About a week after Canadian doctor Yipeng Ge returned from Gaza, he got several surprise emails: legal and human rights groups were getting in touch to take his witness testimony.
There was a reason they wanted to get information from him that they could have gotten from doctors still in Gaza, he told The Breach in an exclusive interview—doctors are afraid of being killed if they speak out.
“There’s a safety and security risk for any healthcare worker within the Gaza Strip,” he said. “You essentially have a target on your back simply for wearing scrubs.”
After returning from separate trips to Gaza in February and March, Ge and another Ontario-based doctor Ben Thomson, told The Breach they were contacted by lawyers and interviewers from UK-based groups, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, and Forensic Architecture.
Both had witnessed the impact of a collapsing healthcare system, as Thomson had seen an example of a patient’s wounds that indicated they had been tortured.
Canadian doctors returned from Gaza almost certainly won’t be killed on Canadian soil for speaking out, but there’s a high likelihood they’ll face professional consequences from hospitals (ie, employers) or their college (ie, professional organization). They’ll probably be safer if they work at a community hospital/practice than a university-associated hospital.
I’ve found it troubling to see how the targeting of healthcare workers, women and children, and aid groups by the Israeli government in their ‘war’/genocide has been completely ignored by the establishment - at least within the university and child health circles that I travel in - for the sake of demonstrating at least an appearance of staunch commitment to the delusion that Israel is not committing colonialist genocide. I wouldn’t dare say something in real life, or challenge abstract references to the “protest” on campus. I’m in a more precarious than secure spot in terms of job and security, and it’s a matter of survival right now.
I applaud the house owners around me that display “ceasefire now” signs on their lawns. And I applaud these physicians, if they’re able, to supporting international justice with their testimony
I mean, they’ve already been to Gaza so unless they can hide that, testifying probably won’t brand them significantly more as enemies of Israel.
Doctors today face a demand from their services that, while we can’t guarantee will get them higher wages, can give them more leeway against unwritten political rules of speech.
Giving testimony may still be protected speech, and a doctor fired for giving testimony against a popular invading force on a sham pretext after years of cruelty and torture and collective punishment may be in a unique position for the constructed termination case.
You make some good points. I wonder if their testimony for ICJ or a similar body would be as protected as if it was for Canadian legal proceedings. Regarding termination, fabrication of ‘patient safety’ concerns can be used to disguise motivations and minimize due process when there’s a desire to fire someone. Sorry if I sound wildly pessimistic. It’s the most 1984 thing I’ve experienced personally, and I’ve got to put up with it for several more years before I’ll be empowered to stop hiding as much
