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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/11/22/israels-war-machine-cant-break-the-steadfastness-of-palestinian-health-workers/">peoplesdispatch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel’s war machine can’t break the steadfastness of Palestinian health workers</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Peoples Health Dispatch</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">November 22, 2023<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><p>Staff of Al-Awda hospital honors their fallen colleagues.
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<p>Al-Awda hospital in Jabalya refugee camp, is one of the latest health
institutions in Palestine to be directly targeted by Israeli occupation
forces. On Tuesday, November 21, at least three health workers were
killed, and more were injured during one iteration of the attack. Among
the dead is Ziad Al-Tatari, a neonatologist. It would seem particularly
vicious to kill pediatricians as children continue to comprise the
majority of the victim toll in Gaza. Yet Israel’s systematic attack
against healthcare in Palestine makes it less surprising than it should
be.</p>
<p>The surprise might be dimmed, but the shock lingers even for those
who have experienced the impact of the occupation on the Palestinian
health system firsthand, like Dr. Mads Gilbert.</p>
<p>During a <a href="https://www.nocoldwar.org/news/webinar-urgent-medical-crisis-in-gaza">discussion</a>
coordinated by No Cold War, the People’s Health Movement, and Viva
Salud, Gilbert, who has worked in Palestine on and off for decades,
described how incredible it seemed that the world chose to look away as
Israel repeatedly attacked Palestinians’ right to health day after day.</p>
<p>He emphasized how much recognition health workers in Palestine
deserve after working under occupation for 75 years. Their discipline
and dignity in the face of the most horrific attacks are a living
example of Palestinian <i>sumud</i>, or steadfastness, leaving no doubt
that the health workers will remain as long as there are patients in the
hospitals and people in the refugee camps.</p>
<p>The calm and dignity that such steadfastness combines were present in
the voices of the Palestinian speakers at the discussion. When one
looks at the rate of physical destruction of health infrastructure in
Gaza — with only a quarter of hospitals still functioning, caved-in
walls and floors, and no electricity — it can be difficult to imagine
how it will be possible to rebuild it.</p>
<p>The health workers in Palestine, however, remain confident that it
will happen. “Together, we will rebuild all the hospitals that have been
destroyed in Palestine,” assured Aed Yaghi, the director of the
Palestinian Medical Relief Society. “And I think we will live to witness
one day, Palestinian Independence Day.“</p>
<p>Palestinian hospitals, health centers, health workers, and patients
are not collateral damage as the Israeli occupation forces try to paint
it. The determination to destroy them is part of the strategy to
eliminate all traces of a social security network for Palestinians,
making it impossible for people to return home, said Mustafa Barghouti
from the Palestinian National Council.</p>
<p>Israel’s attacks following October 7 have been particularly violent.
So violent, in fact, that Barghouti warned that Palestine is now facing
three parallel war crimes: genocide, ethnic cleansing, and collective
punishment. The extent of the violence of the Israeli occupation forces
has escalated so much that relatives who had lived through the Nakba are
talking of the current situation as its second iteration, warned Yaghi.</p>
<p>What we are witnessing should stir everyone, but we have to be
careful that our reaction is not reduced to pity or charity. “Pity is
colonial,” said Gilbert. What the health workers and the people of
Palestine deserve instead is solidarity in the sense defined by Samora
Machel — “mutual aid between forces fighting for the same objective“ —
according to Gilbert.</p>
<p>“The two most beautiful words I know in Norwegian are love and
solidarity. What we are witnessing today is an attempt to deny them,”
Gilbert said. Efforts to stifle people’s campaigns for a ceasefire and
respect for basic human rights in Palestine have not proven to be very
successful, as public outrage against the indiscriminate destruction of
the Gaza Strip has become more pronounced all over the world.</p>
<p>On the other hand, solidarity initiatives with Palestine have grown
over the past weeks, including among health workers. The younger
generation of health workers is particularly vocal about the necessity
of standing up to those who would like to turn hospitals into military
targets. Their protests have spanned the globe from Indonesia to Norway
to South Africa. In Cape Town, several hundred health workers <a href="https://www.groundup.org.za/article/health-workers-picket-for-palestine-outside-red-cross-childrens-hospital/">picketed</a>
outside the Red Cross Children’s Hospital on Tuesday, reiterating the
demand for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the targeting of health
personnel and infrastructure.</p>
<p>In some cases, instead of being heard by their governments and
leaders of professional associations, health workers have faced
censorship and harassment for their advocacy, as Rupa Marya from the Do
No Harm coalition described happening in the US. The attempt by some
health workers to build solidarity with Palestine has been followed by
what Marya described as a “vicious backlash against the health workers,”
one that could not be compared to anything she had seen previously when
doctors and other health workers would adopt a more political stance.</p>
<h3><em><b>Read more: </b><a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/11/16/the-israeli-attack-on-palestinian-health-workers-in-gaza-and-the-failure-of-the-american-medical-association/"><b>The Israeli attack on Palestinian health workers in Gaza and the failure of the American Medical Association</b></a></em></h3>
<p>Despite opposition by the establishment, health workers in the US are
not giving up their fight to unmask the “horrific dark charade”, as
Marya put it, that is being broadcast by corporate media. Their pursuit
is mirrored in other countries of the Global North as well. In Belgium,
health workers and volunteers from Medicine for the People (MPLP) are
organizing vigils and participating in community events every day,
making sure that the largest possible number of people hears about the
war on Palestine.</p>
<p>Hanne Bosselaers, a general practitioner in one of MPLP’s health
centers in Molenbeek, pointed out that speaking to the community by
drawing from personal experience was the best way to draw people into
the solidarity movements. Bosselaers worked in Al-Awda’s centers earlier
in her career: according to her, lived experience, rather than
statistics, is the best way to sensitize people about the Palestinian
cause and stop Israeli impunity.</p>
<p>At this point, the importance of mounting pressure cannot be
overstated. “Don’t just sit and praise — act,” Gilbert said. What the
health workers in Palestine are showing to the world is a “teaching
experience on resilience, on a culture that stands on different values
than our capitalist health systems,” he pointed out. Recognizing and
incorporating these values into the practice of solidarity movements is
paramount for strengthening them and giving them the tools to truly
stand with Palestine.</p>
<p><b><i>People’s Health Dispatch</i></b> <i>is a fortnightly bulletin published by the</i><a href="http://www.phmovement.org/"> <b><i>People’s Health Movement</i></b></a> <i>and </i><b><i>Peoples Dispatch</i></b><i>. For more articles and to subscribe to People’s Health Dispatch, click</i> <a href="https://peoples-health-dispatch.ghost.io/"><b><i>here</i></b></a>.</p>
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