Reader Rie Graham has sent us this report from Dr. Mads Gilbert's presentation in Chicago last night. The Norwegian physician is touring the US talking about his experience working in Gaza's al-Shifa hospital during the war this past December and January. Graham writes:
I was a bit nervous ten minutes before the program was to start and only 20 people were seated in the cavernous Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago. Perhaps people really have forgotten Gaza. Maybe they don’t want to be reminded that for 23 days, Israel carried out a planned, brutal assault that flattened buildings and shattered lives. Maybe they don’t want to hear from someone who spent two weeks in Gaza elbow deep in blood, repairing small bodies and comforting weeping relatives. Maybe people have moved on – eager for a new diplomatic initiative or perhaps onto the next tragedy – Afghanistan and Pakistan where the blood seems more fresh. Maybe they are more interested in the work of pirates rather than those who use governmental power to attack civilians and then continue to hold them under siege so reconstruction efforts are hampered.
I was wrong about the interest. Within the next half hour, the chapel slowly filled with people, perhaps reaching 200. Lots of college students, women in headscarves, and Arab families – young children in tow – sat spellbound as Mads Gilbert (pictured right in al-Shifa Hospital , photo from the Lancet), a Norwegian doctor who has spent several decades working with Palestinians, shared with the audience his most recent experience working at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza at the end of December when the timed Israeli assault began.
I was struck by Dr. Gilbert’s tone and manner. He spoke to the audience by walking up and down the aisle, looking at people directly and inviting them into his story. He was upfront about his politics and sympathies – against all killing of civilians, in solidarity with the oppressed (the Palestinians) and sympathetic to all who resist military occupation (be they Israeli or Palestinian). Occupation is the disease, said the doctor, and until it is ended, the patients (Palestinian and Israeli) will not achieve a healthy life.
Dr. Gilbert warned of the graphic nature of some of his photos, but explained that to understand the crisis in Gaza one must look at the realities. The most graphic, he explained were not necessarily the bloody stumps and ripped apart bodies (although I had a hard time looking at those), but the sorrowful, vacant look in some of the eyes of the children, the utter grief in the eyes of a mother, the look of submission in the eyes of an old man. One photo of a Palestinian farmer who lost a hand in an explosion from a missile, was upsetting, not because he lost his hand (which thankfully wasn’t shown in the photo) but because of his look of utter loss. “What will become of my life now,” said the farmer to Dr. Gilbert. “All I ever wanted was to farm my land. I am not political, nor care about the different factions. I just wanted to provide for my family. How can I do that now?”
Dr. Gilbert wove facts and figures into his narratives about patients’ lives and experiences during the three week assault. At one point in his presentation he stopped speaking and played a soundtrack he recorded of the night sounds of Gaza. For five minutes we in the audience listened quietly to the sound of the humming drones, distant explosions, rocket and machine gunfire. Imagine these sounds 24 hours a day, every day of the week, said Dr. Gilbert as he moved onto the next group of slides.
Photos of Shifa hospital, the epicenter of trauma treatment in the heart of Gaza City. Windows shattered and covered with paper. Cold hallways where relatives huddled outside operation rooms. Operating rooms that were used simultaneously for multiple operations so that supplies and electricity could be shared. A chest operation alongside a leg amputation on two patients. Doctors working on 3 hours of sleep a day. Female volunteer nurse helpers who showed up to lend a hand and stayed for weeks. All functioning with the constant sounds of sirens, shelling, explosions. Dr. Gilbert’s stories began to merge into one overwhelming picture of unending horror. But also, his photographs conveyed an amazing story of Palestinian resilience in face of so much death and destruction.
Dr. Gilbert gave the audience a reprieve from his stories by playing a lullaby, sung by a Palestinian singer to her children. Again, the audience sat still, some with tears rolling down their cheeks, as the photos of Palestinians in Gaza continued on the screen.
