We are sharing this statement from healthcare workers in solidarity with Palestine. Please sign and share.
Of note, the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in the center of Gaza City was just bombed with 500 estimated dead.
This statement was drafted by an ad hoc group of rank-and-file healthcare workers in New York City. Fellow healthcare workers, unions, union caucuses, volunteers, students, and organizations should feel free to sign on and share.
10/16/23 Urgent Update from JVP Health Advisory Committee Here
10/17/23 “Healthcare Workers Against Palestinian Genocide” has a letter and sign on as well. Please see and sign if in agreement.
Words cannot express the devastation and despair we feel for the people of Gaza. Our hearts break for the critically ill patients with dwindling access to oxygen, electricity, clean water, and other basic necessities we take for granted as healthcare workers in the United States. Our hearts break for the tiny neonates whose life-sustaining equipment will fail if fuel runs out, and for the injured children and elders languishing in crowded and under-resourced emergency departments. Our hearts break for the grieving families who are unable to properly honor their dead due to the sheer volume of casualties..
Our hearts also break for the Israelis who were killed or injured during the horrific Hamas attacks. We hope all survivors receive the top tier medical care for which Israel is renowned. We mourn that the distance of a few miles means the difference between high quality care and the dire conditions faced by Gazan healthcare workers and patients. We refuse to believe that one person’s life is more valuable than another’s, or that nationality should determine who deserves to live or die.
As we care for our patients in well-lit healthcare facilities, surrounded by the buzz of life-saving monitors and machines, we are acutely aware that thousands of Gazans are facing homelessness, injury, illness, and death as a result of both Israel’s airstrikes and its deadly siege. These circumstances are compounded by the 16-year blockade that has left Gaza destitute and isolated.
As US healthcare workers, we vowed to protect life. Our professional ethics and our humanity require us to advocate for the just provision of medical care. It is in this spirit that we publicly demand an end to the US-backed Israeli Defense Force campaign targeting residential neighborhoods, schools, places of worship, healthcare facilities, and other civilian targets. We also demand an end to the blockade preventing humanitarian aid, medical supplies, and healthcare workers from entering Gaza.
Finally, we demand that our own healthcare institutions take a stand whenever healthcare workers, hospitals, and patients are under attack. Several US healthcare systems have thus far only acknowledged the suffering of Israelis in their public statements and memos to employees. We call upon these healthcare systems to recognize the humanity and the suffering of Palestinian civilians, and support international organizations and frontline workers struggling to provide urgently-needed healthcare in Gaza.
