We had such a great turnout for Community Solidarity London's rally in support of healthcare workers today.
Unfortunately we were confronted by another #FreeDumbConvoy, but most problematically, confronted by the #ldnont police. A 🧵
Our amazing speakers, like @DirkaProut seen here, spoke about the need to support the healthcare workers on the front lines, while a stationary group of #convoy protesters nearby heckled "bullshit!"
We turned our attn to the road, encouraging drivers to honk in solidarity for healthcare workers and pro-science initiatives, in an effort to take back the narrative from the #ConvoyForFreedom2022, which has filled our streets with cries for anti-science, anti-democratic action
And then the #convoy arrived. As soon as the first vehicle approached, we took to the street to demand that they turn around. We did not want them to have access to St. Joe's Hospital, where patients and healthcare workers would be subjected yet again to that nuisance.
The #ldnont police immediately surrounded us, threatened us, pushed us, knocking at least one in our group to the ground. We protested at the crosswalk whenever the convoy was stopped at a red light but were eventually forbidden from doing so.
They blocked us in, allowing the #convoy to keep harassing our neighborhood. They claimed to be there to "protect us", but who are they really protecting?
The police claim they were *not* providing escort for the #convoy, but they did block lanes of traffic and provided them with an unobstructed route, so they rolled out the red carpet instead.
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Israel has arbitrarily denied 7 international aid organizations access to the Gaza Strip, which means they can no longer send in healthcare workers. This is an alarming decision that will cause significant loss of life. A 🧵
Repeated attacks on hospitals and against healthcare workers have led to a complete breakdown of Gaza’s healthcare system. Since January 2024, emergency medical teams (EMTs) have routinely entered Gaza under the World Health Organization to fill the gaps in medical care.
EMTs with my organization alone, Glia, have provided emergency trauma care, general surgery, eye surgery, obstetrics, neonatal support, & primary health care. Weekly, we see 500 patients – all internally displaced - in our field clinic, where they receive free medical treatment.
Palestinians are saying that once Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip ends, the next war begins: the healing of the physical & psychological wounds inflicted on the besieged population, esp its children, whose lives have been marked by protracted exposure to trauma. A 🧵
Even before this war, a 2023 humanitarian needs overview concluded that 495,600 children in Gaza were already in need of mental health & psychosocial services and support, but decades of occupation + siege has meant availability of mental health services have always been minimal
Children’s lives have been completely upended. Whereas kids should be exploring, playing, and steeped in imaginary play, they are instead forced to bear responsibility for family units by helping to secure basic necessities.
While I was in Gaza April-June, I witnessed the brutal effects of Israel’s gen0cide on Palestinians while also seeing the worst in the global humanitarian response. I’ve sat on this for almost two months but I’m still angry, so here goes: Fuck Fajr Scientific. A 🧵
A refresher: Israel took Rafah on May 7. Immediately that meant that the 13,000 Palestinians with life-threatening illnesses referred abroad for medical treatment could not leave, and the 2 mill+ Palestinians already trapped by a 20 year siege saw another border close. And yet...
Fajr evacuated their American/British doctors at the expense of patients and every Palestinian and int'l healthcare worker in Gaza. The moment they felt their safety was at risk, they used their national privilege to flee & then they congratulated themselves in the media for it.
There are four sounds you hear in Rafah as night falls: the incessant buzz of drones, the menacing roar of jet engines, the boom of exploding bombs.... and children's laughter.
A thread lovingly dedicated to the "rascal children of Gaza"
Despite knowing that children make up nearly 1/2 its population, the sheer # of kids in Gaza still took me by surprise. They fill the streets -- playing, running, on bikes, holding hands, selling goods, carrying toys, buckets, food, each other -- and their chatter fills the air.
Many were excited for Ramadan, a time of community spirit, ritual and bonding. They've been making decorations with whatever materials they can find, stringing them up, taking in whatever moments of joy that they can in the midst of this climate of uncertainty.
I just returned from Gaza, on a medical mission with @glia_intl. I bore witness to the human suffering caused by Israel’s ongoing war against Palestinians, but especially children. We are now in the terminal phase of a genocide that has been ongoing for 75 years.
I visited multiple hospitals and spent significant time in Rafah, an area that once housed 30,000 and is now home to over 1 million IDPs. Makeshift tents are everywhere, and refuse and rubble are piling up. Tents are now popping up in the hospitals, too, as people seek refuge.
Many hospital staff in Rafah are living in tents, close to work & away from family, providing constant care with little to no respite. They may only see their families once a week. So not only are they displaced from their homes, they are isolated from their loved ones as well.