Robert Schaible, one of the Organizers of an Event at the Grand Stand in Deering Oaks Park, Portland, Earlier This Year.

You are invited to attend a Gathering on Saturday, December 6 at 2:00 pm outside of Central Maine Medical Center, 300 Main Street, Lewiston.  The Gathering will honor the sacrifices of those brave men and women who are healthcare workers and remain in Israeli detention according to a press release received this morning from the Coalition for Palestine.

In the two years since October 7, 2023, Israel has abducted and detained at least 431 Palestinian healthcare workers.  While 309 have been released, 95 are still in detention, five are missing and five are dead, their bodies withheld by Israel.  The status of the remaining individuals is unknown.  Those released report psychological and physical torture, including rape, as well as starvation, forced amputations and medical neglect.

Perhaps the best known case is that of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a pediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.  While Israel held the hospital under siege, Dr. Abu Safiya refused to abandon his patients.  Along with other healthcare workers, he was arrested on December 27, 2024.  Nearly a year later, he remains in prison without charges, his health deteriorating, subjected to beatings and other forms of torture, denied family visits and with minimal access to his lawyers despite international campaigns for his release.

As healthcare workers in the US we know the challenges of trying to do our best of our patients in a broken system where staffing shortages are a chronic problem.  Yet, we can only try to imagine what it would be like to have our hospitals bombed, water and elecgricity shut off, food and medical supplies denied, an occupying army bursting through the doors, staff arrested even while performing surgery and our best, most experienced doctors singled out for the worst treatment.

About the Group:  We are the Maine Chapter of Healthcare Workers for Palestine, a volunteer network of active and retired doctors, nurses, therapists and others in the US taking actions to end the genocde and support Palestinian liberation.