On April 23, medics on hunger strike against the genocide in Gaza joined a meeting with European parliamentarians, delivering testimonies inside an institution complicit in the crimes perpetrated by Israel to this day. Speaking to MEPs, doctors, paramedics, and other health workers described the “hell” they witnessed during volunteer rotations in the Gaza Strip and explained their decision to undertake such a radical act of protest.
The health workers reasserted their demands, including the lifting of the medical blockade imposed by the occupation, the prevention of further attacks on Palestinian health workers, and, significantly, an end to European support and complicity in the genocide.
The road to a health workers’ hunger strike
Among the health workers who participated in the meeting was infectious disease specialist and emergency physician Pascal André. Even before October 2023, André had dedicated time to international solidarity work and volunteered in Palestine. But as he often describes in French media, the devastation caused by Israeli attacks over the past year and a half pushed him to take more determined, peaceful action and raise awareness about the European Union’s ongoing support for the genocide. “As doctors, our duty is to remain faithful to our oath, to treat everyone, to denounce violence, wherever it may come from,” he explained in a recent interview.
The hunger strike was launched by André and seven colleagues at the end of March through a collective called Hungry for Justice in Palestine. In less than a month, the number of strikers has grown to about a dozen, with many more showing support by fasting in solidarity across France. Before reaching the European Parliament, the group held meetings in French cities including Marseille, Nantes, and Bordeaux, and organized events in neighboring countries such as Switzerland.
At these events, the medics raise awareness of the effects of Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system. They echo both reports from the United Nations and international organizations attempting to coordinate medical missions to Gaza, and their own experiences from the ground, including the retaliation many face upon return. Like other international doctors hoping to enter Gaza again, André was denied entry by Israeli authorities on three subsequent occasions. Even when such permission is granted, Israeli authorities prohibit health workers from bringing medical supplies, as reported by the Europe Palestine Network following a meeting with Hungry for Justice in Palestine in Nantes. “In short, everything is done to worsen the plight of Gazans,” the group wrote.
Europe’s unforgivable silence and complicity
For the health workers on hunger strike, Europe’s complicit silence is unforgivable. Just one day after the event, the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee held a closed-door session on the EU-Israel Association Agreement, continuing its business-as-usual approach. This is merely the latest example of EU officials and institutions maintaining cooperation with the occupation force, despite ICC arrest warrants for war crimes and widespread evidence of deliberate violations of international humanitarian law by Israeli authorities. With EU member states mirroring this behavior, the medics’ demands include the enforcement of international arrest warrants, the opening of humanitarian corridors, and an end to economic and military cooperation with Israel.
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Similar demands have come from a host of groups across Europe, but they have yet to be taken seriously by the political mainstream. In the European Parliament, The Left has taken the lead in denouncing the genocide, but few representatives outside the group have followed suit, effectively enabling Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission to maintain ties with the Israeli occupation. “European countries and the United States are working in concert with Israel to this day, which demonstrates the criminal foreign policy of the EU with regard to the genocide in Gaza,” said Marc Botenga of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) after the April 23 meeting.
“We need to accelerate action to end this genocide. But we cannot do it alone,” added MEP Rima Hassan of France Unbowed. “The Left has led this charge in the EP, but we also need our allies in other political groups to get behind us in calling this out for what it is: it is genocide.”
People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and to subscribe to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.
