Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta: “All the areas around the hospital were being bombed all the time. We then got a call to the emergency room and we were told that the administration and the out patients building had been hit – a lot of families had taken refuge in that area – so we had to go and help.”
Al-Shifa Hospital, July 2014.
During each of Israel’s three major assaults on Gaza, Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta has volunteered as a surgeon at the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. A Palestinian reconstructive surgeon, he lives in Lebanon.
This interview with him was conducted by journalist Yazan al-Saadi, and published in the English edition of Al-Akhbar, a Lebanese newspaper.
As of August 18, 2014, the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli assault on Gaza has risen to 2,016, including 541 children, 250 women and 95 elderly men. Wounded: 10,196. The death toll keeps rising as more people die from catastrophic injuries.
This morning, a Great Spangled Fritillary visited our garden. Probably a female, according to The Butterflies of Canada, which says males are bright orange, females subtler. (I’m open to correction.)
Although I kept a respectful distance, at least ten feet, each time I shifted to a better angle she disappeared. Then finally she permitted a single photo. I call her Greta Garbo.
Yesterday a Monarch visited. Only one, but given their perilous state, one is 100% better than none. I watched it feed for almost an hour on Brazilian verbena, verbena bonariensis.
A tip: Though it rarely appears on how-to-attract-butterflies plant lists, these tall, dignified plants with tiny purple flowers draw many more visitors than any other plant in our garden. Brazilian verbena self-seeds lavishly, but doesn’t crowd its neighbours.
Perhaps the monarch will return. And Greta Garbo.
For more on how gardens illuminate our ambiguous place in nature, science and power, see Bold Scientists: dispatches from the battle for honest science. Available September 4, 2014, from Between the Lines.
Gaza City, July 27, 2014. Photo: Oxfam International.
“For the last eight years, Israel and the U.S. had repeated opportunities to opt for a diplomatic solution in Gaza. Each time, they have chosen war, with devastating consequences for the families of Gaza.”
Why?
The answer is here, in a well-documented account by Sandy Tolan, author of The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, and an associate professor at the University of Southern California.
The only practical response that does not depend on goodwill or common sense from the Israeli or American authorities: the growing international grassroots movement for BDS – boycott, divestment and sanctions.
“A gripping tale of heroic scientists working in the public interest despite powerful
opposition. At once, both tremendously hopeful and profoundly disturbing. The world
needs more bold authors like Michael Riordon.”
Thomas Duck, Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science,Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
“Silence is consent, my fellow scientists. Riordon’s profiles in courage encourage us to take our data and our voices into the gladiator’s arena and engage in the great moral and political battles of our time. As Bold Scientists so clearly shows, it’s where we belong.”
Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., author of Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment; co-founder, Concerned Health Professionals of New York
The menu/chapters:
When the river roared. First Nations, a long view.
Digging thistles. An experimental post-oil farm.
A dialogue with the world. Biology, from the ground up.
Blood on my hands. Life and death in the garden.
Stolen children.In El Salvador,war, genes and human rights.
The Cloud. Watching Big Brother.
ODD. Psychology and power
Awe. The wisdom of a spider web.
Pesky data. Under lakes, dark truths.
The unsolved problem. Fracking: homeland insecurity.
When the lights go out.Awakening in an ice storm.
No time for cowardice. An elemental fight for science and democracy.
Bold Scientists: dispatches from the battle for honest science
Now:
Pre-order it from independent bookstores and Chapters/Indigo stores across Canada.
After September 4th:
Purchase or order Bold Scientists from local retailers or libraries across Canada.
Purchase it directly from the publisher, Between the Lines, online (within Canada) at http://btlbooks.com/book/bold-scientists, or by phone toll-free at 1-800-718-7201.
As the Israeli attack on Gaza and the suffocating military occupation of the West Bank grind on, and resistance continues on both sides of the apartheid wall, Canadian publisher Between the Lines is featuring Witness, a chapter from Our Way to Fight: peace-work under siege in Israel-Palestine, on the front page of their website.
Al-Shifa Hospital, July 2014.
Michael Riordon 