الكاتب: kafej

“The physician is the natural attorney of the poor” was a slogan Rudolf Virchow, a wealthy German pathologist, politician and social medicine activist, helped popularise in the mid-nineteenth century. More than 100 years later, Frantz Fanon – a Martinican-born psychiatrist who resigned from his position in the French medical system in protest against French colonial violence in Algeria – expressed a less-idealised impression of the profession.

Although the physician presents himself as “the doctor who heals the wounds of humanity”, he is in reality “an integral part of colonisation, of domination, of exploitation”, Fanon wrote.

Doctors across the world are familiar with Virchow’s affirming portrait of ourselves as virtuous advocates for the oppressed. But based on the prevailing responses of American, European, and Israeli medical professionals to the US-backed genocide in Gaza, Fanon’s damning assessment of doctors’ complicity with state violence rings far truer.

As the world has been witnessing daily mass killings perpetrated by the far-right Israeli government against Palestinian civilians, including deliberate attacks on hospitals that have killed and maimed medical staff and patients, doctors outside Gaza have been sorting themselves into two camps: collaborationists and resisters.

The majority of us in the Global North appear to have gathered into the first category. Collaboration with colonial violence comes in many forms, from passive silence or prevaricating commentaries that foster evasion of ethical-political responsibility to active censorship by journal editors of Palestinian conditions, history, and perspectives, alongside public calls by Israeli doctors for the murder of their Palestinian counterparts by bombing Gaza’s hospitals.

Especially pernicious are intellectually and ethically bankrupt claims that invoking historical and political-economic analyses of the root causes of current violence linked to occupation and apartheid policies is tantamount to justifying violence committed by Hamas, and is thus impermissible.

Such claims are a standard tactic for manufacturing consent for the perpetuation of colonial domination. They aim to obscure its enduring cruelty and inhibit would-be resisters from using their voices and influence to stop it.

The incentives for collaboration and disincentives for dissent are clear. The US House of Representatives has sanctioned the sole Palestinian-American congressperson, Rashida Tlaib, for calling for a ceasefire and repeating aspirations for Palestinian liberation.

A large number of billionaire donors have used the power of their checkbooks to demand McCarthyist policies on campuses across the country.

In response, most well-protected faculty have remained cooperatively silent, while donor-responsive university presidents at elite institutions like Columbia, Harvard, and University of Pennsylvania have suspended pro-Palestinian and Jewish student groups that have protested against continuing violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.

In this climate of intimidation in which criticism of racist Zionist violence and sympathy for Palestinian lives are cynically conflated with anti-Semitism, various federal and state initiatives have been launched to investigate claims of anti-Semitism on university campuses.

This reality has not been lost on the most powerful figures in American medicine, who generally depend upon university appointments and associated academic honours for advancing their careers.

Not a single major medical professional organisation in the US has come out against the acute-on-chronic genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, let alone rallied their substantial lobbying power to oppose US lawmakers’ active support for it.

Despite this and the risks entailed, many US doctors have begun organising among themselves, joining larger movements beyond our profession, and banding together with a broad array of healthcare workers in search of ways to stop the violence.

Many of those in the US medical field who, to date, have fallen into the collaborationist camp would no doubt vehemently deny the accusation if confronted and express outrage that anyone would dare to impugn their moral standing.

Some might point to their abundant publications, lectures, and research grants related to diversity and inclusion, health equity, global health, or human rights as evidence of their unimpeachable virtue.

But when measured by their effects for those subjected to US-sponsored colonial violence and dispossession in Gaza and the West Bank right now, such defences are worse than hollow. They function to provide cover for the ethical failure of the US medical profession to leverage our substantial political influence to condemn colonial violence and demand that our government stop enabling it.

We can, however, do otherwise. As Fanon noted in “Medicine and Colonialism” and demonstrated through his own life, despite doctors’ structurally conditioned tendencies to align with colonial oppression, we are also fully capable of opposing it – provided that we have the courage to refuse the comforts of complicity and accept personal risks.

When doctors leave their upper-class, professional value systems to instead embrace “sleeping on the ground” beside dispossessed groups while “living the drama of the people”, as Fanon put it, commitment to the trappings of polite “professionalism” gives way to active solidarity. The doctor who commits to working shoulder-to-shoulder with the displaced and dispossessed can transform from an “agent of colonialism” into a physician worthy of the term caregiver.

Few American doctors have delivered care in the occupied Palestinian territory or accompanied the residents of Gaza or the West Bank as they negotiate everyday deprivations under Israeli blockades and occupation.

By what means, then, are we to join in solidarity with an oppressed people thousands of miles away? We should look to and take direction from the Palestinian healthcare workers and the foreign colleagues alongside them who have devoted themselves to caring for the sick and wounded no matter the cost.

