The resonating call at every protest for Palestinian freedom and equality, encapsulated in the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” last month faced charges of antisemitism, genocidal incitement, and led to the resignations of the presidents of Harvard and UPenn. This month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu countered that “the State of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea,” leaving “no space” for a Palestinian state.

Israel’s staunch rejection of Palestinian statehood raises unsettling questions. At best, it points toward an era of prolonged apartheid. However, the grim reality is that the systematic destruction of Gaza is aimed at preventing the return of Palestinians to their homes.

Israeli ministers have put forward radical suggestions regarding the fate of Palestinians in Gaza, ranging from a nuclear strike to forced relocation on an artificial island. Calls for a second Nakba reverberate within the Knesset, drawing unsettling parallels to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israel in 1948. Reflecting on this, Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, an authority on the Nakba, observes “the Nakba has never really ended for the Palestinians.”

In his article “Navigating Our Humanity: On the Four Lessons from Ukraine,” Pappé critically compares Russia’s assault on Ukraine with Israel’s actions in Gaza. Pappé highlights the West’s double standards regarding its support for Israel. “When it comes to Palestine,” he notes, “the hypocrisy reaches a new level.” The United States’ “refusal to condemn Israeli aggression and war crimes exposes its hypocrisy about the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” corroborates Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Chris Hedges.

Israel’s treatment of Gaza openly violates the heart of the Geneva Conventions, specifically the prohibition of collective punishment, as they aim to portray the entirety of Palestinian society as militarized and culpable.

The consequences are evident, with hospitals now transformed into morgues. Claims that hospitals in Gaza, including Al-Shifa, are used as command and control centers by Palestinian fighters lack credible evidence and are fiercely disputed. In their investigation of Al-Shifa hospital, the Washington Post concluded that “the evidence presented by the Israeli government falls short of showing that Hamas had been using the hospital as a command and control center.” Notably, Israel has not supported an independent investigation and has prevented the entry of journalists into Gaza.

Yet, even if a hospital were to serve a military function, humanitarian protections must endure for patients and medical staff. “Anything that the attacking force can do to allow the humanitarian functions of that hospital to continue, they’re obligated to do,” according to Adil Haq, the Judge Newman Scholar at Rutgers Law School, “even if there’s some office somewhere in the building where there is a fighter holed up.”

In marking 100 days since Oct. 7, President Joe Biden could not spare one word on the killing of over 30,000 Palestinians. With health care under fire, if even Ben and Jerry’s can take a principled stand for a cease-fire, there’s an unequivocal call for medical organizations to do the same.

At Sutter Health, a collective appeal by physicians and employees led to a commitment from top administrators to acknowledge the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Despite these assurances, administration officials chose instead to meet with the Anti-Defamation League, an anti-Arab organization that openly declares “an agenda to suppress pro-Palestinian activism.”

The events in Gaza, according to Richard Falk, Princeton professor and former United Nations Human Rights Rapporteur, are deemed “the most transparent genocide in all of human history.” The paradox of our leaders simultaneously honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. while turning a blind eye to a genocide is a striking manifestation of cognitive dissonance. The Palestinians are treated as real-life “unpeople.” It is not the eyes that are blind, but the hearts within the chests.

Published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Posted here with hyperlink citations.

Aly Mohamed, MD is affiliated with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Sutter Health in Santa Cruz.