Dr. Hussam Abu Saffiya, outside Gaza’s battered Kamal Adwan Hospital in December 2024. Screen capture from video posted to YouTube.
Summary: National Single Payer, a national, grassroots organization joined by the principles that health care is a human right, must be free from profit, and will be achieved through national legislation, endorses the appeal issued by Doctors Against Genocide for immediate international action on behalf of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a Palestinian pediatrician detained by Israeli Occupation Forces in December 2024 because he refused to abandon his patients under his care. We call on every government, medical association, hospital, university, humanitarian organization, and elected official to demand his immediate release.
National Single Payer has endorsed an appeal issued by Doctors Against Genocide for immediate international action on behalf of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a Palestinian pediatrician and former Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza, detained by Israeli authorities on December 27, 2024 because he refused to abandon the patients under his care as his hospital was under assault.
Dr. Abu Safiya has been detained in Israeli prisons for more than 18 months without formal criminal charges where he has been beaten and tortured and held in solitary confinement. As a result, his health has deteriorated and his life is in imminent danger.
The detention of Dr. Abu Safiya is part of an international effort to demonstrate that health care workers are not safe or protected. There have been over 400 health care workers illegally abducted by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza since October 2023. In addition to Dr. Abu Safiya, 16 other doctors from Gaza remain detained illegally and 80 health care workers are still held without charge. The death toll among Palestinian health care workers is now over 1700.
As a national, grassroots, social justice organization that organizes locally in the struggle for national single payer health care in the U.S., united by the common principles that health care is a human right, must be free from profit, and must be achieved through national legislation, the Steering Committee of National Single Payer endorses the following appeal and strongly encourages national medical associations, hospitals, universities, and health care professional worldwide to do so also.
National Single Payer joins Doctors Against Genocide in calling for Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s:
+ Immediate proof of life.
+ Immediate independent medical evaluation and all necessary medical treatment.
+ Immediate and unrestricted access by his lawyer and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
+ Protection from torture and all cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
+ Immediate release.
In addition, National Single Payer calls for:
+ The immediate release of all healthcare workers detained without due process consistent with international humanitarian law.
+ Independent investigation and accountability for alleged torture, deaths in custody, and other serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya remained beside his patients when it placed his life at risk. Today, his own life and our own moral integrity depend on whether the international community acts with the same courage.
There is still a narrow window to act. Recent judicial proceedings requiring the Israeli government to report on Dr. Abu Safiya’s condition create an opportunity for urgent international engagement. Every government, medical association, hospital, university, humanitarian organization, and elected official with the ability to act should do so now.
For more information:
https://doctorsagainstgenocide.org/statements/release-dr-abu-safiya
National Single Payer Steering Committee: J. Albert, C. Cohen, E. Grystar, A. Malinow, J. Noh-Smith, K. Tillow.