When he finally finished speaking (he spoke for two hours), the audience clapped and a few asked questions. I felt as if the audience was shell shocked. As if we were for the first time understanding a bit of the horror that is life in Gaza. The images, the sounds, the stories all bringing to life what we had witnessed (and protested) from afar a few months ago. I watched as after the talk, person after person (most of them Arab) went up to Dr. Gilbert to shake his hand, to thank him for his service, to tell him how good it feels to hear the truth from an eyewitness. One Palestinian-American girl, perhaps eight years old, stood in front of me and told the doctor, “You have given me hope, Dr. Gilbert. Because now I know we can make a difference. I don’t have to just sit at home and cry and be sad about what is happening in my country. I can go there and help the people, be a doctor like you who saves lives.” Dr. Gilbert gave her a pin that had two flags – Norwegian and Palestinian flags intertwined – and told her he hopes to see her in a free Palestine some day.
You can still catch Dr. Gilbert on his US tour in New York and Baltimore –
Health, Human Rights, and the War on Gaza: Evidence from the Frontlines
NEW YORK
Friday, April 17, 1:00pm
NYU Kimmel Center, Rm 912
60 Washington Square South
Friday, April 17, 6:30pm
Barnard College
Held Auditorium, Barnard Hall
3009 Broadway, NY, NY
BALTIMORE
Thursday, April 16, 5:15pm
Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine
Tilghman Auditorium (Ground Floor of Turner Bldg)
720 Rutland Avenue
Did he show the picture of the pregnant Jewish woman who was shot in the belly by a palestinian, to save money on bullets?
Did he show the picture of her 4 daughters, each shot in the head at point blank range?
You bet your ass he didn't show them.
Did he show the picture of the pregnant Jewish woman who was shot in the belly by a palestinian, to save money on bullets?
Did he show the picture of her 4 daughters, each shot in the head at point blank range?
You bet your ass he didn't show them.
Hey Chris,
You are repeating yourself.
Hey Chris,
Chris Barel" (or "Berel") is from the imaginary Law company "Taylor, Baxtor and Neuland Associates" which is apparently located in Hollywood, Florida, his address is listed as a known origin of spam. So, Israel and Zionism need as friends a spammer and coward who hides behind a false name and an untraceable dialup connection to send an Email intended as an insult. What should one think of those who have such friends ?
Bruce, that was funny.
Adam, thank you for posting this "small" story. It's good to be reminded of how many concerned people there are, doing such important work as this doctor. Kudos to him and the others working in Palestine to help the civilians.
Thank goodness there are people such as Dr. Gilbert in this world. What a remarkable individual.
Barry, ME thinks you are funny. Something about hiding behind a false name.
I understand you couldn't answer about why the good doctor was ignoring palestinian acts of barbaric terrorism.
I can guess that he understands that Palestinians are humans and do react to being brutally preyed upon by a people who have absolutely no respect for human life beyond their own quasi-religious tribe.
And what point would there be in mentioning ONE incident that happened to Israelis throughout the Gaza invasion of that nature: when only 13 Israelis lost their lives during that time – while nearly 2000 Palestinians were brutally murdered in the most callous ways imaginable.
That's probably why.
You couldn't figure that out on your own, Chris?
You poor sod….
Chris, you really have to work on your reading comprehension. "Barry" is not the same as "Bruce". Stare at the two names for a long time. Yes, they start off with the same letter, but after that they become different.
stevieb
An obvious point, but nicely stated, nevertheless.
@Chris
Did he show the picture of her 4 daughters, each shot in the head at point blank range?
You bet your ass he didn't show them.
No Chris, he did not. Neither would it be right to do so. Sometimes the need for balance in reporting is transcended by need for compassion and insight in human suffering.
I am sure you would find it inappropriate to show pictures from Gaza at a holocaust memorial lecture. i know my good friend and colleague Mads Gilbert would.
Sometimes you go too far in your defense of Israel. This is one of the occasions. As sure I am most Jews find your comment revolting , David Duke find your comment affirming his view of the jews. I am sure you make him happy. Good job.
"Did he show the picture of the pregnant Jewish woman who was shot in the belly by a palestinian, to save money on bullets?"
I really don't know what Berel finds objectionable about this. It sounds to me as though some Palestinian picked up on Israel's policy of shooting pregnant women….."One shot, two kills" as members of the IDF proudly emblazon on their T-shirts.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072466.html
Sure dag, for scandinavian nazis like you, Jews need no compassion. I see Rykart is sharing your wavelength.
