
result of siege and poverty. Stunting, where a 
child is more than two standard deviations 
shorter than what it should be, is sharply on the 
rise. In 2006, around 13.5 percent of children 
were stunted. In 2009, 31.4 percent under age two were stunted.

In other words, every third child is less 
developed than he or she should be. And stunting 
does not only affect growth. It also affects 
brain development and the ability to learn. This 
is a direct consequence of malnutrition. 
Remember, this is not caused by drought or 
natural disasters, but a deliberate, man-made 
lack of food and water, imposed, planned, and 
executed in the most detailed way by the Israeli 
government. They 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/blockade-eased-gaza-starves-more-slowly/8894>even 
calculate how many calories to let in to Gaza to 
avoid outright starvation but to “just” cause 
malnutrition since that goes under the radar of human rights abuses.

Similarly, water cleaning plants and pump 
stations for sewage cleaning and waste disposal 
are destroyed and haven't been repaired because 
spare parts have not been let in due to the 
siege. Spare parts sit for up to two years on the 
border without being let in. Donated trucks from 
the UN and Japan for solid waste disposal are also being kept out.

Instead, 280 donkey cart drivers are commissioned 
to manually pick up the waste from the 600,000 
inhabitants of Gaza City who should, of course, 
have a modern system. Plus, there is no fuel for 
the water pumping stations. The blackouts can 
last for 18 hours a day and the lack of fuel for 
running the water pump stations means that 50 
percent of Gaza’s population receives water for 
only six to eight hours a day every fourth day.

So why won’t Israel let Palestinians have clean 
water and allow them to clean the wastewater? Why 
will they not allow them to collect their solid 
waste? Clearly Israel wants to make life as 
difficult as possible for the Palestinian 
community in order to break their resistance, to 
humiliate them, and to conquer them. It is not going to happen.

SK: I visited al-Shifa less than one year ago and 
was astounded by how underfunded and 
under-resourced its facilities were. Is there 
anything people living outside of Palestine can 
do to help the hospital maintain its operation? 
And how can these individuals contribute to the 
Palestinian solidarity movement?

MG: We need to organize and increase political 
pressure. We have to influence our leaders, 
politicians and governments. We have to encourage 
the <http://electronicintifada.net/bds>boycott, 
divestment and sanctions movement against the 
State of Israel. There is mounting support for 
the Palestinian solidarity movement.

Churches, universities, and sports teams must be 
convinced to boycott Israel. We must explain to 
people in Israel that they cannot expect 
“business as usual” as long as the occupation and 
oppression of the Palestinians continue. At the 
end of the day, such peaceful political pressure 
will force Israel’s population ­ and hopefully 
also the United States ­ to change its stance, I believe.

Ultimately, I think this work on the home front 
is more effective than trying to smuggle in 
equipment or supplies. The most fundamental 
demand is to lift the siege on Gaza and to allow 
for the reconstruction of the Gaza 
infrastructure: the schools, the hospitals, the 
roads, and the waste management system. To end 
the occupation of Palestine and safeguard the 
return of the Palestinians in diaspora is a prerequisite for lasting peace.

SK: What about for those who are medically-inclined?

MG: For medical students, we need to raise 
awareness in medical schools. Students must be 
trained to see the evidence of the extensive and 
destructive effects the Israeli occupation has on 
population health. And why not get in contact 
with medical students in Gaza and make alliances? 
Involve yourselves with programs of exchange to 
other campuses and travel, travel, travel, travel.

Go there and see for yourselves, not necessarily 
to do medical work but to meet medical students 
and to make partnerships. They are well organized 
and highly motivated and it is obviously worth 
the effort. Solidarity between individuals and 
people is a strong force and much needed in the 
current situation in occupied Palestine ­ and in 
the refugee camps outside Palestine. Everyone can 
make a difference by being active, not by being idle.

Sami Kishawi is an undergraduate student at the 
University of Chicago. He is an active member of 
Students for Justice in Palestine and Chicago 
Movement for Palestinian Rights, two youth-led 
movements advocating for Palestinian rights through direct action.




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