As the official death toll in Gaza passes more than 42,400, the true number may be impossible to know until Israel’s war is over. But medical workers who witnessed the carnage in Gaza’s hospitals are speaking out. We speak with Dr. Feroze Sidhwa about his op-ed in The New York Times that features harrowing stories from dozens of healthcare workers and CT scans of children shot in the head or the left side of the chest.
The Times called the corresponding images of the patients too graphic to publish. “I personally wish that Americans could see more of what it looks like when a child is shot in the head, when a child is flayed open by bombs,” says Sidhwa. “I think it would make us think a little bit more about what we do in the world.”
We also speak with Palestinian nurse Rajaa Musleh, who worked at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. “I will never forget the dogs were eating the dead body inside Shifa Hospital at the front of the emergency department.
This will be stuck on my mind for my whole life,” says Musleh. “My message for the whole world: We are human beings. We are not numbers. We have the right to receive healthcare inside Gaza.”
It’s hard for the whole world to do anything when the largest economy on Earth will undo any small step, political statement or protest with large amounts of cash, weapons and strong arming allied countries to agree with them via trade and sanctions, such as via the Anti Israel Boycott act H.R. 6940 which even affects the European Union. The whole world isn’t just standing aside. It’s just hard to stand on the path of the freight train that is the USA.
Nevertheless the ICC is proceeding, protest are occurring in many cities worldwide to embargo Israel and the UN is trying to prevent the US from sweeping this under the rug with constant world affirmations of rights of a Palestinian state and condemnations of Israeli actions, despite the US voting against.
Nobel prize winners are using their time in the spotlight to speak about it, presidents and prime ministers are urging more countries to stop trading with Israel, universities are refusing collaboration with Israel universities and exchange programs, investment capital is refusing to invest in Israeli companies and even Israeli tourists are being shunned abroad in several countries, including mine where they were booed on the streets. All this in the face of potential retaliatory action from the US.
Of course, it’s not what we hoped it would be or as effective as we need it to be for our dying Palestinian and Lebanese brothers and sisters, but it is a far cry from standing aside doing nothing. People are doing things and it would be a hell of a lot easier if the US either stopped helping the enemy or at the very least did nothing. I don’t wanna be writing “America bad” posts, I’ve been trying to make an effort to avoid making sweeping hot take statements about the US in general, but hot damn, in this case, i can’t help it. America very bad on Israel support and this will tarnish US international image for ages to come, even worse than the war on terror did.
The international community sees the US right now as the americans see Harris. It’s better than the alternative, sure, but we’d sure enjoy a whole lot less of genocide right about now.
I… Doubt it. The alternative is China, who despite their general nonsense don’t really do violent imperialism AFAIK.