By Faruk Hanedar
ISTANBUL (AA) – The effects of Israeli aggression and blockades in Gaza are "beyond any cruelty" he has ever seen, even as a doctor of emergency medicine, said a prominent Norwegian physician and humanitarian activist.
"For me, it is enough to see how the Israeli occupation army are starving, thirsting, freezing, bombing, maiming the Palestinian people in Gaza. For me, this is a war crime,” said Dr. Mads Gilbert, head of the emergency medicine department at the University Hospital of North Norway, in Istanbul to attend a symposium on Palestine organized by Ibn Haldun University.
“For me, this is beyond any cruelty that I have seen in my life because it is much more than just the military advances," said Gilbert, 72.
"It is a punishment of the whole people, which is collective punishment, which is illegal,” he stressed. “It's an attack on the civilian population, the women, the children, the elders, all those not carrying weapons, which is illegal. And it is an all-out war against the Palestinian health care system, which is against international law.”
Calling starvation a weapon of mass destruction, Gilbert said: "And what kind of people is it that with full intention and plan, make more than a million children starve and not have clean water? I mean, what year is it? Is it 1600? Is it 1400, or is it 2024?"
The Gaza Strip, which has been under a relentless Israeli offensive and blockade since last Oct. 7, is home to more than 2.1 million people. In its attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7, it has killed some 30,000 people and injured tens of thousands more.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Gilbert added: "The use of starvation and thirsting of people when it could be reversed is a premeditated evil, and I would call it sadistic way of attacking what they are really attacking. That is the will of resistance of the Palestinian people. So this is the politics of colonizing, of settler colonial attacks on the Palestinian people.”
- An ‘occupation, not a conflict’
Underlining that Israel is pursuing a colonialist policy of attack against the Palestinian people, Gilbert said Israel is trying to force Palestinians to leave Gaza by starving them.
"The Palestine-Israel issue is not a difficult conflict, it is a difficult occupation," he said.
Under international law, Israel, which is responsible for the health care, education, and security of the occupied population, has never met these responsibilities, he stressed. He also stated that Israel has been attacking the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which has been supporting the Palestinians since 1948.
Last month Israel accused a handful of the agency’s thousands of employees of involvement in Hamas attacks on Israel. Though the UNRWA is investigating the claims, numerous Western countries in response have withdrawn its funding.
"I'm very angry that the Western governments, that the European governments do not stop Israel through sanctions and boycott and peaceful political tools as they have been doing against Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine. So these double standards are very shameful for anyone who would call themselves friends of the human race, friends of humanity, and defenders of international law," said Gilbert.
On the trial at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where Israel is accused of violating the Genocide Convention in Gaza, and other trials, he said there is a “new language we hear now, both from the International Court of Justice with regards to the genocide trial and the other trial going on to find out if Israel is perpetrating war crimes in the West Bank through the colonies and the occupiers, also called settlers and settlements.”
Concepts such as "colonization,” "apartheid," and "racism" should be used more frequently because these concepts explain the policies of the US and Israel, he said.
"I think we are in a new era of neo-colonialism, which is very dangerous. Where ‘might defines right’ and not right defines right. And then we are going back to the law of the jungle, where the strongest can do what they want to do without any limitations and any respect for international law and for the basic human," Gilbert explained.
Stating that when people respect each other, finding water for the thirsty and food for the hungry is a human value, and that everyone would want to see these values in their children, Gilbert said: "All these values are attacked by the Israeli state in occupied Palestine and especially in Gaza."
Gilbert said people all over the world are standing up in solidarity with Palestine against Israeli attacks, and especially young people are taking to the streets and demonstrating.
"The good people of the United States and also the young Jews are saying, no, we don't want this. We want another world. And the siege. Stop the bombing. Treat the Palestinians like we treat each other,” he said.
He added: “This is a big problem for the powers now. And if you've seen the shift in European governments, it is not because they wanted that in the beginning. It is because the streets are pushing them.”
"And the divide between the powers and the street is getting deeper and deeper. And this is a big problem for the powers. So what we have to do is to continue to show support for the Palestinian people. We have to continue to make demonstrations. And don't forget that Israel and the United States, they have been using boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) against the Palestinian people since at least 2006," Gilbert added.
- Anadolu presents evidence of crimes against humanity
Anadolu’s Global News Director Faruk Tokat, who also attended the conference, presented Gilbert the book Evidence, which was published by the agency.
Tokat told Gilbert that the book reveals the crimes against humanity committed by Israel in Gaza with documentary photos and that some of the images in the book will be used as evidence in international courts.
Gilbert expressed his satisfaction with the gift.