Physicians & Advocates for Global Health Equity Demand a Permanent Ceasefire

As a group of physicians and specialists in global health equity, we are deeply concerned about the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine.

Health inequity is rooted not only in biological phenomena but also in the social, economic, and political forces under which people live. Treating broken bones as bombs continue to fall, or cholera when there is no water, or anxiety when a patient’s family has been kidnapped are among the many ways healthcare workers become trapped in technocratic solutions for political and moral problems.

Our work — as doctors and advocates for global health equity — demands the mitigation of these larger forces. We believe that our oath to “do no harm” is not only passive. Rather, it also means actively stopping and speaking out against greater harms like war, racism, gender inequality, homophobia, nationalism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism.

Among us, we have hundreds of person-years of experience studying and working to mitigate vast health inequities in the United States, Haiti, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Botswana, Peru, Palestine, Nepal, Guatemala, Viet Nam, Philippines, Cambodia, India, the Navajo nation, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Zimbabwe. Our experience has taught us that not only is direct violence harmful, but so too are oppressive structures that deny people basic human rights (health care, school, food, water, housing, safety, freedom of movement) — structural violence.

We see both direct and structural violence happening in Israel and Palestine. First, the direct killing of more than 16,000 innocent people and injury of thousands more, many of them patients in hospitals and children in schools. Second, the indirect, structural violence in the rapid spread of infectious diseases from lack of clean water; in the flaring of chronic diseases like asthma and COPD due to the decimation of medical infrastructure; in the psychic trauma of victims, perpetrators, and everyone in between — and their children, and theirs.

Whether we draw on the moral framework of medicine or the structural analysis of global health equity, our work demands respect for the sanctity and interconnectedness of all human life. It would be deeply immoral for us to consider our patients in America more valuable than our patients in Zimbabwe. They are all our patients. And so, if we are to remain morally consistent, we cannot in good conscience sit in silence and watch the avoidable violence unfold in Israel and Palestine. We join Doctors Without Borders, World Health Organization, United Nations Children’s Fund, World Food Program, American Public Health Association, Save the Children, Amnesty International, and many others in demanding our leaders call for an immediate, permanent ceasefire.

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1. Joia S. Mukherjee MD MPH
2. Bram Wispelwey MD MPH
3. Khameer Kidia MD MPhil
4. Mary T. Bassett MD MPH
5. Paul H. Park MD MBA MSc
6. Lao-Tzu Allan-Blitz MD MPH
7. Avik Chatterjee MD MPH
8. Hema Magge MD MS
9. Courtney Yuen PhD
10. Neil Gupta MD MPH
11. Jean Claude Mugunga MD MS
12. Peter Rohloff MD PhD
13. David B. Duong MD MPH
14. Joseph Rhatigan MD
15. Sonya Shin MD MPH
16. Rose Olson MD MPH
17. Michelle Morse MD MPH
18. Lara Jirmanus MD MPH
19. Nithin Paul MD MPH
20. Jennifer Brody MD MPH AAHIVM
21. Stephanie Preston MD
22. Madhuri Rao MD
23. Rebecca Lee MD
24. Amir Mohareb MD
25. James Smith MBBS MA MSc MSc
26. Jim Recht MD
27. Monica Chaudhuri MD MPH
28. Jane Hopkins Walsh PhD PNP-BC RN
29. Jessica Dillard-Wright PhD MA RN CNM
30. Hibah Osman MD MPH
31. Mardge Cohen MD
32. Sanjna L. Surya MD
33. Mustafa Khaled MD
34. Zackary Berger MD PhD
35. Aliya Moreira MD MPH
36. Nikkole Turgeon MD
37. Matthew Gartland MD
38. Omaira Azizad MD
39. Ghulam Karim Khan MD
40. Radwa Koujane MD MS
41. Fatima Chawdry MD
42. Sana Waheed MD
43. Aliya Moreira MD MPH
44. Amalia Kane MD
45. Jihan Mohasseb MD MPH
46. Hamzah S Khalaf MD
47. Salameh Obeidqt MD MSc MHQS
48. Leila Amini MD
49. Nishaat Patel MD
50. Yasmeen Shariff DO
51. Ammar Ahmed MD
52. Saranna Smith MBChB MMed FCP
53. Lutfi Fadil Lokman MD DrPH
54. Tinashe Goronga MBChB MPH
55. Luke Messac MD PhD
56. Jalaluddin Umar MD
57. Amina Chaudhry MD MPH MBA
58. Suzanne Shoush MD CCFP
59. Mahmoud AbuHazeem MD
60. Laura Kolbe MD
61. Yipeng Ge MD MPH CCFP
62. Louise Ivers MD MPH
63. Carine Hedari MD
64. Daniel Bernal-Serrano MD MHE MSc HPPF
65. Saba Rahman MD
66. Alexander Tsai MD
67. Janine Farrell MD MPH
68. Ummara Shah MD
69. Erum Ahmad MD
70. Kaes Al-Ali MBChB, MRCSI, FABMS, FRCSC
71. Sunanda Ray MBBS MSc MPH MPhil FFPH
72. Adrian Aurrecoechea MD MPH
73. Parable Sibanda MD
74. Tafadzwa Muguwe MD MPH
75. Jaylee Caruso MD
76. Megan Murray MD MPH ScD
77. Leah Carter MD
78. Meera Iyengar MD
79. Ala Soofian MD
80. Titania Nur Shelly MD
81. Els Torreele PhD
82. Rizwana Ahmed NP
83. Norin Dashoush DO MPH
84. Alexa Lesperance MD
85. Trish Scanlan FRCPI DSc (Hons)
86. Daniel Soule DO
87. Neha Limaye MD MPH
88. Joseph Truglio MD MPH FACP FAAP
89. Lioba Hirsch PhD
90. Vikram Patel MBBS PhD
91. Steffie Woolhandler MD MPH
92. David U. Himmelstein MD
93. Rochelle Burgess PhD
94. Kathryn Himmelstein MD MSEd
95. William Taylor MD
96. Rashida A Ferrand MD PhD
97. Duncan Maru MD PhD
98. Kim Sue MD PhD
99. Karameh Kuemmerle MD
100. Lianet Vazquez MD
101. Brendan Eappen MD
102. Elizabeth Mason MbChB MPH
103. Nasrien E Ibrahim MD MPH