While providing medical help under conditions that would cause most doctors in the Global North to give up, one doctor in Gaza has even found time to fill the vacuum of ethical-political initiative left by ineffectual American physicians, suing US President Joe Biden for failing to prevent an unfolding genocide and for his active complicity in it.

“We will not abandon our patients or our communities,” Gaza’s healthcare workers have repeatedly said as their workplaces have been bombed.

We should, in turn, refuse to abandon them.

When we cannot or will not join in caring for the most dispossessed, our minimal ethical responsibility as doctors who claim to value human life is to do all we can to protect our colleagues who are doing this difficult, essential work. As a professional community, we have been refusing to meet even this barest of ethical standards.

Some will dismiss this appeal for doctors to reject collaborationism and to join in action-oriented solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues who are risking – and losing – their lives to care for those in greatest need as “divisive” and lacking “nuance”.

For anyone genuinely interested, dispassionately presented historical accounts of Zionist settler colonialism, the resultant apartheid system, the chronic destruction of Palestinian public health, and nuanced legal appeals to protect the rights of Palestinians have been presented countless times before and are readily available.

But as the murders of Palestinian civilians continue to mount by the hundreds with each passing day, we should refuse to nuance or debate preventable atrocity or to permit the fantasy of a middle ground for those who wish to abstain from “taking a side”.

There is no possible justification for what the Israeli and US governments have been doing in Gaza. The only ethical stance for physicians – or anyone else – is to demand a permanent ceasefire, an immediate end to ethnic cleansing in both Gaza and the West Bank, and the dismantling of the apartheid system that ensures an unending stream of both perpetual and punctuated violence.

In the face of genocide, drawing lines and forcing decisive action is a basic ethical duty, no matter who it offends nor what personal or professional costs it may entail.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Andry Rajoelina has secured a third term in an election marred by a low turnout and an opposition boycott.

Madagascar‘s President Andry Rajoelina has effectively secured a third term after the electoral body (CENI) said he had obtained the most votes in an election marked by low turnout and an opposition boycott.

Provisional results announced on Saturday by CENI at the end of tallying showed Rajoelina garnered 58.9 percent of the vote followed by Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko, a lawmaker, who got 14.4 percent. The country’s High Constitutional Court is mandated to announce final results within nine days after the poll body declares provisional results.

“The Malagasy people have chosen the path of continuity, serenity and stability,” Rajoelina, a 49-year-old entrepreneur and former DJ, said after the results were announced.

“I thank the Malagasy people who now refuse to choose the wrong path, who no longer accept to take the path of unrest. Democracy is exercised through elections and not in the streets or through unrest.”

But Randrianasoloniaiko told the AFP news agency on Saturday he had appealed to the country’s apex court to demand the cancellation of the vote result.

“I filed two requests to request the cancellation of the vote and the disqualification of Andry Rajoelina,” Randrianasoloniaiko told the agency, denouncing electoral fraud.

Opposition candidates had declared on Friday they would not accept the results.

“We cannot legitimise the results that will come out,” said Hajo Andrianainarivelo, who was among 10 of the 13 candidates initially cleared to run who told voters to boycott the poll.

He said the poll had been tainted by irregularities including intimidation of polling officials and use of public resources by the governing party, which has denied the claims.

‘Unfair’ conditions

The majority of the opposition, aligned in the so-called Collectif des 10  – a group of 10 candidates – boycotted the election. The group has led street protests in the capital Antananarivo almost every day in recent weeks, several of which were dispersed with tear gas and police arrested many participants and bystanders.

The United Nations human rights office said that Malagasy security forces had used “unnecessary and disproportionate force” against peaceful protesters.

Opposition supporters claimed Rajoelina should not have run because he acquired French nationality in 2014 – which they say automatically revokes his Malagasy one – and had created unfair election conditions.

Collectif des 10 later asked the poll body to postpone the election saying the state needed to first appoint independent officials on the electoral body. When CENI refused, they decided to ask voters to boycott the poll.

Subsequently, only three candidates campaigned. Roughly 46.4 percent of voters cast their ballots, according to CENI, with the opposition describing it as the lowest turnout in the country’s history.

Rajoelina first rose to power in the Indian Ocean island nation in a 2009 coup. He then stepped down after almost five years as leader of a transitional authority and then became president again after winning a 2018 election.

As the easternmost European Union member, Finland, historically neutral, pivots towards NATO in response to Russia’s Ukraine invasion, new geopolitical challenges arise: increased Russian espionage, cyberattacks and potential election interference, the Finnish government says.

Additionally, a surge of asylum seekers, allegedly directed by Russia, strains stability.

Amid these tensions, Finland’s $345m Israeli defence deal, which many see as conflicting with its stance on Gaza, sparks debate.

Discussing these complex issues, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen talks to Al Jazeera.

Rescue efforts to save workers trapped since November 12 slowed after damage to a digging machine.

Indian rescuers have brought in a new manual digging machine to open a vertical shaft to free 41 workers trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel for two weeks, after efforts through another route hit snags just metres from reaching the men.

