71. How Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah has been changed by the Gaza genocide
Release Date: 03/29/2024
The Mondoweiss Podcast
In this episode, Yumna Patel, Yara Hawari, and Abdaljawad Omar discuss the precarious ceasefire and different future scenarios in Gaza and wider Palestine. This is the third and final episode in a collaboration series between Al-Shabaka and Mondoweiss. - - - - - Support our work Help us continue our critical, independent coverage of events in Palestine, Israel, and related U.S. politics. Donate today at Share this podcast Share The Mondoweiss Podcast with your followers on Twitter. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Podchaser, leave ! Follow The Mondoweiss Podcast wherever...
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After nearly 16 months of genocide, Palestinians saw a long-awaited respite when a ceasefire was announced in mid-January. But while the bombs have stopped raining down on Gaza—for now—Israel’s attacks on Palestinians across occupied lands continue. With only 42 days of ceasefire guaranteed, Israeli politicians are already plotting their return to war while escalating settler and state violence in the West Bank. This is the second episode in a three-part series in collaboration with Mondoweiss and Al-Shabaka, the Palestine Policy Network, where we explore what happens next and what the...
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Yumna Patel and Al-Shabaka's Yara Hawari break down the latest developments in Jenin and across the West Bank within the context of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and recent ceasefire. This is the first episode of a three-part collaboration series between Al-Shabaka and Mondoweiss. Support our work Help us continue our critical, independent coverage of events in Palestine, Israel, and related U.S. politics. Donate today at Share this podcast Share The Mondoweiss Podcast with your followers on Twitter. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Podchaser, leave ! Follow The Mondoweiss Podcast...
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Today’s episode was recorded just before the one-year anniversary of October 7th, the date marking the beginning of the most recent iteration of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. Unfortunately, we missed the release date, but we still felt it was crucial to share this conversation as events continue to unfold. Since the recording, Israel has not only continued its brutal assault on Gaza but has also intensified its aggression in Lebanon, with hundreds killed and over a million people displaced as Israel prepares for a ground invasion. In this episode, I speak with Diana Buttu, who...
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In this powerful episode, we sit down with Tareq, Mondoweiss’s Gaza correspondent, as he reflects on one year of genocide in Gaza. Tareq shares his deeply personal journey, recounting the horrors of displacement, the loss of his home, and the reality of living and working as a journalist during a genocide. He opens up about the daily challenges he faced—navigating the destruction, the trauma of losing loved ones, and the courage it took to keep reporting amid bombings and humanitarian catastrophe. - - - - Support our work Help us continue our critical, independent coverage of events in...
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In the past few weeks, Israel has bombed Lebanon, assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, launched a ground invasion, and displaced over a million people. Health care workers are warning of an 'apocalyptic' situation, with many now sleeping on the streets of Beirut. More than 1,300 have been killed, including at least one Lebanese American citizen. Meanwhile, Israel continues to commit genocide in Gaza and carry out military invasions in the occupied West Bank. On Tuesday, Iran launched over 100 missiles at Israel, targeting military sites in retaliation for Israel’s killings...
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In just a week, Israel's brutal bombing campaign on Lebanon has killed more than 700 Lebanese people and displaced over 90,000, escalating tensions with Hezbollah and pushing the conflict closer to what some believe is already an all-out war. This comes on the heels of the recent 'pager attack,' where hundreds of personal electronic devices were booby-trapped by Israel, resulting in the deaths and injuries of thousands across the country. Today, I’m joined by Abboud Hamayel – a writer, analyst, and lecturer in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at Birzeit University. We'll be...
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In this episode, we sit down with a very special guest, Nick Estes, Lead Editor at Red Media. Nick is a Lakota activist, writer, and scholar whose work delves into settler-colonialism, indigenous history, and decolonization. He is the author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance, now available in paperback with a new afterward through Haymarket Books. Nick has also been a vocal advocate for Palestinian liberation, highlighting the ongoing genocide in Gaza and exploring the intersection of the struggles...
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In mid-July, reports began to emerge from the Gaza Strip that polio was detected in the water. Days later, the Gaza Ministry of Health declared a polio epidemic and called for “immediate intervention to end the [Israeli] aggression and find radical solutions” to the worsening public health crisis in the Strip. The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children from being infected. But whether Israel would open up the borders to allow the vaccines in remains to be seen. In this...
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info_outlineDr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah was among the last group of people to enter Gaza through Egypt on the morning of Monday, October 9, immediately before the Rafah crossing was shut down and the territory was sealed off from the world.
He started operating at al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s medical epicenter, as soon as he’d arranged safe passage to the medical complex. Within the first few days, as a result of a relentless, ruthless bombing campaign against Gaza’s civilian infrastructure and people, the wounded had exceeded the entire Strip’s total bed capacity of 2,500.
He told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on October 12, 2023, that basic medical equipment was unavailable mere days into the assault. He warned of the far-ranging, catastrophic consequences of this war against the people of Gaza, “a man-made catastrophe,” he said, “almost like a perfect storm,” as Gaza’s healthcare system was “already on its knees” thanks to fifteen years of Israeli siege.
Abu-Sittah was working at Al-Ahli Hospital during the massacre on October 17, 2023, and was among the physicians who testified, surrounded by a sea of blanket-shrouded bodies, in the hospital courtyard in the attack’s immediate aftermath.
Since leaving Gaza in November, Abu-Sittah has committed his days to fighting what he called the “killing machine masquerading as a state” set on extinguishing life in Gaza. Recently, he launched the Ghassan Abu-Sittah Children’s Fund to bring injured children from Gaza to Lebanon to receive holistic medical and psychosocial care.
Mary Turfah, a writer and medical student, spoke to Dr. Abu Sittah on February 20. They talked about the liberatory potential of medicine and the complicity of Western media in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
They discussed Zionism and what to make of a settler colonial ideology that has flung itself over the precipice of genocide, necropolitics, and the obligation, when confronted with the cold, monstrous logic of elimination, to remain unwavering in our commitment to life.
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Articles and Links mentioned in the show
- The doctor’s role in liberation: an interview with Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, Mary Turfah
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