Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine

A collective re-imagining of the professional association

Abstract

In the most recent war on Gaza, Israel has systematically attacked the health system and engaged in an unlawful blockade of basic provisions that are required to deliver healthcare. These attacks have been found by an independent commission of inquiry to violate international law and by the International Court of Justice as a case of ‘plausible genocide.’ The destruction of the healthcare system affects all civilians, although persons with disabilities may be disproportionately affected, including a higher risk of death during searches and attacks on hospitals. Inaction or silence by health professional associations in the face of the documented targeting of the health system and the civilians of Gaza must be read as complicity. In response, many healthcare professionals have mobilized both internationally and nationally in various countries, including in Ireland, where an active solidarity movement called Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine emerged. This paper documents its birth and is a collective reflection by members of the Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine about our professional associations. We examine the responses of those representing doctors (General Practitioners [GPs] and Psychiatrists), nurses, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, social workers, and pharmacists. With a partial exception of some associations, we demonstrate a pattern of inaction, delayed, weak, or equivocating statements, and, in some cases, complete silence. The paper concludes by considering the ‘inventive nature of solidarities’, where we imagine an interdisciplinary association of healthcare workers built on the principles of human rights and justice.