A heavy drill brought in to break through nearly 60 metres (about 200 feet) of debris was damaged on Friday while being pulled out of the 47-metre (154-foot) pipe inserted to bring out the trapped workers. It had to be pulled out entirely, government officials said on Saturday, adding the last 10-15 metres (33-49 feet) would have to be broken with hand-held power tools.

The men, construction workers from some of India’s poorest states, have been stuck in the 4.5km (three-mile) tunnel being built in Uttarakhand state in northern India since it caved in early on November 12. Authorities have said they are safe, with access to light, oxygen, food, water and medicines.

Pushkar Singh Dhami, chief minister of Uttarakhand state, said the damaged machine would be taken out by Sunday morning, allowing manual drilling to start.

Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, who is assisting the rescue, told reporters at the tunnel site that although the machine is broken, he was not giving up hope as there were “many ways” to reach the men.

“I am confident that the 41 men are coming home.”

Rescue efforts have been painfully slow, complicated by falling debris as well as repeated breakdowns of crucial heavy drilling machines, with the air force having to twice airlift new kit.

Ambulances are on standby and a field hospital has been prepared to receive the men when they are rescued.

‘Challenging Himalayan terrain’

AFP reporters at the tunnel site on Saturday reported seeing a heavy earth digger being taken up the specially cut track to the top of a forested hill above the tunnel to start a risky vertical shaft.

Officials estimate the proposed vertical shaft would need to be 89 metres (291 feet) deep, a complex dig above the men in an area that has already suffered a collapse.

Work has also begun digging from the far side of the road tunnel, a much longer third route estimated to be approximately 480 metres (1,575 feet).

Dhami, the state’s top elected official, said the authorities and teams of international experts were working on all options.

“We will soon be successful in evacuating our labour brothers safely,” he said in a post on social media.

Rescue teams have stretchers fitted with wheels ready to pull the exhausted men through 57 metres (187 feet) of pipe, if it can be driven through the final section of rubble blocking their escape.

The workers were seen alive for the first time on Tuesday, peering into the lens of an endoscopic camera sent by rescuers down a thin pipe through which air, food, water and electricity are being delivered.

Since Wednesday, officials have repeatedly said they were optimistic of a breakthrough within hours, but a government statement has also noted that any timeline is “subject to change due to technical glitches, the challenging Himalayan terrain, and unforeseen emergencies”.

Amid the truce, some Gaza Palestinians returned to their houses in north and central Gaza – only to find rubble and debris.

Some Palestinians returned to their homes in the central and northern parts of the Gaza Strip after a four-day truce came into effect.

But for many, only rubble waited where their homes once stood.

Al Jazeera’s Hisham Zaqout visited the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on Saturday, where he spoke to several Palestinians who used the pause in fighting to return to their neighbourhoods – only to find utter destruction.

“Our home is destroyed, nothing remains standing. And most of the ducks and chickens were eaten by hungry street dogs,” an elderly woman said.

“This is not a war; it is a genocide,” she added. “It’s unprecedented crimes.”

Zaqout said many residents of the Bureij camp had been forced to head to the Nuseirat refugee camp, further west, due to the constant, intense shelling by the Israeli military since last month.

Upon returning, they found their homes levelled to the ground and some of the dead buried under the debris. The elderly woman said she used to “come every now and then, despite the ruthless shelling”.

“It was very dangerous, but I have to come and check on my chicken livestock. I am not afraid. If I am destined to be killed, I will die. My life is not in the hands of the Zionists.”

‘I hope the ceasefire can last forever’

Another resident of the camp talked about the unimaginable destruction that awaited him upon his return.

“Honestly, I never imagined the scale of destruction; not even 1 percent of it,” the young man said.

“My home was shelled. It suffered damages and is not fit to live in any more. It must be rebuilt all over again,” he added.

When asked how he could stay there again, he said he would prefer to live in a house without walls “than get humiliated in overcrowded UN schools”.

“We drink seawater and pretend it is freshwater. What can we do?”

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to take shelter inside United Nation-run schools since the start of the war. But they have not proven safe either, and many Israeli attacks targeting them have left dozens of civilians dead.

The truce, which runs until Monday, involves the release of dozens of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel in exchange for Israelis and other nationals held in Gaza.

It may be extended, the United States and others have signalled, but Israel and its Western allies have not supported a ceasefire in the besieged strip.

Another Gaza resident speaking to Al Jazeera said they “wish for eternal peace, not just four days, because people have gone through too many pains and are still suffering”.

“I hope the ceasefire can last forever. Why? Because we are tired, we are tired of a life like this.”

Another displaced Palestinian, a resident of Khuza’a in southern Gaza, said the scale of destruction left them shocked after returning home to the north.

“The destruction is very large, tears come down alone. God suffices us and that’s all I can say.”