WE FIGHT TO SAVE OUR GAZAN PATIENTS, EVEN AS THEY LIE HANDCUFFED AND BLINDFOLDED

We Fight to Save Our Gazan Patients, Even as They Lie Handcuffed and Blindfolded

Despite the claims made about the treatment of Gazans at the Sde Teiman military base, doctors there put their patients first

April 21st, 15PM April 21st, 20PM

Dr. Gisella Perl was a Jewish gynecologist who worked in the impossible environment of the Auschwitz death camp. She had a "clinic" dedicated to saving the lives of pregnant inmates; she terminated pregnancies while in those horrific circumstances, in the valley of tears.

Dr. Perl survived. After arriving in the U.S., she was interrogated by immigration authorities, suspected of the grave offense of performing illegal abortions in the "camp." She explained that it was no summer camp, but her license was revoked nonetheless. It was only due to Eleanor Roosevelt's personal intervention that a law was passed to address Dr. Perl's actions. In her later years, Perl immigrated to Israel and worked at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. The hospital now bears an inscription commemorating her past work.

Inside a military base somewhere in the south of Israel, a "field hospital" has been set up. According to a report by Gideon Levy, it turns out that I could be interrogated for providing medical services and saving lives there. It also turns out that, according to the article, this hospital has only one righteous doctor and that "limbs are routinely amputated" – a euphemism conveying the contempt of the doctors and nurses and their lack of adherence to their medical calling and the supreme duty of their profession, which, unlike journalism, compels them to adhere to truth and respect to all children of creation.

The death of patients suffering from bullet wounds or serious chronic diseases can happen even in the best medical institutions.

A medical and welfare team is working in that impossible place. Dedicated nurses and fully aware doctors realize that "In a place where there are no worthy men, strive to be worthy," as a senior nurse remarked, quoting the Mishna. The doctors working there, like me, are fighting for their patients' lives even as they lie handcuffed and blindfolded before them. In every way possible, the doctors attempt to avoid amputations, cover areas that require skin transplants, and fight serious infections.

Doctors at that southern hospital must – like, a million differences aside, doctors who worked in ghettos and camps, under hampered conditions and against a terrible enemy – carry out their medical duty and push back any feelings of hatred or vengeance. With a click of the keyboard, we are being told of routine amputations. This is not the case.

The death of patients suffering from bullet wounds or serious chronic diseases can happen even in the best medical institutions. Reporting the number of deaths without any mention of diseases or cause of death is not quite making the information available to the public.

Not many are willing to take part in this campaign of providing enemy wounded and sick with humane medical care. It's not just one righteous person mentioned by the reporter – the entire medical staff, which is fighting sickness and injury, must come out against these dire accusations, written lightly and based on false information, while also struggling for the recognition that allows it to operate. It is clear to every nurse and doctor that we are part of the country, not operatives of a terrorist organization.

2024-04-21T12:27:27Z dg43tfdfdgfd