Monday, July 21, 2014

Letter to Obama from Gaza by a Norwegian Doctor


Image credit: AP

While the western media talks endlessly about the downing of MH17 and the blaming of Russia without evidence gathered, they say nothing about the weapons America has sold to Israel, which the IDF then uses to indiscriminately kill Palestinian civilians. Israel is saying that Hamas is using the body count to "gain sympathy" and that this is all in the name of "self defense." For this blog post, I am reposting Letter from Gaza by a Norwegian doctor. The doctor is Dr. Mads Gilbert. But first, an introduction by another doctor, from Norwegian doctor invites Obama to Gaza hospital:
Dr Gilbert’s Norwegian partner in the Gaza mission, Dr Mohammad Abu Arab, said apart from attending casualties, they were also eyewitness to the violations of human rights.
“Israeli strikes are launched randomly with no military targets at all,” he told Gulf News, adding that more than 500 Palestinians had been killed so far — the majority of them innocent civilians. Many of them are children and women, proving that the vengeful Israeli assaults target civilians, the doctor said.
“We have come to this conclusion according to the statistics of the injured people and the nature of the injuries where victims, heads and chests are mainly targeted by the Israeli forces,” he said.
“The wholesale killing of Palestinian civilians clearly indicates that killers on the field had been ordered to kill as many of those civilians as they can in the shortest possible time. This inhuman trend of war must be halted with immediate effect.”
Dr Abu Arab said the general health conditions in Gaza were catastrophic, give with the dire shortage of drugs, electricity, water, and medical needs such as disposables, operating room tables, instruments, and monitors.
“Gaza health capabilities were far better in the previous two aggressions than the current catastrophic conditions of the ongoing assault,” he said. “The humanitarian conditions in Gaza imply an immediate lift of the blockade imposed on the coastal enclave as this blockade is in itself a crime against humanity.”
LETTER FROM DR. MADS GILBERT

Dearest friends,
The last night was extreme. The "ground invasion" of Gaza resulted in scores and carloads with maimed, torn apart, bleeding, shivering, dying - all sorts of injured Palestinians, all ages, all civilians, all innocent.
The heroes in the ambulances and in all of Gaza's hospitals are working 12-24 hour shifts, grey from fatigue and inhuman workloads (without payment all in Shifa for the last 4 months), they care, triage, try to understand the incomprehensible chaos of bodies, sizes, limbs, walking, not walking, breathing, not breathing, bleeding, not bleeding humans. HUMANS!
Now, once more treated like animals by "the most moral army in the world" (sic!).
My respect for the wounded is endless, in their contained determination in the midst of pain, agony and shock; my admiration for the staff and volunteers is endless, my closeness to the Palestinian "sumud" gives me strength, although in glimpses I just want to scream, hold someone tight, cry, smell the skin and hair of the warm child, covered in blood, protect ourselves in an endless embrace - but we cannot afford that, nor can they.
Ashy grey faces - Oh NO! Not one more load of tens of maimed and bleeding, we still have lakes of blood on the floor in the ER, piles of dripping, blood-soaked bandages to clear out - oh - the cleaners, everywhere, swiftly shovelling the blood and discarded tissues, hair, clothes,cannulas - the leftovers from death - all taken away ... to be prepared again, to be repeated all over. More then 100 cases came to Shifa in the last 24 hrs. Enough for a large well trained hospital with everything, but here - almost nothing: no electricity, water, disposables, drugs, OR-tables, instruments, monitors - all rusted and as if taken from museums of yesterday's hospitals. But they do not complain, these heroes. They get on with it, like warriors, head on, enormously resolute.
And as I write these words to you, alone, on a bed, my tears flow, the warm but useless tears of pain and grief, of anger and fear. This is not happening!
An then, just now, the orchestra of the Israeli war-machine starts its gruesome symphony again, just now: salvos of artillery from the navy boats just down on the shores, the roaring F16, the sickening drones (Arabic 'Zennanis', the hummers), and the cluttering Apaches. So much made in and paid by the US.
Mr. Obama - do you have a heart?
I invite you - spend one night - just one night - with us in Shifa. Disguised as a cleaner, maybe.
I am convinced, 100%, it would change history.
Nobody with a heart AND power could ever walk away from a night in Shifa without being determined to end the slaughter of the Palestinian people.
But the heartless and merciless have done their calculations and planned another "dahyia" onslaught on Gaza.
The rivers of blood will keep running the coming night. I can hear they have tuned their instruments of death.
Please. Do what you can. This, THIS cannot continue.
Mads Gilbert MD PhD
Professor and Clinical Head
Clinic of Emergency Medicine
University Hospital of North Norway


AMERICA'S REACTION?

So far, a phone call to President Netanyahu by Obama criticizing him for over-stepping the bounds of military protocol.  Nothing concerning sanctions, yet the U.S. has quickly slapped them on Russia for what I see as Russia defending its own self-interests after a western backed coup in Ukraine. But even this - yes even this - has been criticized by Forbes magazine - from President Obama Needs To Stand With Our Allies:
But with all the talk about the MH17 crash and the Israeli invasion, commentators and, indeed, politicians, are missing a larger point: The US is not standing up for its allies.
In the case of Israel, President Obama made his second phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in three days not to offer his unequivocal support, but to criticize Israel for overreaching. Obama told Netanyahu that Kerry will travel to Cairo to press for an immediate cease fire.
What’s more, John Kerry defended Israel’s right to take action on the Sunday talk shows, but also made critical comments privately that were captured by Fox News on a live microphone. Chris Wallace, the Fox interviewer, confronted Kerry with a tape of the remarks during his appearance wherein Kerry is heard saying, “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation…We’ve got to get over there.”
Well thank goodness that unlike the media President Obama is waiting for the evidence on the crash of MH17. And for once we have a President that does not give unconditional support for Israel. And where is the outrage in the U.S. over the killing of civilians by the Israeli military, from U.S. made weapons? So shame on Forbes magazine.

Does Israel deserve aid to the amount of 3 billion dollars per year, paid by the U.S. tax payer?  Do you think ever Israel will moderate its policy and be interested in peace if the U.S. keeps putting money in their pockets?

And the typical reaction of pro-Israelis is that any criticism is "anti-Semitic."  Judaism is one thing, but Zionism is another, and there are even Jews who oppose Zionism:



The sad thing is, the Palestinians are close genetic relatives to the Jews. They are killing their brothers and sisters. For a quick history of this Israeli-Palestinian conflict, see this excellent short video,

A Beginner's Guide to the Israeli Palestinian Conflict






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