Palestine Health Justice Working Group Statement

Palestine Health Justice Working Group Statement on Spring 2021 Attacks on Health in Palestine – Signatures of Support from Public Health Professionals

The Palestine Health Justice Working Group of the American Public Health Association (APHA) calls for: (1) an immediate ceasefire in Gaza; (2) an end to Israeli state-sponsored violence against the Palestinian people, in Israel, in the West Bank, in Jerusalem, and in Gaza; and (3) an end to the 15-year old economic blockade and siege by land, sea and air of Gaza that has facilitated the destruction of the healthcare system and deteriorating health for Palestinians living there.

We call for independent investigations into attacks on civilians, healthcare, and healthcare workers, which are in clear violation of international law and the ethics of public health. Between May 10 and May 18, 2021, Israeli forces have killed more than 22 Palestinians in the West Bank and more than 213 Palestinians in Gaza – in Gaza, at least 116 were civilians, including 60 children and 34 women; over 58,000 Palestinians have become displaced in Gaza, including 43,000 seeking shelter in UNRWA schools (1). There are many reported instances of the Israeli military blocking access to health care services, including preventing ambulance entry into the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem (2), bombing of the main roads that lead to the primary hospital in Gaza, Al-Shifa Hospital (3), and creating such dangerous conditions that healthcare workers are being asked to stay home, for fear of their safety en route to work, including workers from 22 UNRWA health clinics (4); killings of healthcare professionals (including Dr Ayman Abu Auf, head of the internal medicine department and Coronavirus response at Gaza’s largest hospital al-Shifa (5) and Dr. Mo’in Ahmad al-Aloul, one of the few neurologists in Gaza (6)); hostilities that interfere with healthcare delivery, such as Israeli troops invading the Al-Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem (7); attacks on Palestinian ambulances (8); and destruction of critical healthcare infrastructure, including to the only COVID-19 testing facility in Gaza (9) and damage to at least 18 other clinics in Gaza (10, 11, 12, 13) . Many of our medical and public health colleagues who work in Palestine charge that the attacks on infrastructure and medical personnel are part of an ongoing, deliberate attempt to undermine health, well-being, and sovereignty in Palestine – a project rooted in settler-colonialism and apartheid (14, 15).

We call for an independent investigation of the short- and long- term health effects of the recent attacks, including the effects on rates of physical and mental disability related to the physical and emotional trauma of the attacks and the ongoing aggression.

We call for the public health community to join the international community in holding Israel accountable and pushing to end the support of our governments for Israel’s control and destruction of Palestinian land and infrastructure; this includes advocating to stop financial support like the current proposed military aid package to Israel from the United States. We also urge our public health organizations and colleagues to support the investigation by the ICC into war crimes, decry the US blocking of the ICC investigation, and denounce the US blocking of the UN Security council statement on a ceasefire that would immediately save lives and resources necessary for the Palestinian health system.

The American Public Health Association promotes an unequivocal belief that health is a human right. In recent years, APHA has asserted that the prevention of genocide (#200030), the health effects of militarism (#8531), the health of refugees (#8531), law enforcement violence (#201811), attacks on healthcare workers (#201910), and health within armed conflict and war (#20095) are public health matters deserving of our attention and action. As an organized body within APHA focused on health justice in Palestine, the Palestine Health Justice Working Group urges APHA, one of the leading global public health organizations, to voice its opposition to Israel’s continual assaults on Palestinian health and freedom, as it has in contexts of Iran (#277718), Iraq (#200617), South Africa (#9122), Nicaragua (#8306), Yemen (LB19-13), and other locations. We urge our public health colleagues to continue to act on the ethics of our profession and speak out against Israeli state-sponsored destruction of Palestinian health, infrastructure, and public health workforce in our organizations and communities.