@Chris Berel
I find it hard to believe a jew can behave the way you do. I'm starting to suspect you are an anti-semite provocateur. If not I feel really sorry for you.
Dag, I find it hard to believe a human behaves as you do, but after Hitler, one gets used to it. I don't feel sorry for you, I feel sorry for your mother. I don't feel sorry for rykarts mother.
Chris, I have a question for you. Is the IDF's "one shot two kills" policy inspired by the 596th and 597th mitzvot to not leave alive any that breathe (Deut. 20:16-17)? Or should instead the women be plundered per Deut 20:14?
I was there in Rockefeller Chapel to listen to Mads Gilbert speak last night. What Rie forgets to include is the twenty or thirty pro-Palestinian Americans that listened. It would have been more but the rest of Chicago's pro-Palestinian movement were at a protest in Skokie against a Pro-Zionist orchestra funded by the State.
I think the best part came in the question and answer period (as well as the reception afterward) where Mads, answering a question from Hooshi D. another anesthesiologist, he from Persia, asked about the future of Israel as a viable apartheid state.
His response, after stating that Israel will need changes (paraphrasing wildly here) was that he had survived the five year German occupation of Israel, and he supports the Norwegian Anti-German Occupation forces, because, simply an occupied people have a right and duty to end the occupation. Truer and more honest words I have not heard in a long time.
Don't ask Chris any questions he can't answer in a way which makes Israel and Jews look bad, which is his real job here, as Dag Andersson rightly suspects.
while the murder of poor innocent citizens in israel-palestine is lamentable and indeed a tragedy to the dead and to their family, the history of the zionist jewish movement/israelis in the middle east is the catalyst in those tragedies.
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
zionism is as ruthless as communist bolshevism…ever was.
it ought to be thrown into the dustbin of history after a trial.
You've got me figured out. How could I ever hope to fool someone like you?
Another of Phil's phools hits his head with the hammer.
As for the other phool, Ashera, the 596th deals with marriage and the 597th deals with the penalty for a false accusation of adultery. So not only are you a lying sack of shit, you're a stupid one at that.
@ Shield of Asherah
"Chris, I have a question for you. Is the IDF's "one shot two kills" policy inspired by the 596th and 597th mitzvot to not leave alive any that breathe (Deut. 20:16-17)? Or should instead the women be plundered per Deut 20:14?"
Chris Berel responds:
"As for the other phool, Ashera, the 596th deals with marriage and the 597th deals with the penalty for a false accusation of adultery. So not only are you a lying sack of shit, you're a stupid one at that."
Maimonides' mitzvot list includes:
596 Destroy the seven Canaanite nations Deut. 20:17
597 Not to let any of them remain alive Deut. 20:16
Deut. 20.14 but the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take for a prey unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.
And, for good measure:
598 Wipe out the descendants of Amalek Deut. 25:19
Maimonides list is not in order of appearance, sorry that you ignorantly supposed that his list was in order. You should have specified whose list you were using.
Can't help it if you're that stupid to forget such a thing.
Has anyone asked Richard Witty if he embraces Berel as a Zionist brother? Or would that be a "viscious" question?
As long as you keep apologising for anti-Zionism, you won't get anywhere. And as long as you permit Zionist trolls and spammers to infest the thread, you will be doing nothing but apologising (in the sense of offering apologetics for) anti-Zionism.
But we wouldn't want to be "viscious".
"Dag, I find it hard to believe a human behaves as you do, but after Hitler, one gets used to it."
Chris Berel
Yeah, Chris, and I hear Adolf had it in for you personally, too! How did you escape from the entire repressive apparatus of the Third Reich, at the height of its power? You should write a book! "Me and Hitler, My Personal Struggle" by Chris Berel. It'll sell like hotcakes.
Do you hear other things? Tell us about it. Start with your fantasy about you and your mother. You can progress to the one about you and your father. Than you can go on to the one with your sister. You know the one. It ends up with your father murdering your sister for dishonoring the family.
I see Phil still encourages Jew-baiting by his Phools
@ Chris Berel
"Maimonides list is not in order of appearance, sorry that you ignorantly supposed that his list was in order. You should have specified whose list you were using.
