“We don’t have to be political, we just have to be humans because what’s happening in Gaza today is an attack on humanity. That we have to stand up to. All of us.” – Dr Mads Gilbert
South Africa – As Dr. Mads Gilbert gracefully wraps up his South African Tour, his final destination is city of Cape Town. After being greeted warmly at the airport and a few few radio interviews, his final event took place at Darul Islam Campus with guest speakers such as Sheikh Ebrahim Gabriels, Reverend Dr Allan Boesak and Suzanne Hotz.
Radio 786
Before departing for Johannesburg, Dr. Gilbert conducted his final interview in the picturesque city of Cape Town. The insightful conversation took place on Radio 786 with host Tashreeq Trubody.
As Israel continues to bomb and destroy hospitals leaving just eight partially functional, healthcare professionals are resiliently navigating challenges. Trubody speaks on how he has seen “patients being treated on the floor and I’ve heard accounts of there not being anaesthetic to conduct surgeries”, raising the concern of added burdens on medical doctors.
While Gilbert acknowledges it creates a added burden on medical doctors to tend to the wounded in this way, he makes sure to dispel a growing rumor and narrative being pushed by the Israeli government.
“I’d like to dismantle one myth that has been spread by the Israelis. The Palestinian doctors do not do major surgery without anaesthesia. I’ve been there during major bombings many many times. We have to reserve what we have, our general anaesthesia for the most critical cases. There are minor procedures like cleaning or stitching a wound which may have to be done without local anesthesia. Those are two very different situations.”
But what is the reason for the lack of anaesthetic drugs?
“It is the siege. Before this attack the essential drug list from the WHO was only filled upto 40% for healthcare in Gaza. I’ll tell you one thing that has not been covered. Every truck load of relief that comes into Gaza has to pass Kerem Shalom which is the Israeli border crossing checkpoint for trucks going into Gaza. Every box is opened, inspected by the Israeli army. They take out what they don’t want the Palestinians in Gaza to have and then it’s sealed and sent to Rafah and into Gaza. You know what they take out? They take out all anaesthetic drugs. I know it from a very high ranking source within the system. Can you imagine how mean and evil that is?”
“Why would an occupying army be allowed by the international community to deny humanitarian construction that we have in this world? The UN systems, the NGOs to access people who need help.” – Dr Mads Gilbert
Trubody: The cutting off of the water, fuel, electricity, etc. I understand this has had a particular impact on the healthcare system and in patients that require to be on ventilators, so on and so forth. What are colleagues at Shifa telling you about the impact to the cutting off of water, electricity and fuel?
Gilbert: Imagine that the Red Cross Hospital has been cut off water, electricity, food, medical drugs for the small babies and kids, how long will it be operative? A day or two and then add on to that constant bombings around the hospital. Add on to that the constant killings of healthcare workers personal. Add on to that attacking the ambulances bringing the kids in. Add on to that that the occupying forces say you are going to empty out that hospital because we are going to level it. Imagine how dramatic that situation is and yet they have managed to resist for 44 days in a situation that is unbelievably difficult. There are no other healthcare people on earth that know more about improvisation and finding solutions than the Palestinian doctors. They are my huge heros. They’ve shown us during these difficult days what it means to be a human what it means to be a healthcare worker. What they tell me is, ‘okay Dr Mads we have to shut off electricity to the air-conditioning to the morgue. We have to shut off electricity to the sterilisation machine. No more clean clean instruments for the OR and we had to shut off the electricity go the oxygen concentration machine,’ which produce oxygen for the hospital. They had had to shrink on all the capacities of the university hospital and of course, that has killed patients. They haven’t killed patients, the Israelis have killed them.”
“It’s not a difficult conflict, it’s a difficult occupation.” – Dr Mads Gilbert. He’s speaking to a large group health care workers who formed a human chain in front of the Red Cross Children’s Hospital this morning in Cape Town and also informs them he’s received news of a possible ceasefire.
This is the same for all hospitals across Gaza. Every hospital is going through the same as Shifa Hospital and Palestinian healthcare workers are doing the best they can to save as many lives as they can using meager resources. Doctors are using vinegar to clean wounds as they don’t have disinfectants to use.
“What the Israelis are doing by denying opening of the blockage and allow in help, is this slow, dying from complications, systematically shrinking the capacity of the hospitals to take care of the wounded. The wounds are not treated. We don’t see that. We only count the deaths and bombardements but this slow killing is part of the sadism of the Israeli occupation.”
