American doctors urge US to impose emergency weapons embargo on Israel
Palestinian doctor Ahmed Al-Mughraby, head of plastic surgery department at Nasser hospital, speaks to Reuters at Gaza European Hospital, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 19, 2024. (Reuters Photo)
A group of doctors recently returned from the Gaza Strip have called on U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration to impose an “emergency weapons embargo” on Israel. The call came during a press conference organized by American doctors attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Tammy Abughanim, a doctor who worked in Gaza, stated that Israel’s prolonged attacks over the past 10 months have made life in the region “literally impossible.” She said, “We cannot do our jobs as bombs fall, Israeli snipers target children and civilians, and Israeli helicopters descend on civilian groups. Israel has made our work impossible with direct support from the U.S.”
The doctors, some wearing keffiyehs, emphasized the “horrific scale” of the situation in Gaza, which they described as beyond comprehension. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who was in Gaza from March 25 to April 8, reported witnessing “genocidal violence” firsthand. “I saw children’s heads not just once, but every day, shattered by bullets we paid for. I saw the horrifying and systematic destruction of Han Yunis city. I couldn’t tell you where a room with four walls remains.”
A letter from Jewish-American doctor Mark Perlmutter, also presented at the press conference, described distressing scenes he witnessed. Perlmutter wrote, “I had never seen a small child shot in the head and chest before. I could never have imagined seeing two cases like this in less than two weeks. I had never seen a dozen small children screaming in pain and terror, crammed into a trauma center smaller than my living room, with the smell of burning flesh so intense it made my eyes burn. I could never have imagined what it would look like for a hospital to turn into a camp for displaced people.”
The letter criticized the U.S. government for continuing to fund “this horrific massacre for almost a year,” and called for a halt to arming Israel for the sake of Palestinians, the U.S., Israel, Judaism, international law, and humanity as a whole.