Can't help it if you're that stupid to forget such a thing."
That's the order of appearance attributed to Maimonides on many web sites, including for example, Wikipedia's. Citizen's reference data supports Asherah's. We get that you like to call people
names, Chris, but where's your support for mitsvot order of appearance? Kindly furnish it. Also,
You don't detract from Asherah's comment by finding fault with the mitzvot numbering sequence. She's kosher on the issue. Anyone can read the corresponding biblical references and find they are true in corresponding content. Or would you now like to pretend they are not?
Your juvenile name calling and pretense that the number assigned the mitzvots at issue are
the major issue is shallow, not even worthy of a preschool hasbara lesson.
Mitzvot List based primarily on the list compiled by Rambam in the Mishneh Torah:
601 Not to keep alive any individual of the seven Canaanite nations (Deut. 20:16
602 To exterminate the seven Canaanite nations from the land of Israel (Deut. 20:17
613 To destroy the seed of Amalek (Deut. 25:19
However, as immediately above, rabbis are free to order the list anyway they want. There is no official ordering sequence. Chris Berel was just trying to deflect the issue raised by Asherah. He's a talmudic tot wannabe.
link to jewfaq.org
Here's the list again, with 596,597,598 just as Asherah and/or Citizen said–further it
also gives, additional to the Old Testament corresponding passage, a relevant New Testament
passage for Christians:
link to hebrew4christians.net
/>
Lovely religion.
Gosh, poor ol' Chris is sorta out here all by his lonsome, ain't he? Where are all the ziotrolls of yesteryear? Suzanne? Sharzi Sophist? And gosh, there may have been as many as ten others, but now it's all down to Chris Berel. He is so famischt he's projecting his oepidal and incest fantasies right and left.
That's the thing about Zionists tho. You can always count on them to run from a losing battle, and leave their more obtuse companions (and Chris is so obtuse as to be nearly straight, but not quite) behind on the battlefield.
And why is Chris Berel's language so profane? Do Zionists know who to talk without cursing? Or is it just the luxury of having many miles of cable between them and the natural reaction to their manners which sets them off?
"I see Phil still encourages Jew-baiting by his Phools"
Chris Berel
Chris, why the hell, as Dag points out, would anybody think a paskudnik like you is a Jew? You are, as Dag so correctly noted, so abviously intent on presenting Jews in the worst light possible, it's hard to see you as anything but an anti-semite.
I tend to agree with Dag. I really doubt if you are Jewish. I think you are simply trying to discredit Jews by making people think Jews are stupid and mean and foulmouthed. Or is that how you scare the Gentiles with your big macher Judaism?
And I will never understand why Richard Witty will not defend and embrace his other Zionist-supporting allies. How can Zionism triumph without unity? Why does Richard refuse to acknowledge that even if a guy lacks his, Richard Witty's class and polish, he is still a fellow Zionist and Israeli-loving brother, and must be defended, even unto extinguishment!
Exactly what is mooser the loser whining about? I see you were educated by wiki, a self-edit font of misinformation. The authoritative list of mitzvot in order is via Rabbi Chill.
"The Mitzvot." 1974. Jerusalem, Israel: Keter Publishing House.
It is little wonder that Mooser will never understand so many things.
Our favorite member of the ANP, Alice, is poorly translating scripture, but what do you expect from a Nazi?
How to Defend Yourself Against Alien Abduction (Paperback)
Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1 edition (July 21, 1998)
That is your bible? I thought it was mein kampf.
I see Chris Berel is channeling Julius Steicher as usual. Why not? Herr Streicher was all for the
collective against the collective–his defense was literally the Talmud. They made sure he suffered
a particularly painful death. Time to out Berel, and I hope he pays accordingly;
Philip or Rie,
Could you please please source a PowerPoint presentation, audio, or ideally both for those of us who missed it? It might be best if a video could be put online somewhere. Please feel free to email me and I would be happy to assist in getting it online if you can find a copy.
Thanks…
Reductio ad Hitlerum and stupid is no way to go though life Chris.
@ts
From Wikipedia:
Godwin's law states that:
Poor Sod. Hitler is all Chris has, and now you want to take that away from him ?