Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah on Israel’s Destruction of Gaza’s Hospitals DemocracyNow!, April 1, 2024 https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/1/gaza_hospital_destruction_al_shifa
*Israeli forces withdrew from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City today after a two-week raid that has left most of the medical complex in ruins. Since October, Gaza’s health sector has been completely decimated, leaving only a dozen hospitals partially functional as the entire medical infrastructure is relentlessly shelled, besieged and raided. We speak to British Palestinian reconstructive surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who spent over a month treating patients at Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli Baptist hospitals. He pays tribute to Dr. Ahmad Maqadmeh, a fellow surgeon who was found killed today alongside his mother at Al-Shifa. “I blame the Western journalists, who perpetuated the narrative that militarized the hospital as a justifiable and acceptable target,” says Abu-Sittah about Maqadmeh’s death. “This was a war Israel declared on Palestinian children,” he later concludes, “because Palestinian children represent the Palestinian tomorrow that is incompatible with the Zionist settler-colonial project.” Plus, we hear from a trauma surgeon currently volunteering at the European Hospital in Khan Younis. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa describes the scene at the hospital as a squalid shelter for thousands of refugees. “There’s no privacy, no dignity for any of these people,” he says.* . . . DR. GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: . . . Now, with regards to Shifa, Shifa was 30% of the capacity of the health system in Gaza. And so, the destruction of Shifa, the wanton destruction of Shifa, is a critical component of Israel’s plan to genocidally make sure that Gaza becomes an uninhabitable place even after a ceasefire happens. By destroying Shifa and making sure that it is irreparable, the Israelis are trying to make sure that, for years to come, Gaza does not have a functioning health system. Shifa now needs to be completely demolished, and a new building and a new hospital built, which means you’re looking at three to five years once the building starts. This is part of the genocidal machine. ... I blame the Western journalists, who perpetuated the narrative that militarized the hospital as a justifiable and an acceptable target to the Israelis. These genocide enablers, these Western journalists, from the very beginning, peddled these stories that the Israelis were feeding them about Shifa being on top of this massive complex of a command-and-control center. ... . . . DR. GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: ... As the war progressed, as the health system became so overwhelmed, previously reconstructable limbs became unrestrictable and required amputation to save the patients’ lives from gangrene and infection. And so, what we have is a process by which these children — and my estimate is that they are now probably around 4,000 to 5,000 — these children are now left with disabilities that will change the course of their lives. We know from the medical literature that each child with a lower limb prosthetic will need a new prosthetic every six months, because their body outgrows the length of the prosthesis, and will need between eight and 12 surgeries by the time they’re of adult age, because the bone grows faster than the soft tissues, or the nerves attach themselves to the skin and they can’t wear the prosthesis. And so, this is a lifelong trajectory of surgery and of disability and of mental health scarring as a result of the deformity. Take into account, in addition to that, that a lot of these children are orphaned. You know, there are 17,000 children in Gaza who have lost their parents, and many of these are wounded children. And so, to go through all of this with no family to look after you is just — the legacy will be the legacy of this war. And this is a war — from the very beginning, this was a war Israel declared on Palestinian children. You know, Israel wants to wipe out Palestinian children, because Palestinian children represent the Palestinian tomorrow that is incompatible with the Zionist settler-colonial project. Zionists cannot envision a Palestinian tomorrow and were targeting Palestinian children. . . . AMY GOODMAN: Doctor, The Washington Post is reporting the Biden administration just authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel, the arms package including more than 1,800 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, which can be used to level entire city blocks, U.S. also sending 500 MK-82 500-pound bombs and 25 F-35 fighter jets. I’m wondering if you can comment on this, especially in light of recently being elected rector of the University of Glasgow, your alma mater. It was a position once held by Winnie Mandela. You won by a wide majority, running on a pro-Palestinian solidarity platform and urging divestment from the arms trade. Can you talk about this? DR. GHASSAN ABU-SITTAH: So, one of the things you do realize when you leave this death world in Gaza and you come out to the outside world is that you come to realize that Israel is just the tip of genocidal iceberg, that the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, all of these NATO countries represent the remainder of the genocidal project. And these countries are not just supporting Israel. They are supporting Israel’s genocidal project, because, as the Colombian president said, they want to send the message to any other troublesome Native who considers changing the rules of the global game by rebelling. And so, when we talk about the genocide, we should not just talk about the Israelis as the perpetrators of the genocide. We should talk about the “Axis of Genocide,” these countries, these governments that are perpetuating this genocide. And we know just not just this article. There’s also been another article showing how much intelligence information has been passed on to the Israelis that ensured the Israelis are able to carry out these massacres. And so, when we talk about the genocide, it’s an American, British, French, European genocide against the Palestinian people, of which Israel is the spearhead but not just the sole perpetrator. . . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#29772): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/29772 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/105278216/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
