“What we see playing out live, minute by minute, is the politics of elimination, executed against the colonised by the colonising forces" – Dr. Mads Gilbert
If you are receiving this post by email, please click on the title to read it in full on Substack.
The a-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City, devastated by Israeli airstrikes.
Photo: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu/Getty ImagesI recommend listening to the very informative discussion and analysis during the Day 17 of Gaza's Al-Aqsa Flood live-stream from Monday 23rd October (embedded below) regarding the ongoing seige of Gaza which continues to deepen the horrific humanitarian crisis of civilians.
During the livestream, Dr. Mads Gilbert discussed the disastrous medical situation and blockade of the basic essentials of life – water, food and energy – which are creating even more harm given Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign.
Dr. Mads also describes the horrific injuries inflicted upon civilians by Israel’s use of cluster munitions which contain shrapnel with sharp edged metal “so sharp that you can shave with them.”
They are made of a very, very high metal composition and fly at hundreds of kilometres per hour, swirl and they cuff off limbs, cut open abdomens, they cut open chests and, if you’re lucky, you die. If you’re not luck you’re heavily injured, you’re severely injured and if you’re lucky you have life-saving surgery. If you’re not you will not have life-saving surgery, our colleagues are telling us from Gaza.
Dr. Gilbert is a Norwegian physician, humanitarian, activist and politician and a Professor of emergency medicine at the University of Tromsø. He is a specialist in anaesthesiology and head of the emergency medicine department at the University Hospital of North Norway and Professor of emergency medicine at the University of Tromsø. Since the 1970s, he has been actively involved with solidarity work concerning Palestinians, and he has served as a doctor for several periods in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon for NORWAC. Source
In her blog, staff writer and associate editor at The Electronic Intifada, Nora Barrows-Friedman summarised what Dr. Gilbert shared during the discussion as follows.
“What we see playing out live, minute by minute, is the politics of elimination, executed against the colonised by the colonising forces,” Dr. Mads Gilbert told us on Monday’s livestream.
Gilbert is a Norwegian emergency doctor who has worked in Gaza during successive Israeli attacks. He spoke to us from Cairo as he tries to join his colleagues in Gaza.
“What we see is such a massive attack on the human habitat, the civilian population, crushed into the very narrow space by the siege. And also the systematic attack on all the provisions you need to live – and that is not, first and foremost, hospitals and ambulances. It is water, it is food, it is electricity, it is human security, and then you may need the medical system,” Gilbert added.
We go there to stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters in Gaza, to bear witness, to collect evidence, to treat patients, of course. But most of all, to provide what is most needed now for the people of Gaza, and that is international solidarity,” he said.
During Monday’s livestream, Calla Walsh and Max Gellar shared information about Palestine Action and what they are doing in terms of direct action. Israel’s largest weapons firm, Elbit Systems which has offices in the UK, U.S. and elsewhere is the primary target of the group’s direct action.
Ali Abunimah, co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author, referenced the fact that it was announced Sunday, 22nd October that Biden, Canada’s Trudeau, Macron of France, Chancellor Schultz of Germany, Italy’s Georgia Maloney and the UK’s Rishi Sunak all signed the following Joint Statement on Israel confirming their support for the genocidal Zionist entity.
Ali Abunimah draws attention to the fact that what is completely absent from this joint statement was “any call for a ceasefire or any call on Israel, the occupying power, to meet its obligations under international law to ensure the supply of food, water and medicine to the people it occupies. They reiterated their support for Israel and its right to defend itself.”
Ali further stated as follows:
What can we make of these leaders’ statement then if they believe that their beloved Israel was already adhering to International humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians, there would have been no need to make this statement at all.
What I think it reveals then is their full knowledge of the crimes Israel is committing with their complicity and support. It reveals a consciousness of guilt on their part. It is nothing more than a feeble attempt to wash their hands of the blood they are helping Israel spill.
As I mentioned water, medicine and other life essentials are barely trickling into Gaza if at all. But let me tell you what is flowing into the region completely unhindered. As of Sunday night, according to the Israeli newspaper Haretz, 62 cargo planes had landed in Israel bringing in military spare parts and American bombs to drop on Gaza.
According to Israeli Defense Ministry sources this is the second largest such airlift to the country in its history after the famous airlift during the October 1973 war” on Palestine.
As Dr. Mads Gilbert mentioned and Maureen Clare Murphy states in her article, UN begs for more aid to enter Gaza as hospitals run out of fuel, the huge Israel-controlled Karem Abu Salem crossing is Gaza’s main point of entry for humanitarian aid which Israel is purposefully blocking. In so doing they are committing further war crimes.
