International Palestinian Children’s Day– Not A Celebration

SAN FRANCISCO (04-05) – In recognition of International Palestinian Children’s Day, healthcare workers along with human rights activists and others held a vigil today outside of the prestigious UCSF Parnassus medical school hospital campus library mourning the killing of more than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza, of which 70 percent are women and children.

The vigil organized by Healthcare Workers 4 Palestine and the UPTE CWA 9119 union, who are employed at UCSF, also recognized the 72,000 wounded thus far “…of whom a vast number are children who have had to suffer amputations without anesthesia because of Apartheid Israel’s illegal blockade of humanitarian aid.” Horrifically too, a new category of victims, WCNSF- Wounded Child No Surviving Family was coined by humanitarian aid workers to describe many in denoting those among the many others who have suffered additional insuperable loss.

All this destruction that has been rained down upon Gazans by the Israeli military (IDF) has been achieved using both US and UK bombs in addition to numerous other armament and money in furtherance of “Israeli objectives” so costly to so many innocent victims’ lives.

The organizers issued a statement saying “We denounce the bombing of Gaza, of hospitals, schools, universities, and we denounce the forced starvation of the more than two million people of Gaza via the refusal by Israel to allow land-based aid into Gaza via the borders. All these actions by Israel constitute War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity and there is more than ample evidence that was presented to the International Court of Justice by South Africa. This evidence supports the position that Israel and any country selling arms to Israel is plausibly guilty of GENOCIDE.”

The medical professionals particularly noted the appalling deaths in and destruction of the hospitals in Gaza and the recent two-week siege of Al-Shifa hospital that now lays in complete ruin. In demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire the activists called for ending all US aid to Israel and the resumption of funding for UNRWA including emergency humanitarian aid for all Gazans. This just three days after Israeli forces attacked a three vehicle World Central Kitchen convoy in which seven volunteers were killed. This despite having communicated their intentions to the Israeli military in disclosing their plans and movements for safe passage.

Other demands by the group include that the “University of California DIVEST from Israel in its pension and endowment funds and refuse to hire or collaborate with any of the 100 Israeli ‘doctors’ that signed on to a letter in November of last year urging the bombing of hospitals in Gaza.” The letter, written in Hebrew, and widely reported on at the time states that “Attacking terrorist (alleged) headquarters located inside of a hospital is the right of the IDF and its duty.”

This declaration is in contravention to the first and fourth Geneva Conventions that provide for hospitals and the setting up of safety zones while strictly prohibiting “attacks on hospitals” unless they are used to carry out “harmful attacks by an enemy.” Even then, the hospital must be notified and allowed time to thwart any further hostility, and any retaliation must be proportional. Israel has adopted a different methodology however of total and complete destruction of every hospital in Gaza as part of its campaign to rid the territory of its inhabitants.

Speaking to those assembled, UCSF medical interpreter Elizabeth Milos expressed her amazement at the lack of global outrage for the 15,000 children who have died with no backlash for their deaths, the worse such catastrophe to have occurred this century thus far. She characterized the lack of condemnation for the deaths by saying “It is like we are resigned to accept.”

The Israeli government has increasingly become so callous and indifferent to Palestinian lives that other preposterous claims advanced by some Israeli politicians blame “the children of Gaza (who) have brought this upon themselves.”

Healthcare Workers 4 Palestine also declared that “An institution of higher education and of healthcare should not be an investor in any business that manufactures weapons or of businesses that aid a government that commits war crimes. In fact, we stand in solidarity with Palestinian civil society and trade unions in support of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement where we demand UC academically Boycott Israel from any and all participation with UC. We are asking UC to do the right thing and cleanse itself from its Genocidal ties to Apartheid Israel.”

In having made their positions clear to the hospital university’s senior leadership, healthcare workers have also called for “The release of all hostages, including the 10,000 Palestinians that Israel holds in jails under military law instead of civil law.” They expressed their disappointment in the “less than morally acceptable response” in which leadership insisted firmly that “…any expression of solidarity w/Palestine could in any way be construed as antisemitic which could endanger Jewish students.”

Elizabeth Milos told of staff members who have been reprimanded for wearing a Palestinian watermelon pin and told to remove them because they were not allowed and are a violation of the “hospital dress code.” She went on to note, however, that those wearing keffiyehs have oddly not been challenged to remove them. “So that’s the response the hospital has instead of saying Don’t Bomb Hospitals.”

Anita, another a healthcare worker at UCSF, challenged and questioned why UCSF and other hospital along with Oakland’s Children’s Hospital have not spoken out in condemning the attacks on hospitals, health care workers, ambulance crews and innocent civilians seeking medical treatment and shelter in Gaza.

Speaking personally, she related that “It is a very distressing situation to know that you work in a hospital that will not declare that hospital to be a safe place. What does it mean for us if we cannot demonstrate the five UCSF PRIDE values. It means I am feeling let down by my employer on those standards they strive for. I believe that we can do better.”

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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