Trubody posed a very important and deep question, what about the mental health of the Palestinian healthcare workers? Many often feel helpless just by seeing what is being played out on their screens. “I cannot imagine what it would feel like to pull a burning kid with hardly any skin left on his body beneath the rubble, transporting that child nor knowing if he is going to survive and to see that constantly all the time, everyday.”
Dr Gilbert admits the Palestinian doctors are exhausted. Every healthcare worker is exhausted but they will not give up. Every attack only makes them stronger.
“If you watch the videos in Shifa or any other hospital when they get truck loads of wounded and torn apart bodies, what do you see? You see people quietly, very systematically, concentrated working. You see a very tight social connectivity between people. You see respect, love, resilience, love. They don’t give up. But what they ask me is why is the world at large allowing this to happen to us? Why is nobody coming to our assistance with more than words? Why is Israel allowed to operate outside all regulations, humanitarian laws, the Geneva Convention without any punishment? Why are we being subjected to all these crimes without anybody in the West saying, ‘stop, enough is enough’. The answer is simple. It’s racism. Colonial Apartheid. But they don’t give up. The Palestinians are exhausted but I can tell you one thing, whatever these occupying forced are doing, their crimes will only make the Palestinians stronger. It makes the resistance stronger.”
For us, we shouldn’t focus on the suffering of the Palestinians but rather their comradery and bravery. How they all come together during this horrific time and help one another. This could instil bravery in ourselves to go out and do something to change the situation.
“When you look at the videos, don’t only look for the misery, pain and the awful images, look for how the Palestinians are behaving in these videos. Look for their strength, their dignity, their togetherness. They don’t scream. They just go together and look to do the work. Don’t just look at the suffering. Look for their strength and from that point of view, you become stronger and you will be more convinced, that yes indeed, they don’t give so I won’t give up. Find out what you can do.”
Gilbert: If we don’t stop this, whose next? Are they going to bomb Egypt, are they going to take Lebanon, are they going to retake Syria? What’s next? These colonial powers, they don’t stop. They are like a pitbull that’s breed on blood.
Main Event: Darul Islam Campus
“I don’t know if you can imagine the level of medicine practiced in Gaza. It’s superb. Above the level I have in my university hospital. They have been strangulated for 16 years.” – Dr Mads Gilbert
Dr Mads Gilberts starts by pointing at his shirt which has a phrase in Arabic which translates to “We are all Gaza”.
“No peace without justice and no victory without retaking Palestine and having Palestine as a free country for all the Palestinians .”
Gilbert: Gaza exists, Gaza resists, Gaza fights for life now! We need to be more, more, more active everyday. If not, they will not be able to resist the most brutal armed force alone. That should make us not sleep too well until the root problem is solved. This is not a difficult conflict, this is a difficult occupation. That’s what needs to be solved before we can move forward.
Gilbert: I understand we will have a power outage, welcome to Gaza. Take away all the water. Welcome to Gaza. Let’s thirst for three days. Empty out your fridge. Welcome to Gaza. Send your kids to school and they will most likely be killed, welcome to Gaza.
Gilbert: Is it strange that these 1 million children in Gaza want to join the Resistance? When you’ve been under siege your whole life? When you’ve seen your family being killed? When you have been humiliated every time you go out do Gaza? When you’ve been starving and have little food, no money to live for? Is it strange they want to join the Resistance? I don’t think so.
Gilbert: I do not practice humanitarian medicine. I practice solidarity medicine. That means to stand on the side of the oppressed and choose their side.
Gilbert: You need to scare your government into doing the right thing! We are living in the history books. We must stand on the right side. We need to move more people to the right side.
Next up was Suzanne Hotz, clinical psychologist, who spoke on the mental health of Palestinian children.
“There are two important differences between the horrors of WWI, the concentration camp survivors and Gaza. First, the survivors of both the World War and the camps were taken away from the traumatising zones to hospitals far way to receive much needed care. This is in stark contrast to the people of Gaza who having endless, re-experience of trauma within the very place of their suffering. They are forced to relive the trauma during repeated miliary incursion by Israel.”
Hotz explains most people who come from a war zone suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), however, Palestinians do not have the luxury of it being Post as their trauma is always ongoing.
“For the people of Gaza, of all ages and gender, there is nothing Post [PTSD]. Their traumas are ongoing, horrific and barbaric. Their trauma is a never ending nightmare. The people of Gaza are reliving a never ending nightmare. I hope, when they get a few minutes to sleep, the nightmares don’t intrude. However, that’s unlikely.”
Hotz: We Jews said never again. Never again to another genocide. And there have been many and we are now talking about another genocide… As a Jew, Israel’s war crimes are supposedly done in my name. And they not.