“Aid is being brought in only via Rafah crossing, which is a passenger crossing not equipped for the transfer of large quantities of goods. The nearby Karem Abu Salem crossing – or Kerem Shalom – controlled by Israel is Gaza’s main point of entry for humanitarian aid.
Israel says that it will not transfer any aid through the crossings it controls so long as Palestinian armed groups in Gaza are holding people captured in Israel.
“Wilfully impeding relief supplies is a war crime, as is collectively punishing civilians for the actions of armed groups,” Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
Whilst Biden was crowing on Saturday that he, the U.S. facilitated the delivery of 20 lorries (Dr. Gilbert said 34) of humanitarian aid to Gaza through the Rafah crossing, this was a minuscule drop in the infinite ocean of desperate, dire need for medical and basic life-sustaining supplies of water, food and fuel in Gaza.
Journalist and researcher, Jon Elmer discussed the fact that Biden’s Gaza “aid” plan is a fig leaf for genocide. He also provided a very interesting analysis of the feasibility of a ground offensive in Gaza by Israel given the intricate tunnel network which Palestinians have created over decades as a key aspect of their self-defence and survival from attacks by the hostile entity that is Israel.
Please watch:
Dr. Mads Gilbert mentioned his humanitarian work in Gaza during previous Israeli focused bombing attacks, wars including in 2014.
The following is a reposting of an open letter published by The Lancet in July 2014 which provides important background information about the far too long-standing humanitarian crisis in Gaza which has been and continues to be enabled by supporters of Israel.
An open letter for the people in Gaza
By Paola Manduca, Iain Chalmers, Derek Summerfield, Mads Gilbert, Swee Ang on behalf of 24 signatories • Published July 23, 2014
We are doctors and scientists, who spend our lives developing means to care and protect health and lives. We are also informed people; we teach the ethics of our professions, together with the knowledge and practice of it. We all have worked in and known the situation of Gaza for years.
On the basis of our ethics and practice, we are denouncing what we witness in the aggression of Gaza by Israel.
We ask our colleagues, old and young professionals, to denounce this Israeli aggression. We challenge the perversity of a propaganda that justifies the creation of an emergency to masquerade a massacre, a so-called “defensive aggression”. In reality it is a ruthless assault of unlimited duration, extent, and intensity. We wish to report the facts as we see them and their implications on the lives of the people.
We are appalled by the military onslaught on civilians in Gaza under the guise of punishing terrorists. This is the third large scale military assault on Gaza since 2008. Each time the death toll is borne mainly by innocent people in Gaza, especially women and children under the unacceptable pretext of Israel eradicating political parties and resistance to the occupation and siege they impose.
This action also terrifies those who are not directly hit, and wounds the soul, mind, and resilience of the young generation. Our condemnation and disgust are further compounded by the denial and prohibition for Gaza to receive external help and supplies to alleviate the dire circumstances.
The blockade on Gaza has tightened further since last year and this has worsened the toll on Gaza's population. In Gaza, people suffer from hunger, thirst, pollution, shortage of medicines, electricity, and any means to get an income, not only by being bombed and shelled. Power crisis, gasoline shortage, water and food scarcity, sewage outflow and ever decreasing resources are disasters caused directly and indirectly by the siege.1
People in Gaza are resisting this aggression because they want a better and normal life and, even while crying in sorrow, pain, and terror, they reject a temporary truce that does not provide a real chance for a better future. A voice under the attacks in Gaza is that of Um Al Ramlawi who speaks for all in Gaza: “They are killing us all anyway—either a slow death by the siege, or a fast one by military attacks. We have nothing left to lose—we must fight for our rights, or die trying.”2
Gaza has been blockaded by sea and land since 2006. Any individual of Gaza, including fishermen venturing beyond 3 nautical miles of the coast of Gaza, face being shot by the Israeli Navy. No one from Gaza can leave from the only two checkpoints, Erez or Rafah, without special permission from the Israelis and the Egyptians, which is hard to come by for many, if not impossible. People in Gaza are unable to go abroad to study, work, visit families, or do business. Wounded and sick people cannot leave easily to get specialised treatment outside Gaza. Entries of food and medicines into Gaza have been restricted and many essential items for survival are prohibited.3
Before the present assault, medical stock items in Gaza were already at an all time low because of the blockade.3
They have run out now. Likewise, Gaza is unable to export its produce. Agriculture has been severely impaired by the imposition of a buffer zone, and agricultural products cannot be exported due to the blockade. 80% of Gaza's population is dependent on food rations from the UN.
