Global Health Workers Demand “End to Gaza Genocide” with Worldwide Day of Action
7 January 2025 by Dax Everly
Global Healthcare Workers to Rally for an End to Violence in Gaza
As the destructive campaign in Gaza by Israel reaches 15 months, featuring escalated assaults on medical facilities and personnel, a global collective of advocacy groups is initiating a day of action dubbed #SickFromGenocide. This event, scheduled for Monday, aims to protest against the systematic attacks on health services.
The event is orchestrated by Doctors Against Genocide (DAG) alongside co-sponsors such as Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Do No Harm Coalition, Labor for Palestine, and the Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council. These organizations are urging healthcare professionals worldwide to take a mental health day to contemplate the deep ethical wounds inflicted by financing what they describe as a genocide. The day also encourages participants to vocally demand an end to the violence in Gaza.
The upcoming Monday will witness the global vigil “Sick From Genocide” and the establishment of temporary clinics in various U.S. cities, a country that annually allocates substantial funds for military aid to Israel.
In a recent press release, DAG expressed their horror over the past 15 months witnessing incessant attacks that have devastated families and children. “Hospitals, which should be sanctuaries of life-saving care, have been transformed into zones of peril,” they stated. Highlighted incidents such as the attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital and the detention of pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya underscore the intentional targeting of healthcare workers and facilities, a strategy meant to hasten the destruction and displacement of Palestinians in Gaza.
Dr. Rupa Marya, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and a member of DAG who is currently suspended for her outspoken views, spoke to Common Dreams about the necessity for healthcare workers to take a break to mourn and care for themselves. She advocates for healthcare professionals to call in sick on January 6th, symbolizing their sickness from witnessing genocide.
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Dr. Marya emphasized the toll on healthcare workers, stating, “We are exhausted from over a year of these horrifying images and the denial of our humanity at our workplaces, where our voices are suppressed, and we are labeled as ‘haters’ for opposing genocide.” She encourages healthcare workers to mobilize, set up street pop-up clinics, and provide care to those affected by or sick from genocide.
Moreover, Dr. Marya demands that healthcare institutions sever ties with nations actively engaged in genocide and insists that the U.S. halt arms shipments to Israel. She points out the irony of the U.S. funding another nation’s military while its own citizens struggle with healthcare affordability and homelessness due to medical debt.
She argues for a healthcare revolution based on moral values, community love, and justice. “Why are we dedicating funds to dismantle another nation’s healthcare system when those funds could be used to improve our own?” she questioned, referencing the recent assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as a grim reminder of the dire state of healthcare in the U.S.
Dr. Marya concluded with a poignant inquiry about the allocation of U.S. funds, questioning the ethics and logic behind supporting overseas military operations at the expense of domestic healthcare needs.
