The Doctors Against Genocide held another online forum today, Jan. 5, with 300-400 online and more on other platforms, with powerful presentations on the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the need to end it now. A theme was that there is a sickness which is being caused by the genocide as it is being broadcast around the world by the U.S. support for the Israeli leaders and military. It must be stopped by stopping the genocide itself—organize!
The speakers had a poster behind them with a call for the freedom of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last hospital in northern Gaza, which was closed and destroyed by the IDF last week, while Safiya was arrested on Dec. 27. The event had hoped to include people in Gaza, including Dr. Abu Safiya’s family, but the connections did not function.
The activist doctors included Karameh Hawash Kuemmerle as moderator, with Dr. Nidal Jboor also moderating. Dr. Mimi Syed opened the presentations with a description of the horrendous conditions she saw during her two trips to Gaza, emphasizing the urgent need for medical evacuations, especially of children who otherwise cannot get medical help. All three had also addressed the International Peace Coalition meeting on Jan. 3.
Several friends of the Schiller Institute and the IPC were guest speakers, including Larry Wilkerson, Ray McGovern, and Jose Vega, while Joe Jennings also spoke during the Q&A, briefing the meeting on the planned demonstration at the Houston Medical Association on Jan. 7.
Wilkerson spoke second, emphasizing that the U.S. must now be considered an Empire, and that it is this Empire that is running the genocide in the Levant, using Netanyahu and others as their assets. The Empire wants the genocide, as again demonstrated by the Biden Administration’s plan to send another $8 billion in killer weapons to Israel, with $18 billion already sent since Oct. 7, 2023. The U.S. Congress could call hearings to stop it, but, he warned, they will not do it, as the orders come from the top. Israel is now spreading the Empire’s war to Syria, Lebanon, and perhaps also Jordan and Iran.
Dr. Jboor asked Wilkerson what could be done about the Congress, noting that the Doctors Against Genocide will be holding weekly lobbying efforts in the Congress, including this coming Wednesday, Jan. 8, and again on Jan. 9. Wilkerson said the Empire sees that the world power is shifting to Asia, and may stop at nothing to prevent it—perhaps even nuclear war, in which case everyone loses. You must appeal to their humanity, he said; remind them that America is destroying its reputation worldwide. We must “turn off the Empire.” He quoted Sen. Lindsey Graham telling the world that “if Israel doesn’t do it, we would have to do it.” Anyone with that mentality must be stopped.
Josephine Guilbeau, a former military intelligence officer, intervened in a Congressional hearing on Dec. 18, in uniform, to denounce the genocide. She said the doctors have a powerful voice. She noted that the two recent terrorist incidents in the U.S. were by veterans, and that the number of suicides by veterans is increasing. Vets are seeing that they have been used as pawns by the war parties.
Dr. Rupa Marya, a professor at the University of San Francisco who was fired over her activities, said she had written articles for a British medical journal which they refused to publish. She described the campaign to open “Free Clinics” around the country to treat the “Sickness from Genocide,” by mobilizing efforts to stop the genocide.