Much of Gaza's buildings and infrastructure had been destroyed during Operation Cast Lead, 2008–09, and building materials have been blockaded so that schools, homes, and institutions cannot be properly rebuilt. Factories destroyed by bombardment have rarely been rebuilt adding unemployment to destitution.
Despite the difficult conditions, the people of Gaza and their political leaders have recently moved to resolve their conflicts “without arms and harm” through the process of reconciliation between factions, their leadership renouncing titles and positions, so that a unity government can be formed abolishing the divisive factional politics operating since 2007. This reconciliation, although accepted by many in the international community, was rejected by Israel. The present Israeli attacks stop this chance of political unity between Gaza and the West Bank and single out a part of the Palestinian society by destroying the lives of people of Gaza. Under the pretext of eliminating terrorism, Israel is trying to destroy the growing Palestinian unity. Among other lies, it is stated that civilians in Gaza are hostages of Hamas whereas the truth is that the Gaza Strip is sealed by the Israelis and Egyptians.
Gaza has been bombed continuously for the past 14 days followed now by invasion on land by tanks and thousands of Israeli troops. More than 60 000 civilians from Northern Gaza were ordered to leave their homes. These internally displaced people have nowhere to go since Central and Southern Gaza are also subjected to heavy artillery bombardment. The whole of Gaza is under attack. The only shelters in Gaza are the schools of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), uncertain shelters already targeted during Cast Lead, killing many.
According to Gaza Ministry of Health and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),1 as of July 21, 149 of the 558 killed in Gaza and 1100 of the 3504 wounded are children. Those buried under the rubble are not counted yet. As we write, the BBC reports of the bombing of another hospital, hitting the intensive care unit and operating theatres, with deaths of patients and staff. There are now fears for the main hospital Al Shifa. Moreover, most people are psychologically traumatised in Gaza. Anyone older than 6 years has already lived through their third military assault by Israel.
The massacre in Gaza spares no one, and includes the disabled and sick in hospitals, children playing on the beach or on the roof top, with a large majority of non-combatants. Hospitals, clinics, ambulances, mosques, schools, and press buildings have all been attacked, with thousands of private homes bombed, clearly directing fire to target whole families killing them within their homes, depriving families of their homes by chasing them out a few minutes before destruction. An entire area was destroyed on July 20, leaving thousands of displaced people homeless, beside wounding hundreds and killing at least 70—this is way beyond the purpose of finding tunnels. None of these are military objectives. These attacks aim to terrorise, wound the soul and the body of the people, and make their life impossible in the future, as well as also demolishing their homes and prohibiting the means to rebuild.
Weaponry known to cause long-term damages on health of the whole population are used; particularly non fragmentation weaponry and hard-head bombs.4, 5
We witnessed targeted weaponry used indiscriminately and on children and we constantly see that so-called intelligent weapons fail to be precise, unless they are deliberately used to destroy innocent lives.
We denounce the myth propagated by Israel that the aggression is done caring about saving civilian lives and children's wellbeing.
Israel's behaviour has insulted our humanity, intelligence, and dignity as well as our professional ethics and efforts. Even those of us who want to go and help are unable to reach Gaza due to the blockade.
This “defensive aggression” of unlimited duration, extent, and intensity must be stopped.
Additionally, should the use of gas be further confirmed, this is unequivocally a war crime for which, before anything else, high sanctions will have to be taken immediately on Israel with cessation of any trade and collaborative agreements with Europe.
As we write, other massacres and threats to the medical personnel in emergency services and denial of entry for international humanitarian convoys are reported.6
We as scientists and doctors cannot keep silent while this crime against humanity continues. We urge readers not to be silent too. Gaza trapped under siege, is being killed by one of the world's largest and most sophisticated modern military machines. The land is poisoned by weapon debris, with consequences for future generations. If those of us capable of speaking up fail to do so and take a stand against this war crime, we are also complicit in the destruction of the lives and homes of 1·8 million people in Gaza.
We register with dismay that only 5% of our Israeli academic colleagues signed an appeal to their government to stop the military operation against Gaza. We are tempted to conclude that with the exception of this 5%, the rest of the Israeli academics are complicit in the massacre and destruction of Gaza. We also see the complicity of our countries in Europe and North America in this massacre and the impotence once again of the international institutions and organisations to stop this massacre.
Absolutely nothing has changed since 2014, in fact the situation is far worse now on the ground in Gaza as Israel’s war crimes are blatantly aided and abetted by our governments.
Not in my name.
♦︎
Related posts:
Or in mine. Your work is noble and the world is awash with horror so intense it is hard not to seek dark vengeance.
you lost me when you started the "colonizer/colonized" language of the Marxist/woke worldview. Read your history and consider the appropriate response to an existential threat.