Healthcare students and workers calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

As healthcare students and workers, we have been horrified by Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. We call on the Australian Labor government to demand for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the illegal Israeli occupation in all Palestinian territories. We ask the Australian government to intensify their efforts to provide medical care, psychological support, and basic necessities to Gazans under the Israeli siege and provide ongoing aid to Gaza’s healthcare system. We also call on the Australian Medical Association and the Australian Nurses and Midwifery Federation to abide by the fundamentals of the health profession and urgently and publicly support the ongoing movement for Palestinian liberation, justice and health.

We call on the Australian Government to:

1. Call for and take actions to ensure an immediate ceasefire.
2. Call for an end to the Israeli occupation and apartheid system across all of Palestine and Israel
3. To recognise Palestine as a sovereign state
4. Intensify efforts to provide direct humanitarian aid including but not limited to: medical care, psychological support, and basic necessities to Gaza’s healthcare system.
5. Impose sanctions on the Israeli state until a ceasefire and withdrawal from Palestinian territories has occurred
6. Make clear the supply, funding and support of the Israeli state from the Australian government, including clarification regarding the role of Pine Gap surveillance base in Israeli security and Israel Occupational Forces operations
7. Cease all activity regarding the supply, funding and support of the Israeli apartheid regime

We call on the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Australian Nurses and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), training colleges, health unions, universities, and societies to:

1. Call for an immediate ceasefire and a just peace
2. Call for increased aid and health resources to Palestine, respecting the self-determined provision of those resources
3. Denounce war crimes relating to the decimation of health infrastructure, withholding of health resources, and the killing of health and aid workers
4. Cease the censorship of health workers and students speaking against genocide
5. Protect health workers and students who speak up against genocide from penalisation
6. Divest from any Israeli partnerships or funding
7. Provide education for health workers and students about the ongoing history of the colonisation, genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestine 

Palestinians have suffered and resisted Israeli colonisation, ethnic cleansing, and occupation for the past 75 years under an apartheid regime. As the world watches, this colonial violence has intensified over the past month, leading to the death of over 10,000 and the displacement of over 1.5 million Palestinians. Palestinians are experiencing an extreme lack of access to food, water, and essential services, including medical care, due to Israel’s brutal siege enforced on Gaza.

Israel has targeted hospitals, medical facilities, ambulances, health and humanitarian aid workers, while simultaneously blocking the passage of medical resources into Gaza. The resources include vital medications, anaesthesia, antibiotics and blood for transfusions, as well as the fuel and electricity necessary to power health infrastructure. This decimation has been employed strategically and intentionally throughout Israel’s bombardment as they attempt to force Palestinians to leave their homes. Under the UN’s Geneva convention, Israel is committing war crimes.

As health professionals, it is essential that we take a stand against all forms of torture, colonisation, and genocide. The immediate and ongoing health impacts produced by Israel’s assault cannot be overstated. We state unequivocally that we are aggrieved by all civilian deaths in this conflict, including the loss of Israeli civilian lives. However, the idea that both sides are equally culpable does not hold. The genocidal violence of Israel, a nuclear superpower with one of the strongest militaries in the world bolstered the backing of Western governments, is not commensurate to the attack by Hamas.

We have been deeply concerned by health institutions who have chosen to take a ‘neutral’ stance, or remained silent on the daily horror of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. The concept of neutrality in medical spaces has been significantly misused. Neutrality, a principle of medicine and humanitarian aid, means providing care to any person that needs it, regardless of their politics or positionality. It does not mean remaining silent in the face of a glaring injustice. Maintaining neutrality on matters of oppression effectively represents an alignment with the oppressor.

By weaponising ‘impartiality’ and ‘neutrality’, medical spaces and universities are able to uphold conservative values and censor those who question them. We will not be forced to remain silent in response to war crimes, humanitarian crises, and genocide. Rather, it is our responsibility and privilege to use our position to amplify Palestinian voices and to demand that Israel respect rights to life, self-determination, and the highest attainable standards of health.

While Western governments around the world support and seek to justify Israel’s genocidal violence, it is imperative that we demand justice for Palestinians including an end to Israeli occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, as is essential for any lasting peace. We stand strongly against both islamophobia and antisemitism and reject any claims that opposition to the colonial violence of Zionism is antisemitic.

For those who are seeking more context, we have provided a briefer which provides an overview of:

• The history of zionism
• The conflicts of the past 75 years
• The project of genocide and establishment of an apartheid state
• International involvement
• The current siege

You can find it here

Alongside signing this petition, please remember to call and email your politicians daily, support local organising, and show up to protest.

If you would like to be a part of the Australian Healthcare Students’ Palestine Action Network (AHSPAN), please consider joining this closed facebook group.