Online, 10 am CT
Dear friends,
Our focus on healthcare in Palestine across our upcoming programming and publications feels especially urgent and personal. I carry the names of so many people with me into our work this month. Among them, dear colleagues, acquaintances, and beloved friends.
Just yesterday, Israeli forces raided the home of my childhood friend and schoolmate, Dr. Deema Amin. She is a gynecologist and was arrested in the at-Tira neighborhood of Ramallah. Dr. Amin is the second doctor from Ramallah who has been arrested since June. She joins Dr. Mazen Rantisi, known locally as the “doctor of the poor” and the physician who cared for my own father. They are among more than 14 doctors from Gaza and dozens of Palestinian health workers in Israeli detention. Most notably among them is Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was taken from Gaza after months of leading his hospital through siege. He remains imprisoned.
Their stories are part of a much larger assault on Palestinian health: the destruction of hospitals and clinics, the killing and detention of healthcare workers, and the systematic undermining of Palestinians’ ability to provide and receive care.
To address this urgent reality, the Institute for Palestine Studies is launching a series of online events examining the present and future of health in Palestine. Each webinar will approach the subject from a different lens, delving into health as a question of Palestinian sovereignty and collective life.
We begin next week with the inaugural session, hosting Dr. Khalil Khalidy, resident physician in the Orthopedic Surgery Department at Al-Aqsa Hospital, Dr. Dorotea Gucciardo, Director of Development at Glia, a Canadian-based medical solidarity organization, and Dr. Khamis Elessi, professor at the Islamic University of Gaza’s Faculty of Medicine for a conversation on disability and rehabilitation under siege.
Date: August 26 at 11am ET
Register to Attend
For decades, IPS has documented the deliberate crippling of the health care sector in Palestine—in the pages of the Journal of Palestine Studies, through our policy research, and, more recently, through one of our databases, documenting the destruction of the health sector in Gaza. This series builds on that record at a moment when Palestinian health workers, health institutions, and the very idea of Palestinian health are under sustained assault.
We are also dedicating a forthcoming special issue of the Journal for Palestine Studies on health as it relates to Palestine and Palestinians, inviting contributions that explore how occupation, apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and settler-colonial structures shape well-being, including their effects on healthcare systems, experiences of illness and disability, mental health, reproductive justice, environmental conditions, and collective forms of care.
Deadline: 2 October 2026
Submit
I invite you to be part of these vital conversations, as attendees, contributors, and partners in this work.
Thank you for your support.
Warmest regards,
Hilary Rantisi
Executive Director, IPS-USA
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