Health care institutions in Minnesota and across the country have been “persistently silencing” workers from speaking about Israel’s military attacks on Gaza since the conflict began a year ago, say some local health care professionals.
Alycia Garubanda, a speech pathologist at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in south Minneapolis, said some workplaces feel unsafe due to bans on work events featuring Palestinian doctors. Some employees have also been fired for posting support for Palestine on personal social media accounts, she added.
“It’s an intentional intimidation tactic,” she said. “It’s making us feel like we are doing something wrong when we know we are doing the absolute best we must do, not only for one particular group of patients, but all of our patients and our whole community.”
Garubanda and dozens of other Twin Cities health care workers took to the steps of the State Capitol in St. Paul on. Friday to demand an end to such treatment, and issued a call for Israel to end its assault on Gaza, for state divestment from Israel and for a national arms embargo.
The event was organized by the local chapter of Healthcare Workers for Palestine, a national network of health workers and student health professionals.
After Hamas launched an attack on Israel last October that resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,200 Israelis, the Israeli military began bombing the Gaza strip in a campaign that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, including women and children. Several governments and the United Nations have called Israel’s campaign a genocide on the Palestinian people, although Israel and its allies, including the United States, deny those allegations.
Israel has targeted and attacked multiple hospitals and health care facilities in Gaza, including Al Shifa Hospital this past spring and Al Aqsa Hospital earlier this month, resulting in the death of more than 1,100 health care workers, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
“Making connections with the humanity of the Palestinian people, as I was watching hospitals be bombed, children be mutilated and more and more and more amputations … nothing was spoken or uttered at the lunch table about what was going on in Palestine,” Garubanda said. “I was very eager to find people who understood the connections between health care all across the globe and the way that we provide care here.”
This week, health care workers in Gaza put out a call for global action, prompting events all over the country, including Friday’s rally in St. Paul.
One of the speakers at the event was Willy Massay, an intensive care nurse who flew to Gaza earlier this year to provide medical care to Palestinians. Massay described the harrowing process of traveling to Gaza and what he experienced there, which included Israeli forces prohibiting him from entering with any medical equipment, destruction of hospital infrastructure by bombs and the killing of a 2-year-old child in his care by an Israeli sniper.
“I cannot eat, I cannot sleep, I cannot do anything. Many of the providers, doctors and nurses who went … they all say the same thing,” he said.
Organizers of the rally are also citing the treatment of local workers by health care institutions. Earlier this summer, Palestinian physician Dr. Christine Harb was slated to speak at an event organized by Muslim, Asian and LGBTQ staff at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.
Despite initially receiving approval from both Hennepin Health’s executive leadership and its Health Equity Department, the talk was postponed indefinitely, prompting the resignations of several employees from the Asian and Muslim Collectives, two of the health care system’s cultural affinity groups for employees.
In a statement, a Hennepin Healthcare spokesperson denied claims that the health care system has banned discussions about Palestine, calling it a “simply untrue” and “persistent and false narrative.”
“At Hennepin Healthcare, we believe there is no single ‘right’ way to show support or solidarity. We are saddened by the notion that hosting specific people or sharing specific messages is the only valid way to stand in solidarity,” the statement reads. “Activism takes many forms, and we all have the ability to contribute in ways that align with our own values.”
The statement also cites an internal communication issued last November that condemned terrorism. It also said Hennepin Healthcare stands in solidarity with health care workers in the Middle East, and provided resources to “empower our employees to engage in their own personal advocacy, recognizing that each of us can make a difference based on what resonates most with our personal beliefs.”
Another instance involved a webinar called “BIPOC Mental Health Awareness: A Deeper Dive” that was held and recorded by Dr. Asfia Qaadir, the diversity, equity and inclusion clinical consultant for PrairieCare, a physician-led health care organization that provides mental health services in the Twin Cities, Rochester and Mankato. Qaadir’s talk discussed how clinicians can best treat Black, Indigenous and Palestinian patients in Minnesota due to health care inequities.
Despite praise from many attendees, PrairieCare refused to distribute a recording of the event due to “significant scrutiny, heated feedback, and divided opinions from many attendees,” according to an email Garubanda received from PrairieCare CEO Todd Archbold. Garubanda attended the webinar and requested a recording from PrairieCare.
“It has unintentionally put PrairieCare, a mental health provider, in the center of a complex debate, which neither Dr. Qaadir or the organization intended on addressing in the presentation,” Archbold said in the email.
PrairieCare spokeswoman Kristen Hayes echoed Archbold in a statement to Sahan Journal, saying the overall theme of the presentation was well received but “strong, polarized responses” prompted the organization to issue an apology to anyone who was offended or felt uncomfortable. The statement did not address whether the webinar’s recording was not made available, or why the decision was made.
At Friday’s rally, Aarti Bhatt, a pediatrician and primary care physician, held up a petition with more than 1,000 signatures — to chants of “Shame!” from rallygoers — demanding PrairieCare retract the apology and release the recording of the webinar.
“The very health care institutions tasked with caring for our most vulnerable populations, our children in mental health crises and other vulnerable populations, are trying to convince us that community safety requires erasing the Palestinian voice, that inclusion will be achieved through exclusion,” Bhatt said. “But we aren’t fooled — we understand that these bans are intentional and they’re meant to isolate us, create fragmentation within our communities and dehumanize us.”
Peer mental health worker Sam Sharpe, who uses they/them pronouns, said that as health care workers, they cannot ignore the plight of their colleagues in Gaza. The goal of Friday’s event is to “make it clear to these hospitals that the community is aware that this type of education is being banned, and that as a community … we know this is going on and we need answers,” Sharpe said.
The rally also featured other groups, such as White Coats 4 Black Lives and Students for Justice in Palestine.
