“What We Saw, What We Can Do”
April 12, 2012, 7:00 pm
180 Science Hall, UW-Madison Campus
Book signing to follow
Dr. Mads Gilbert, one of two Norwegian doctors who remained in Gaza under fire during Israeli Operation Cast Lead, will be in Madison to speak about his experiences. Both he and his colleague, Dr. Erik Fosse, testified as expert witnesses at subsequent Human Rights Committee Sessions held at the United Nations in Geneva after the attack. In January, 2012 Dr. Gilbert returned to Gaza where he met with his colleagues from Shifa Hospital, friends, and many of the patients he operated on.
Dr. Gilbert will address the US role in Operation Cast Lead, the use of illegal weapons on a civilian population, the ethics of weapons sales to countries that have used or tested weapons illegally, and the aftermath of Cast Lead with the continuing siege and blockade of the Gaza Strip 3 years later. It will include details of Dr. Gilbert’s January visit to Gaza, and will also look at the broader, regional context of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle within the “Arab Spring”.
Mads Gilbert is a specialist in anesthesiology and a leader of the emergency medicine department of University Hospital of North Norway, and has been a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Tromsø since 1995. Dr. Gilbert co-founded NORWAC, a Norwegian-Palestinian humanitarian aid organization. He worked in an underground Palestinian refugee camp hospital in Beirut during the 1982 Israeli invasion and bombardment of Lebanon.
Dr. Gilbert will be here as part of a U.S. tour discussing the book that he co-authored with Dr. Fosse: Eyes in Gaza, which is available at Rainbow Bookstore. A book signing will follow the talk.