Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, who volunteered in Gaza, exposed Israel:

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Palestinian rights and dignityGaza humanitarian crisisHealthcare workers and medical ethicsWitness testimony and truth-tellingSilencing and erasure

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This testimony from a medical professional who worked with emergency teams in Gaza hospitals presents a stark witness account of civilian suffering, particularly that of women and children caught in the rubble. The speaker emphasizes that Palestinians must be the primary narrators of their own experiences rather than having their stories told by outsiders, and highlights the specific erasure of Palestinian healthcare workers—hundreds detained, some killed in captivity, all bearing profound personal losses of family and colleagues. The speaker challenges audiences to recognize Palestinians as fully human beings created by God, not abstract concepts, and argues that authentic witness to suffering must come from those who have directly experienced it. The testimony underscores systemic silencing: the woman who lost her newborn and toddler under rubble, the displaced medical professionals forced from their workplaces, the detained and deceased healthcare workers whose stories remain untold. The call is both moral and epistemological—that true understanding of Gaza's crisis requires centering Palestinian voices and lived experience.

Key Points

A physician shares firsthand testimony from Gaza's hospitals, witnessing the human cost of conflict and calling for Palestinian voices—especially healthcare workers—to be centered in narratives about their own suffering.

Summary

This testimony from a medical professional who worked with emergency teams in Gaza hospitals presents a stark witness account of civilian suffering, particularly that of women and children caught in the rubble. The speaker emphasizes that Palestinians must be the primary narrators of their own experiences rather than having their stories told by outsiders, and highlights the specific erasure of Palestinian healthcare workers—hundreds detained, some killed in captivity, all bearing profound personal losses of family and colleagues. The speaker challenges audiences to recognize Palestinians as fully human beings created by God, not abstract concepts, and argues that authentic witness to suffering must come from those who have directly experienced it. The testimony underscores systemic silencing: the woman who lost her newborn and toddler under rubble, the displaced medical professionals forced from their workplaces, the detained and deceased healthcare workers whose stories remain untold. The call is both moral and epistemological—that true understanding of Gaza's crisis requires centering Palestinian voices and lived experience.

Key takeaways

Palestinian narratives of their own suffering and resilience must be centered and amplified; outsiders should not be the primary interpreters of Palestinian experiences.
Healthcare workers in Gaza have borne unimaginable personal losses—family members, colleagues, their own displacement—yet their voices and expertise are systematically erased from dominant narratives.
Recognizing Palestinians as full human beings created by God, rather than abstract political symbols or statistics, is foundational to ethical engagement with the reality of their suffering.
The detention and killing of healthcare workers represents both a violation of international humanitarian law and a silencing of crucial witnesses to civilian harm.
Direct testimony from those who have witnessed suffering firsthand carries irreplaceable moral authority and truth-telling power that cannot be substituted by external observers.
Systemic barriers—political, institutional, and structural—actively prevent Palestinian voices from being heard in international discourse.

Full article

The Silence of the Suffering

Why aren't Palestinians the ones speaking for our cause? I remember the silence of a woman brought into the hospital injured, staring blankly and unable to speak. She had given birth just one week earlier. She couldn't find her seven-day-old baby. Both her baby and her toddler were trapped under the rubble. There are no words that can adequately convey the pain and depravity of this aggression. There are simply no words.

Palestinians Must Speak Their Own Truth

Why are we not there and able to speak? The Palestinian people, the people in Gaza—they deserve to speak. I want the whole world to know that Palestinians are human beings. At the end of the day, they are not pen on paper. They are not anonymous. They are human beings created by God. This is what I have witnessed over the past decade, most recently as part of an emergency medical team working in a hospital.

The Erased Voices of Healthcare Workers

Our Palestinian colleagues are not here today because the systems we currently exist in don't recognize the value of Palestinian life. Hundreds of healthcare workers have been held in Israeli captivity. At least four have been killed while in detention, and their bodies are still being held. Every single healthcare worker I met in Gaza has lost family. Every single one has lost friends. Every single one has lost colleagues. Each and every healthcare worker I met has been displaced multiple times and has been forced out of the hospitals where they work.

This is the reality that must be spoken about, and it must be spoken by those who have lived it.

Topics#Palestinian rights and dignity#Gaza humanitarian crisis#Healthcare workers and medical ethics#Witness testimony and truth-telling#Silencing and erasure#Human dignity in Islam#Displacement and loss

Transcript

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0:02 Why aren't Palestinians the ones speaking for our cause?

0:11 I remember the silence of the woman brought into the hospital injured, staring blankly and unable to speak.

0:23 She had given birth 1 week earlier.

0:32 She couldn't find her 7-day-old baby.

0:35 Both her baby and her toddler were trapped under the rubble.

0:39 There are no words that can adequately convey the pain and depravity of this aggression.

0:46 There are no words.

0:47 Why are we not there and able to speak?

0:50 The Palestinian people, the people in Gaza.

0:56 I want the whole world to know that I'm a human being.

0:59 At the end, I am not pen on paper.

1:04 I'm not anonymous.

1:05 I'm a human being created by God.

1:10 Times over the past decade.

1:12 Most recently, as part of an emergency medical team working in a hospital.

1:17 Our Palestinian colleagues are not here today because the systems we currently exist in don't recognize the value of Palestinian life.

1:24 Hundreds of healthcare workers have been held in Israeli captivity.

1:27 At least 4 have been killed while in detention.

1:29 Their bodies are still being held.

1:31 Every single healthcare worker I met in Gaza has lost family, has lost friends, has lost colleagues.

1:38 Every single healthcare worker I met has been displaced multiple times, has been forced out of the hospitals where they work.

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