Mads Gilbert is an anesthesiologist, head of emergency medicine at the University Hospital of North Norway, and Professor of emergency medicine at the University of Tromsø. He visited Madison in 2012 to speak on Gaza.

Feb 16, 2024

For 30 years, Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert has risked his life to give medical care to Palestinians, performing surgeries, training medical students, and supporting their renowned healthcare system. But in their most recent assault, Israel banned Dr. Gilbert from entering Gaza.

“This is the politics of elimination,” Dr. Gilbert tells us. “Israel is the only nation on Earth who has a military strategy to attack, to kill, and to dismantle civilian hospitals.”

Forced to watch the unfolding tragedy from afar, Gilbert struggles to believe the horrors he’s seeing. “It is such an avalanche of human suffering that it is almost incomprehensible. And it’s all done with full will, planning, dedication. It is a 100% man-made disaster, designed to achieve exactly the goals that they have achieved: to maim and destroy Palestinian society.”

What should have led to a huge uproar has instead been tolerated and even encouraged by Western politicians and media outlets, who have laundered false claims about militant hideouts at Palestinian hospitals.

But while the genocide of Palestinians has only just broken through to mainstream consciousness, Dr. Gilbert explains that none of this is new.

“Israel is going against absolutely every international law aimed at protecting civilian hospitals. This is unprecedented, but I’d like to add that for us who have been working with the Palestinians and their healthcare for many years, it’s not a new feature. The Israelis have always been attacking healthcare. In last year’s report from WHO, they reported 600 attacks on healthcare in the last two years.”

And in the latest assault on Gaza, there have been “hundreds and hundreds” more. “We’ve seen attacks in the West Bank where they even dress up as doctors and kill patients in their beds.”

Gilbert gives his scathing post-mortem: “This is a historical low point in human history. This enormous collapse of western morality and principles. We’re back to the jungle.”

Hear the full, unpaywalled interview with Mads Gilbert, and listen to the end for his message on how to help. “We can all do our part: write a poem, sing a song, participate in a demonstration, write a letter to your politician. Take part in history because we need to change history now.”

He finishes, solemnly: “What you are doing now, or what you are not doing now, is what you would have done, or not done, during the Holocaust.”

20:57 Dr. Mads Gilbert interview
22:13 Israel warns of new hospital attack
27:35 Stories of killed doctors
40:34 Israeli doctors sign letter to BOMB MORE HOSPITALS
55:13 Israeli protesters block humanitarian aid
1:00:58 Israel shuts of water
1:09:13 Answering Israeli arguments
1:23:40 Rafah update
1:29:01 HOW TO HELP