The lobby of the Frederic Wood Theatre was sombre with anticipation before last night’s event due to the anticipated gravity of the subject matter. The event had packed both the zoom room and the Theatre space with over 800 people attending across both platforms to listen to orthopedic surgeon Dr Deirdre Nunan and Co-Director of the Centre for Climate Justice Naomi Klein speak about the atrocities being carried out in Gaza by Israeli forces.
Dr Nunan was introduced by Dr Muhammad Sultan from BC Physicians Against Genocide, who asked the pertinent question as to why his organization was even necessary when surely all physicians would be against genocide. Sadly it seems that in BC, the vast majority of the medical profession is choosing to avert their gaze from the tragedies unfolding and preferring not to get involved. “Shame” a member of the crowd quite rightly called out. Dr Sultan shared statistics to provide context for Dr Nunan’s work: 18 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza have been completely destroyed; of the remaining, none are fully functioning. Aside from hospitals, 78% of all buildings have been destroyed. This devastation has left Palestinian residents with little infrastructure, virtually no ongoing healthcare support, and stresses across all aspects of life.
When Dr Nunan spoke, she provided a dispassionate but heart-wrenching description of her time in orthopedic surgery in Gaza, where she was performing surgeries most recently for a three-week period in July at the Nasser Medical Complex. Three weeks after she left, the hospital was hit with the ‘double tap’ shelling that killed several high-profile journalists. She had previously been working at the Gaza European Hospital that had been attacked in May. To say she was working in a dangerous area was an understatement.
Dr Nunan described the conditions that medical professionals are managing to work in, including a lack of water for basic sanitation, no air conditioning, and a vital CT scanner that is often out of commission due to lack of fuel for the generators. Rather than repeat all the unimaginable accounts that Dr Nunan recounted, below are just some of the poignant moments she described:
- The indignity of being an elderly person in Gaza, where there are no support systems, as she witnessed with an 87-yeal old male patient who had to be carried by his son on his back to his destination.
- A 25-year-old male patient who had shrapnel injuries, where you “cannot imagine how dirty the wounds of war are when the outside wound is so small.” The patient first had their leg amputated, then succumbed to infection in an abdominal wound.
- Her dislike of the use of the word “operation” for war activities: the same word to describe how to save lives is also used to describe destroying them.
- Medical students who are being asked to do so much in hospitals while they are also trying to keep up classes.
- Protection is provided for foreign doctors as they move across dangerous areas; the very same areas where Palestinians that they are treating are being forced to live in tents.
- She lamented cutting off the leg of a 19-year-old, and was reminded by a fellow doctor that “we are not the ones doing this.”
- The sharing of instant coffee amongst colleagues was such a valued treat that the doctors would take pictures of where they were drinking the coffee and share it. The cookies she brought being given to a 1-year-old child who had never eaten anything sweet because all she has known was famine and genocide.
Dr Nunan shared a message written by one of her colleagues, shown in full the picture below, the following lines hitting most heavy:
“But to be truly human means not abandoning those who need your humanity.
Tell the world about us.
Tell them that we were more human than those who only claimed to be.
Tell them we chose death over abandoning our noble mission.
Do not call us heroes-just tell them we understood what it truly means to be human.”
Mohammed Saqer, Nursing Director, Nasser Medical Complex.
It must be an almost impossible task to follow Dr Nunan, so rather than addressing similar issues, Naomi Klein spoke about the ideology behind Israel’s unjustifiable actions. She spoke about the connections between political Zionism and the genocide, arguing that Gaza is perceived not only as a security threat but also as a demographic threat, due to the core Zionist belief that Israel must maintain a Jewish majority at all costs. This demographic fixation helps explain the attacks on healthcare and children, and the unconscionable blockade on baby formula. It is the root cause of the dehumanization that Israel’s discourse is perpetuating.
She described the “chasm” in human morals that will continue to expand until it swallows more and more vulnerable people – unless Israel is held accountable for their crimes against humanity. She warned that the impunity that Israel is currently experiencing is already being exploited by other regimes.
She also spoke about the connections between the genocide and climate justice, pointing to the ecological destruction in Gaza, the soaring emissions linked to the military, and ways that the erosion of international humanitarian law are already impacting migrants. She pointed out that climate action relies on a functional multilateral system.
There is much we can do to erode Israel’s sense of impunity. She provided the following suggestions:
- Read Francesca Albanese’s most recent report ‘From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide’ which dissects the companies profiting the most from the mechanics of settler colonialism, the economy of displacement and replacement of Palestinian people. It’s a great tool to identify the most impactful strategies for Boycott and Divestment, which we can do individually and as institutions.
- You can find the report linked here.
- Boycott and Divestment are only part of the prescribed ‘BDS’ tactics – S is for sanctions, and it is governments that can do this. In the US there is a ‘Block the Bombs’ bill, in Canada we say we don’t ship weapons to Israel but there is a large loophole where we can ship weapons to the US who can ship them to Israel.
- Vancouver NDP MP Jenny Kwan has introduced a private members’ bill called ‘the no more loopholes bill.’ You can call your MP and ask them to back the bill. https://www.cjpme.org/
- To put pressure on Ottawa, there is also a family reunification program where promises were made to provide temporary visas for Palestinians in Gaza to reunite with family in Canada. The Liberals are doing next to nothing to help, claiming that they cannot check biometric identification in Gaza. We need to put pressure on the government to open a humanitarian corridor immediately.
- There are lots of groups at UBC you can join so you don’t have to feel like you are doing it yourself:
Naomi closed with a quote from Irish writer Jack Sheehan, who said “If we were to do nothing useful for the rest of our days, save to hasten the arrival of a free and democratic Palestine with equal rights for all, ours would be lives worth living.”
