“The people of Gaza, who saw fit to turn hospitals into terrorist nests in an attempt to profit from Western morality, are the ones who brought about their destruction – terrorism must be eliminated everywhere and by all means. Attacking the terrorist headquarters located inside a hospital is the right, and even the duty, of the IDF.
At first glance, one might think that these are sentences written by extremists or fanatics, authorizing and encouraging an army to bomb hospitals. What is shocking is not only the statement itself, but also the fact that it is publicly signed by dozens of Israeli doctors and widely shared on various social media platforms.
Instead of immediate outrage and condemnation, the statement gave rise to what some called a “legitimate” public debate within the Israeli medical community over whether or not to bomb Palestinian hospitals.
We, six Palestinian doctors working within the Israeli health system, are deeply disgusted by the statements made by some of our fellow Israeli doctors with whom we work, calling on the Israeli army to bomb hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
Unfortunately, we can’t say we were surprised. As doctors trained and practicing in this system, we are all too aware of its racism, militarism and hypocrisy, concealed by a false image of a medical sector where Arabs and Jews work together in harmony and the respect.
The recent letter from our Israeli colleagues, published at a time when massacres were taking place, is a revealing example of what the Israeli health system really is. This is a system in which some doctors shamelessly and publicly adopt the role of consultants to the military.
They use their position and profession, not to save lives, not to preach about the devastating effects of war on civilians on both sides and the need for a peaceful political solution, but in fact to validate the attacks. against medical facilities, knowing full well that this means the murder of fellow doctors and patients.
At the same time, this health system has adopted a typically McCarthyist witch-hunting approach towards us Palestinian doctors. As a result, we cannot engage in any intellectual or moral conversation about war. We are supposed to condemn Hamas and join in the patriotic Israeli military frenzy, while silently watching our Jewish colleagues applaud the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians and approve of the strengthening of the blockade.
We drive to work every day, listening to the devastating news about the death toll and destruction in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. When we arrive, we put on this mask of “everything is fine” and undergo daily the test of loyalty and the scrutiny of our colleagues. During coffee breaks, we are forced to listen with impassive faces as our Israeli colleagues casually utter phrases like “flatten Gaza” and discuss the merits of displacing its population.
We also see our Palestinian colleagues being questioned, fired and humiliated for no good reason. We are very aware of how the hospitals and clinics in which we work have become arenas of discipline. In a “normal” place, we would be in the streets, demanding an end to war and massacres and pleading for a peaceful solution. We would use our profession and position to speak out against inhumane attacks on healthcare workers, civilian facilities and infrastructure.
We are deeply aware that the situation is much more complex than choosing a side and we know that every life lost is a tragedy, whether Israeli or Palestinian. But it is precisely for this reason that we also know that history did not begin on October 7 and that our people have been displaced, killed, injured and humiliated for decades, with the full support and involvement of our Israeli medical colleagues.
We come to work every day knowing that our people are being killed, tortured and mutilated by illegal Israeli settlers and the Israeli army on occupied West Bank lands. However, we also know that we cannot ask our fellow Israeli doctors: “Do you condemn?
We have been forced to live in a coercive environment where the death of Palestinians is normalized and often celebrated, but the death of Israeli Jews is seen as a tragedy that cannot be accepted and requires vengeance.
This is the reality, where Israeli national security is of great value while Palestinian national security is a dark joke. It is Jewish supremacy in life and death that is so normalized, particularly in such tragic moments when it explodes to reveal the true face of our Israeli colleagues and, unfortunately, also of the Western world and its medical institutions.
The normalization of Palestinian dehumanization reflects the world’s complicity in the massacres taking place in the Gaza Strip.
The medical profession has a long and rich history of opposing war and its devastating effects on health. He spoke out against racism, colonialism and imperial expansion, which led to deadly wars.
We remember very well the massive organization of doctors against the American wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. We saw how doctors in the United States, in the aftermath of September 11, organized to oppose and lobby against the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, knowing that it would lead to more deaths and not Security.
But we are also aware that the majority of our Jewish Israeli colleagues are opposed to this desire to protect civilians, because the entire Israeli health system has been mobilized to join and support the war effort. .
The Israeli healthcare system not only fails to oppose the Israeli war, occupation and apartheid, but also prevents Palestinian doctors living in Israel from speaking out and organizing against them.
In the tragic and unfortunate environment in which we live and work, we must hide our names and write anonymously to state the obvious, in accordance with our professional duty and oath. We have reached such a level of demoralization and dehumanization that we are forced to witness massacres, with Palestinian children burned by Israeli phosphorus bombs and entire populations deprived of food and water, without batting an eyelid, as if everything was “normal”.
Not only are we prohibited from volunteering to provide medical aid to innocent Palestinian civilians, but we are also not allowed to speak out against these state crimes without risking our jobs and safety.
We want this letter to serve as an apology to our Palestinian people and our colleagues in the Gaza Strip, revealing our deep helplessness and utter helplessness.
We and the world have failed you.
We can only hope that in future calmer days, we will be able to bear witness, speak and write about the conditions that allowed the massacres to take place and participate in the healing of those who survived.
Editor’s note: Suad, Layla and Samir are pseudonyms. This opinion piece was written by them along with three other Palestinian doctors working in Israel. They write anonymously for fear of physical and professional reprisals.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
