Post by Bystanders No More

𝗚𝗔𝗭𝗔 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀. Imagine being pulled from your home in the middle of the night. Separated from your family. Held for months without charge, without trial, without a hearing. For no reason other than that you stayed to care for sick children. That is what has happened to Dr Raed Mahdi, a pediatrician who spent his career at Al-Durra Children's Hospital in northern Gaza. He refused to abandon his young patients. He has now been detained for more than two years. And the people raising the alarm, calling for his release and that of dozens of other healthcare workers from Gaza? Israelis themselves. In April, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel went to Israel's own Supreme Court to demand the release of 14 Gaza doctors held without charge. By PHRI's own count, at least 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since October 2023. They were not making a political statement. They were standing on a principle every doctor knows. You treat whoever is in front of you, no matter who they are. The rule of law works the same way. A fair trial applies to everyone, or it applies to no one. ⚕️ If you don't know what to do with how this makes you feel, here is something small and real. If you are a healthcare professional, send one email to your association or royal college and ask this. Will it align with the World Medical Association and call for the same? The global body of your profession has already spoken (WMA resolution linked in the comments). Ask whether your association has followed. If it hasn't, ask why not. When enough members ask the same question, silence stops being neutral. It becomes a position the body has to defend. If you are not a healthcare professional, you almost certainly know one. A friend, a sibling, a colleague, a parent. Send them this and ask them to ask the question. You can't ask these institutions the question yourself. But you can put it in front of someone who can, and ask them not to leave it to someone else. ⚕️ Dr Mahdi's patients are still there. Still sick. Still waiting. Gaza's health system needs the people who ran it to come back and care for them. Instead they are held without charge, and many report being beaten, starved and denied medical care, while their patients wait. If Israel's own doctors can take a stand, so can we. Image via Physicians for Human Rights-Israel #BystandersNoMore #HumanRights #14Doctors