Hotz: What is needed is a ceasefire. A permanent ceasefire that would lead to a liberated Palestine. Then we will be able to offer our services to make a small contribution to the healing process which is so needed and will be carried as a scar by todays lost generation of children.
Reverend Dr Allan Boesak delivers a passionate plea for South Africans to put the pressure on government until Palestine is free
Dr Boesak: The ANC must decide if it still has a soul because how can you look at what’s happening in Gaza and say you have a soul? How can you look at the children and say you have a soul? How can you go on trading, making money, doing what you doing and say you have a soul? Where there once might have been a soul, I think there is just one big gaping hole filled with the love for money.
Dr Boesak: If you want to be the government then you must do what the people want you to do. Not what some rich people behind closed doors tell you to do.
Inayet Wadee assuring the crowd that no matter who backs the occupiers, the world will always speak out against injustice
Inayet Wadee speaking on the arm welcome they received when they touched down at Cape Town International Airport
Sheikh Ebrahim Gabriels, Al Quds Foundation, opened the event with a prayer and calling for Palestine to be free
Sheikh Gabriels: You don’t need to be afraid to tell the world you support Hamas. You don’t need to be afraid to tell the world that Hamas are not terrorists.
Sheikh Ebrahim Gabriels calls for a bigger march to take place targeting the US embassy
Inayet Wadee speaking on the atmosphere at the Darul Islam Campus.
Dr Mads Gilbert on The Voice of The Cape
On The Voice of The Cape, Dr. Gilbert discussed a myriad of topics, shedding light on his decision to join the Palestinian struggle. He delved into the harrowing experiences he witnessed as a volunteer in the 1980s, recounting the tragic tales that deeply affected him. Motivated by these horrors and the poignant stories he encountered, he initiated a Palestinian movement in Norway and actively aligned himself with the Palestinian cause.
“I was a very politically active individual and studied medicine because I wanted to have a profession that could be useful to people in struggle. Then came the ’67 war when I volunteered to go to Israel because the Israeli embassy in Oslo issued an appeal to come to the assistance of the Israelis fighting the war against the Arabs. I actually went to the Israeli embassy. I volunteered. The next day I went to the embassy and revoked my volunteering. They were very upset and asked me why, and I said, ‘because you lied to me.’ Funny thing, I got a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Israel, thanking me for my brave volunteering and informing me they will plant a tree in the memorial garden with my name on a brass plaque.”
Dr. Gilbert contested the notion that the current events we witness today are unprecedented; instead, he argued that such actions are not new. Israel has a history of bombing hospitals, targeting infrastructure, and engaging civilians dating back to the invasion of Beirut in 1982. This, he asserted, reflects a consistent pattern of operation for the country.
“Israeli attacks on healthcare are something we healthcare workers know has been going on all the time. In Beirut in ’82, they were killing paramedics and bombing ambulances consistently. It’s part of their modus operandi. They attack civilians to weaken the broad-based Palestinian resistance. The Israelis target all sectors, including universities, museums, schools, mosques, and churches. Whatever they see belonging to the occupied people, they bomb it. The bombing and attacks on healthcare have been a very recognizable and familiar strategy. Those who have some experience know that it is not new.”
The attacks, bombings and cutting off resources to hospitals and healthcare workers has “erased” the healthcare system in Gaza. It is a crime and an “insult to all of us”. This is all possible due to the impunity Israel is given.
“Israeli impunity from international laws, frim any kind of regulations, they don’t care. They do wahtever they want. They are like dogs with rabies just attacking people and the ones holding their leash, the US, they allow them to do this. They have trained them to do this.”
The streets of Cape Town
Just outside Hyatt Hotel in Cape Town, where Dr Gilbert is addressing the media, a group of local graffiti artists teamed up with the Bo-Kaap community. This community has faced and knows the hardships of Aparthied and are still facing the cultural genocide and economic Aparthied. In a powerful display of resilience, these indigenous individuals united to craft breathtaking murals, transforming not only their surroundings but also embellishing their shops and homes with messages of unity in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Through their art, they illuminate a path of hope, embodying the spirit of a community determined to overcome adversity and foster connection across borders.
Dr Mads Gilbert on Cape Talk
For his first interview and event of the day, Dr Gilbert sat down with Lester Kiewit of Cape Talk on his show Good Morning Cape Town. The talk focused on the recently bombed Shifa Hospital and the bravery of the Palestinian people. Dr Gilbert made it known from the start he was only here because he wasn’t being allowed into Gaza.
