This week, more than 40 organizations working on health justice around the world issued an urgent appeal to the global health and human rights community. In an open letter, we appealed to global health bodies, health institutions, professional associations and the World Medical Association (WMA) to take immediate action in the face of the government’s continued attack Israeli against Gaza – because the war against Palestine is a health issue. justice too.
The Israeli attack – which, according to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), “plausibly” meets the conditions for genocide – has cost the lives of more than 30,000 Palestinians in less than five months. This means that since October 7, the Israeli army has killed an average of 250 Palestinians per day – a death rate higher than any other conflict in the 21st century. Additionally, more than 70,000 Palestinians were injured and more than a million displaced.
Israel’s deliberate targeting of hospitals in Gaza – considered a war crime under international law – undoubtedly contributed to this staggering toll. At the time of writing, only 11 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals are partially functional.
Israel has destroyed much more than Gaza’s hospitals. The targeting of laboratories, other health facilities, ambulances, doctors, nurses and patients, coupled with the blockade of vital medical supplies, has undermined Gaza’s entire health system and left 2, 2 million people with limited access to health care at a time when they face near-constant, indiscriminate bombing and the threat of starvation. Since the start of the war, at least 337 health workers have been killed, including two of the four pathologists present in Gaza.
People suffering from chronic illnesses lack access to life-saving medicines, and disease is spreading at an unprecedented rate amid a health crisis caused by a severe lack of access to clean water. The World Health Organization (WHO) has described the state of healthcare in Gaza as “beyond words”.
A study published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom suggests that an escalation of conflict could lead to almost 86,000 additional deaths over the next six months once the effects of disease, epidemics and malnutrition caused by war are taken into account. The report estimates that even if there is no escalation and conditions remain the same as today, there will still be an additional 66,720 deaths in Gaza over the next six months.
This is why, as activists, health workers and organizations working in the health sector for justice, equity, anti-racism and decolonization, we use our voices to speak out and urge as well as constrain our colleagues and others, particularly global health organizations. and associations, to act. While Israel uses health care, food and water as weapons of war, we know all too well – as organizations that have worked on issues of health justice and access to medicine for millions of people around the world – that it is imperative that we speak out and demand an end to impunity, as well as real actions and consequences.
So why target our appeal to the global health community? We believe there has been a widespread lack of respect from many members of this community regarding the ongoing health crisis in Gaza. As we also noted in the open letter we published this week, virtually no discussion of the current state of health services in Gaza has graced the pages of the 17 global health journals that currently fill space audience. Our research shows that a PubMed search for journal articles containing the words “Global Health”, “Gaza” and “health” published since October 2023 retrieved only two, published by The Lancet and the British Medical Journal, which presented a discussion on ethics. , human rights and professional challenges arising from the current conflict.
So we ask ourselves: why have our universities, medical schools, professional associations and academic bodies remained silent? Except for a few isolated public statements, the response from those we expect to uphold the highest medical and scientific professional and ethical standards around the world has been deafening silence.
While the American Medical Association (AMA) rightly issued a strong condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, efforts by some members to do the same for Russia’s war Israel vs. Gaza in 2023 has been stopped. And at this stage of the genocide, any persistent silence will be judged as complicity.
This demonstrates a blatant double standard that can only be explained by the racist dehumanization of the Palestinian people.
A climate of virulent censorship, particularly in the Global North, has also led to open victimization of health workers and academics who dare to speak out in their personal capacity to defend Palestinian rights and against racism. But we refuse to remain silent and we call on the entire global health community to stand firm in the face of this intimidation.
We must denounce Israel’s war crimes and unequivocally condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza – as well as Israel’s long-standing medical apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories – and support our colleagues who are targeted for speaking out against it. anti-Palestinian racism.
We must also pressure all governments to immediately resume and increase funding for the crucial work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and other agencies helping Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere in the occupied territories. We should refuse to collaborate with Israeli health institutions, universities, research councils, pharmaceutical companies and any organization affiliated with the military in any form.
As health professionals and activists, we are obliged to speak out, both morally and professionally. We are also obliged to take all measures in our power to end and prevent this genocide. To do anything less would be a total failure in our duty to support and uphold everyone’s right to health.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
