U.S. Doctors Back From Gaza Say the DNC Speeches, Rhetoric Feel Like an Alternate Reality

Doctors including Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, Dr. Tammy Abughnaim, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, and Dr. Thaer Ahmad speak to reporters gathered in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention about what they witnessed while caring for patients in Gaza. Photo: Kylie Cheung Warning: This story includes graphic descriptions of death and violence. On night one of the Democratic National Convention, throngs of crowds cheered for both mentions of Joe Biden and calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. The crowd's response is a frustrating contradiction to pro-Palestine protesters, Uncommitted movement organizers, and especially, American doctors back from serving in Gaza. They all gathered on Tuesday for a press conference set up near the convention to share gut-wrenching stories of their Palestinian patients’ suffering, plead for a ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel, and present a sobering reality check to the cheer and festivities of the DNC. As Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan put it, they “cannot unsee what we witnessed, it gives us nightmares." The official Democratic Party platform adopted on Monday doesn’t call for an arms embargo, even as doctors stressed that a ceasefire is impossible so long as the U.S. unconditionally sends Israel bombs and weapons. These are the same weapons that have resulted in these doctors treating an endless stream of children “carried in pieces by their loved ones” to overrun hospitals, Dr. Ahmad Yousaf said. Since October, Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that Israeli forces have killed more than 40,000 Palestinian people, though the death toll is likely much higher. In January, the United Nations estimated that 70% of the dead were women and children. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa told journalists he “saw children's heads smashed to pieces by the bullets that we paid for, not once, not twice, but quite literally, every single day.” He continued, “I saw mothers mix what little formula they could find with poison water to feed their newborns, because they were so malnourished themselves they could not breastfeed.” Sidhwa “saw children who cried out, not because of pain, but because they wished they had died along with their families instead of being burdened with the memory of their siblings and parents, charred and mutilated beyond recognition—all, of course, with American weapons.” June Rose, an Uncommitted delegate from Rhode Island who identifies as a proud anti-Zionist Jew expressed frustration with the levity of political discourse at the DNC: “As I stand up here with these incredible healthcare workers, who ‘hero’ doesn't even begin to touch their impact in the world, I think about how lost our politics has become, when on one side they're talking about Kamala Harris's laugh, and on the other side they're talking about Donald Trump's spray tan—all while this is happening in Gaza with our weapons,” Rose said. “This is what politics is supposed to be about. … It's about healing the world and its incredible number of problems, none bigger in this moment than 16,000 children being unnecessarily murdered in Gaza.” DNC Press Conference: Uncommitted delegates discuss why they are urging Vice President Harris to unite our party, which has been divided by Biden’s horrific Gaza policies, and stop sending American bombs to Netanyahu’s far-right Israeli government. https://t.co/AopGOXPBVQ — Uncommitted National Movement ???? (@uncommittedmvmt) August 20, 2024 The atrocities the doctors described were often unbearable to even hear. “I personally have held the hands of children taking their last final gasps with no family alive, all their family killed in the same attack, unable to comfort them during their final agonizing breaths,” Haj-Hassan said. “There children who are fortunate enough to survive their injuries are discharged into a Russian roulette of 100 different ways that…