Occupation is a Public Health Crisis Too

Co-Authored by Anurima Kumar and Meera Rothman

In the face of the glaring humanitarian crisis in Palestine, the silence of American public health institutions has been deafening. After a month of relentlessly bombing Al-Shifa hospital (notably using American missiles that slice through flesh), Israeli troops entered and raided the hospital wards, killing and displacing people in need of immediate care.[1] The American Medical Association (AMA), widely recognized as the foremost medical lobbying group in the nation, shut down a resolution that supports a ceasefire in Gaza and insisted that war discussion is not appropriate for their organization.[2] Yet just a year ago, the AMA called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.[3] In early November, with the Palestinian death count at 9,448, the American Public Health Association condemned Hamas’s attack on Israel and urged for safety for all people, with no mention of the ongoing systematic mass murder of Palestinians.[4] One week later they issued a one-sentence statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.[5] The Palestinian death count on 20 November was 13,215.[6]

Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, and age that shape their health.[7] Determinants—such as access to clean water and healthy food—are directly influenced by structural policies, government, and war. They speak to a fundamental truth: health is political. As public health practitioners, we understand the social construction of health as well as the equal and inherent value of all life. Palestinians’ health—like everyone’s health—is not disposable. Power and money dictate which bodies are deemed worthy of life and which lives are deemed worthy of health.

When the US government funds and allies itself with one of the most intense bombing campaigns in history, this directly implicates Americans and our work.[8] The repression, blockading, displacement, and collective punishment of stateless people, with US support, is a public health issue.[9] Health and medical institutions have no problem naming racial health inequity in the American system, but cannot name the more obvious construction of health by Israeli apartheid, occupation, and siege. In the name of upholding public health values it is imperative that American health and medical institutions publicly call for an immediate ceasefire, an end to US aid to Israel, and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.