DGH statement on Gaza
POSTED ON JANUARY 8, 2025 CATEGORIES: DGH ACTIONS
June 20th, 2024
We, Doctors for Global Health, write with a broken heart, this letter to publicly condemn the
horrific atrocities ongoing in Gaza, which the UN Special Rapporteur has stated that there are
“reasonable grounds” to declare a genocide.1 As a US based organization, we write to call for
an immediate ceasefire and the cessation of offensive US military aid to Israel. We are a small
private not-for-profit international organization composed of health professionals, artists,
therapists, musicians, educators, parents, survivors of war, and a myriad of other labels. We
were founded in the mountains of El Salvador in 1995, amid the grief and poverty of a post civil-
war society out of a spirit of health internationalism. Since then we have dedicated our time to
accompany communities in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Peru, Uganda, and the United States. We find inspiration from the principles of liberation
medicine, the conscious and conscientious use of health to promote social justice, human
dignity, human rights and peace.
There is so much suffering in this world we find ourselves, but since the brutal murder of 1200
lives by Hamas on October 7th, the onslaught of devastation has been overwhelming. The
ongoing atrocities perpetrated by the state of Israel, funded and armed by the US government,
has as of this writing killed over 37,000, wounded 81,000, a large percentage being women and
children. It has displaced the majority of the 2,000,000 inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, 723 healthcare workers have been killed, another 924 wounded and 450 health
facilities attacked. In addition, the use of starvation to further devastate the Palestinian people
is a clear form of collective punishment and an international war crime.2
We call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages,
the immediate release of all humanitarian aid to Gaza, the cessation of all offensive military
weapons to Israel. We call for the right to return for those displaced in Gaza. We call for the end
of state-backed violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and for the end of the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian Territories. We call for an end to the brutal repression in all its forms of
protesting college students and activists who are valiantly rising up against these atrocities and
standing for justice.
DGH’s affirmation that every human life is equally precious compels us to stand with those who
struggle for social justice, human rights and peace. True health is based on people living free of
oppression, violence and colonization. The Palestinian people, the Israeli people deserve no
less. May we honor the words of the Palestinian poet Dr. Refaat Alareer, killed by an Israeli
airstrike with his family in December 2023:
If I must die
“If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze–and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself–
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale”3
May we find our way back to ourselves, to stop the killing, and begin building a world worthy of
all of our children.
Doctors for Global Health, DGH
—
“If I Must Die” ↩︎
“Rights expert finds ‘reasonable grounds’ genocide is being committed in Gaza“
“I am now persuaded that Israel is engaged in genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. What has changed my mind is its sustained
policy of obstructing the movement of humanitarian assistance into the territory.”
Aryeh Neier, German-born Jewish Holocaust survivor, founder of Human Rights Watch.
ICJ finds genocide case against Israel ‘plausible’, orders it to stop violations
A top U.N. court says Gaza genocide is ‘plausible’ but does not order cease-fire ↩︎
“WHO situational report”
Gaza: Hamas, Israel committed war crimes, claims independent rights probe ↩︎
You can also send checks to:
Doctors for Global Health
P. O. Box 1761
Decatur, GA 30031 U.S.A.
Our non-profit, tax-exempt ID number is EIN: 58-2194069
About Doctors For Global Health and its Global Health Initiatives
Doctors for Global Health is comprised of hundreds of health professionals, students, educators, artists, attorneys, engineers, retirees, and others. Together, we build long-term relationships between people and communities around the world to find effective solutions to social justice issues.
DGH has a unique way of carrying out its mission and global health initiatives, focusing on helping to make underserved communities healthy in the broadest definition possible. DGH supports community-oriented projects, including primary care, health education, vaccination campaigns, childhood nutrition programs, physical rehabilitation programs, and more in the communities where it works. DGH believes in and promotes human rights as a fundamental component of health, which is critical for to self-determination. In addition, DGH believes education is essential to a community’s health, as is economic well-being and environmental safety.
Furthermore, DGH interweaves the arts into its work, believing the soul needs nourishing as much as the body. DGH works closely with the communities that it accompanies in participatory investigation: being invited by the community, working with it to explore its strengths and weaknesses in health, establishing priorities toward better health, developing initiatives to address the chosen priorities, and evaluating their success. DGH works side-by-side with community members as partners rather than clients or victims. Doctors for Global Health sees empowering and walking with communities as key to global health initiatives.
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