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Health professionals around Australia join forces to put pressure on the federal government for action in Gaza
Doctors and health professionals around Australia have written open letters to the federal government to implore it to take action to protect the innocent in Gaza.
The latest letter has been published in Canberra’s City News and pleads for the government to take more decisive action in Gaza.
It follows the publication of two other open letters from health professionals, garnering thousands of signatures. One was published in major newspapers and the other and its list of signatories will be delivered to Parliament House, Canberra, towards the end of July.
One of the signatories is Sally Stevenson AM, who is the Executive Director of the Illawarra Women’s Health Centre in Wollongong south of Sydney.
Ms Stevenson recently served as an Emergency Co-ordinator with Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) (MSF) in Gaza, which included providing support to the maternity and paediatric departments of Nasser hospital.
“I was based in the ‘humanitarian zone’ of al Mawasi – but to call it safe, is to engage in gaslighting. Nowhere in Gaza is safe. Not from military attacks, 24/7 surveillance, the lack of shelter, food, water, sewerage systems, a functioning government,” she said.
Reports of people being killed while trying to access food are increasing. Eleven Palestinians died while waiting for food trucks after Israeli forces allegedly opened fire on them on 18 June. ABC News in the US reported that more than 30 people were killed by Israeli gunfire on their way to food distribution centres in Gaza on 16 June. MSF reported that dozens of Palestinians were killed and hundreds were injured while they allegedly waited for food at the US–Israel-backed food distribution centres at the beginning of the month.
MSF has said that the food and aid distribution network is unsafe.
“This new system of aid delivery is dehumanising, dangerous and severely ineffective. It has resulted in deaths and injuries of civilians that could have been prevented,” said Claire Manera, MSF Emergency Co-ordinator.
Ms Stevenson said people are forced to live in makeshift shelters without water and sewerage.
“The breadth of the annihilation — in the city of Khan Younis, you see almost complete destruction — never-ending rubble, melted buildings, dust, dirt, the monochrome and monotony of it all. In Al Mawasi, 41km2 (the size of Sydney Airport), where 1.5 million people have been forced to live in the most rudimentary of shelters (made of bits of plastic, cardboard, torn pieces of cloth, plastic sheeting if they are lucky with floors of sand and dirt) that are meant to provide ‘some’ protection against the searing heat of summer and the cold and rains and winds of winter, and barely any privacy or space,” Ms Stevenson said.
“These shelters go for as far as the eye can see. And there are no water or sewage systems, no education for the 600 000 children, services, and a health system functioning on what it can — limited supplies (we had ruptures [breaks in the supply chain] of paracetamol and amoxycillin) and the goodwill, hard work and commitment of the Palestinian health workers,” she said.
Ms Stevenson said humanitarian law needs to be upheld.
“Including full and safe access for humanitarian workers, the removal of militarised, partisan and profiteering companies distributing aid and the independent distribution of humanitarian and medical support, the departure of the IDF from Gaza, and the maintenance of a ceasefire by international peacekeepers, the Israeli Government and indicted war criminals such as Netanyahu being held to account, and brought to justice by the international community,” she said. [Editor’s note: Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister were issued with arrest warrants over alleged war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) last year. These crimes are yet to be tried by the ICC.]
Australia’s response
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) wrote to the Prime Minister of Australia in early June, calling for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire, to advocate for unimpeded access to humanitarian aid and support the protection of all health care personnel and facilities. The AMA supports the World Medical Association Resolution on the Protection of Healthcare in Israel and Gaza.
Last month Penny Wong added her name to a list of Foreign Ministers around the world calling for an immediate ceasefire and “full resumption of aid into Gaza immediately as well as enable the UN and humanitarian organisations to work independently and impartially to save lives, reduce suffering and maintain dignity”. It said the population faces starvation.
Ms Wong recently stated that the Albanese Government has consistently advocated for a ceasefire for the release of hostages, the protection of civilians, the upholding of international law and the unhindered flow of aid as well as advocating for a two-state solution.
Ms Stevenson said words are not enough to turn the situation in Gaza around.
“More words with no power, no consequences, no action, no red line. To be clear – either you are against genocide, or you are not. History will be clear who stood up for humanity. And at this point in time, it is not the Australian Government,” she said.
Within the tragedy, some “life affirming” humanity
“But what truly struck me is that with all of this, despite the strategy (and expectation) of the IDF that the Gazan society, with layer upon layer upon layer of these pressures, would implode, would turn against itself — it did not,” Ms Stevenson said.
“It remained cohesive and dignified and resistant,” she said.
“And within this, the Gazan people I worked with (70% having evacuated from the North, and at least 50% living in tents) were so incredibly professional, skilled, committed, hardworking, and compassionate,” Ms Stevenson said.
“Women and men, who daily, despite the trauma they had all experienced, brought joy and humour and generosity to our workplace,” she said.
“Counterintuitively, in the middle of this genocide, working with people of Gaza was life affirming. It was an experience of humanity in amongst the utter inhumanity of the situation,” Ms Stevenson said.
“It was absolute privilege to go to Gaza, and to work with the Gazan people.”
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