“We travelled from Norway to Gaza as soon as the bombing started as we always do because we have a long-standing tradition on supporting Palestinian healthcare workers, not that they can’t do the work themselves but everybody needs solidarity in these times. We applied through the channels, did everything by the book, supported by the Norwegian government and we’ve been waiting and waiting to get in to Gaza like so many other international resources that want to provide support, humanitarian aid but the Israelis are keeping Gaza completely sealed off.”
Kiewit inquired of Dr Gilbert why Palestinian doctors, despite having the option to depart from hospitals operating in challenging conditions with limited resources, chose to stay in what he described as a “losing scenario”. Even in the absence of water, electricity, or antibiotics, these doctors persist in caring for patients, displaying remarkable steadfastness.
“We have to understand the Palestinian doctor, nurses, paramedics and medical students are outstanding moral examples to the world today because they do not leave. They risk their lives to be by their patients side,” said Dr Gilbert fervently.
“When you are a become a doctor or a nurese, you give an oath when you start. The oath is very serious. You are pledging to stand by your patients, serve their interests and their lives. The doctors in Gaza are getting killed.”
Despite the peril to their lives and working with minimal resources to save and care for patients, these doctors persist, making them “extremely brave. They do it because the medical system is part of the resistance.”
“They fighting like you did. They are fighting Apartheid, they fighting colonisation, they are fighting an unjust occupation that has been going on for 70 years. That is what this is all about. This is about the anti-colonial struggle.” – Dr Mads Gilbert
Kiewit highlighted that resistance isn’t always tied to violence but can be as straightforward as existing, stating, “resistance is simply just living, flourishing. Making sure your children get an education, go to school so that they can thrive. That, simply surviving in the environment can be seen as resistance itself.” Dr. Gilbert concurred with this notion. The very act of carrying on with life under occupation is, in itself, an act of resistance.
“You [South Africa] were such an inspiration to the world in combining culture, music, education and healthcare for the people for the resistance, for the civilians. I’m a doctor, I’m a peaceful man but I support people who occupied to fight with arms to retake their country. Just like we support Ukraine.”
Capitalising on his earlier point, Dr Gilbert pointed out that from the 34 hospitals that were running in Gaza on October 8th, in just five weeks, the Israeli army has managed to reduce that to just nine functioning hospitals.
“The Israelis have in some way destroyed, closed down, bombed, shelled or strangulated 27 of the Palestinian hospitals. It’s not about Shifa. It’s not about military command centre. It’s about an all out attack on the civilian infrastructure of the Palestinian people.”
Whether you believe there is a command centre or not,”it is a distressing image” to see soldiers in hospitals, said Kiewit.
But the pressing concern for Kiewit is the unsettling uncertainty of what follows. What transpires after a ceasefire, should it materialise? “What happens next? Even if a ceasefire is called, and we hope for that, it still wouldn’t resolve the dire situation of 32,000 people injured, 12,000 people killed.”
For Dr Gilbert, the answer is simple. First a lasting ceasefire needs to take place and then Gaza needs to be rebuild with help from the entire world.
“First of all we need a lasting ceasefire. This is not a difficult conflict, it is a difficult occupation. Then there will be a need for a massive global effort to rebuild Gaza. Schools, hospitals, everything. That responsibility is on every one of us. Israel should pay for their crimes. There is a massive need for solidarity. Everyone all around the world, we need to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinians now. They have to destroyed the whole infrastructure in Gaza. That needs to be rebuilt.”
Welcoming Dr Mads Gilbert
On arriving at Cape Town International Airport, Dr Gilbert was greeted by a hosts of other medical professionals, each carrying a placard with the names of Gazan healthcare workers who were killed by Israeli airstrikes.
Dr Mads Gilbert receives a warm welcome at Cape Town International Airport, greeted by healthcare professionals holding placards bearing the names of those healthcare workers who were killed in Gaza amid the ongoing genocide.
Dr Mads Gilbert receives a warm welcome at Cape Town International Airport, greeted by healthcare professionals holding placards bearing the names of those healthcare workers who were killed in Gaza amid the ongoing genocide.
Dr Mads Gilbert receives a warm welcome at Cape Town International Airport, greeted by healthcare professionals holding placards bearing the names of those healthcare workers who were killed in Gaza amid the ongoing genocide.
Inayet Wadee vividly depicts the exhilarating atmosphere at Cape Town International Airport, as a diverse crowd enthusiastically welcomes Dr Mads Gilbert.
Dr Mads Gilbert warmly greets everyone, acknowledging placards bearing the names of healthcare workers killed in Gaza, amidst a resonant crowd chanting and advocating for the freedom of Palestine.
Multitudes of people and healthcare workers came to Cape Town International Airport to welcome Dr Mads Gilbert to the beloved city.
