“Everyone in Gaza is sick, injured or both,” say desperate health workers
A group of thirty British doctors and health workers who volunteered in Gaza during Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian population have written to Keir Starmer and his Foreign Secretary David Lammy – both ardent Zionists – describing the horrors they witnessed there, the torture of their Palestinian medical colleagues by Israeli forces, and the threats they have faced since returning to Britain amid the government’s demonisation of those who stand in solidarity with Palestinians against the genocide.
They also demand an end to British arms supplies to Israel and further measures to put an end to the slaughter, starvation and isolation of the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip.
You write:
We are a multi-religious and multi-ethnic group united not by political motives but by a desire to care for those who suffer. The World Health Organization’s constitution states: “The health of all peoples is essential to the achievement of peace and security and depends on the full cooperation of individuals and States.” It is in this spirit that we write to you, and in this spirit that we are clear that we cannot remain silent about what we have seen in Gaza.
With only a few exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured or both. This includes all national aid workers, all international volunteers, and all men, women and children.
During raids, bombings and destruction of hospitals in Gaza, many of our Palestinian healthcare colleagues were abducted by Israeli forces. During their detention, which lasted for weeks or months, almost all of them reported physical and psychological abuse, ill-treatment including torture and sexual abuse, including stripping naked, and other cruel and inhumane punishments – punishments imposed on them simply because they were doctors. On their return to the UK, some of us were subjected to harassment, including death threats and violence, from which neither the NHS nor the police protected us.
We repeat: we are not politicians driven by political agendas. We are simply medical professionals who feel a duty to speak out about what we saw in Gaza. Our duty is to our patients, to our healthcare colleagues still working in Gaza, and to humanity. It is the same principle of duty that many of us apply in our daily work in the NHS, as we did in Gaza. Every day that the UK continues to supply arms and ammunition to Israel is another day
that Palestinian men, women and children in the Gaza Strip are being killed and maimed by weapons, including those made in Britain.
You can read the full letter with signatures here.
Keir Starmer supports Israel’s “right” to attack Gaza and even to cut off its food, water and fuel supplies. In opposition, he and his party called for the publication of the Tory government’s legal advice on the legality of continued British arms deliveries to Israel. In government, he continues to refuse to provide this advice.
David Lammy and his boss continue to delay any action on British arms sales to Israel. One of Lammy’s senior diplomats resigned this month, accusing the British government of complicity in Israel’s “indisputable” war crimes.
Israel has murdered around 200,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 160 journalists and Palestinian and foreign health and aid workers killed in targeted attacks. The health and aid workers murdered include British and US citizens, yet the British and US governments continue to support and sanction Israel’s genocide.
At the time of writing, the British mainstream media has ignored the doctors’ letter.
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