About us

Medical neutrality means that medics, patients, wounded soldiers, and healthcare facilities must never be targeted during wars. It asserts that even amidst the barbarity of war, certain rules and laws must be upheld. Healthcare workers have both the right and the duty to speak out to defend these laws and protect the very principle of medical neutrality.

We believe that only trying to give medical assistance to Gaza and the occupied territories, without tackling the fundamental problem of apartheid and occupation, is as futile as treating a fever while letting the underlying infection rage on.

In medicine, there is a saying that emphasizes the importance of addressing the most critical problems first: "Treat first what kills first." We have chosen to focus on Palestine because, by every objective metric, it represents the most devastating attack witnessed in our lifetime. Over 90% of the population has been displaced from their homes. Gaza, which is three times smaller than Hiroshima, has endured the equivalent of more than eight atomic bombs being dropped. More journalists have been killed during this conflict than in any other recorded conflict. Every single university in Gaza has been completely destroyed. Eighty percent of the global famine is currently concentrated in Gaza. More healthcare workers have been killed by the Israeli army than in all conflicts worldwide combined over the past five years. In the history of humanity, there has never been a war with as many recorded child amputees.

Contrary to other conflicts or groups that also cause human rights violations, our governments and institutions are financially, militarily, and politically supporting—rather than sanctioning—the blatant and unprecedented human rights violations committed by Israel.

On the 27th of January 2024, the ICJ declared that there is a risk of genocide, both due to the policies being enacted by the Israeli military and the genocidal statements by Israeli lawmakers and leaders.

Since then, the following people or institutions have termed the situation in Gaza a genocide: the University Network for Human Rights (to which legal scholars from Yale, Boston Law, and Cornell, among others, have contributed); the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention; Amos Goldberg, an Israeli professor of Holocaust history at Hebrew University; and Raz Segal, program director of genocide studies at Stockholm University, who calls it a "textbook" genocide. Judge White of the District Court of California speaks of a "genocide in progress," while the UN report Anatomy of a Genocide finds that the criteria for genocide are met. The UN Special Committee confirmed that Israel's warfare methods are consistent with genocide. Recently, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have stated in their reports that genocide is occurring.

Amnesty International has analysed Israel’s intent to create and maintain a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians and examined its key components: territorial fragmentation; segregation and control; dispossession of land and property; and denial of economic and social rights. It has concluded that this system amounts to apartheid. 

This analysis has recently been confirmed by the International Court of Justice which "has found multiple and serious international law violations by Israel towards Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including, for the first time, finding Israel responsible for apartheid. The court has placed responsibility with all states and the United Nations to end these violations of international law."

It is easy to be tempted to turn away in despair when you see all the horrors and the scale of what is going on. To feel like this is beyond you and you cannot make a difference anyway.  

At Care for Palestine, we focus on what we can influence: challenging in court the financial support that fuels the occupation and war machine. You can help by volunteering, sharing our actions online, or contributing financially to support our legal efforts.