An anti-Israel student group is sponsoring a lecture at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn on Wednesday that accuses Israelis of committing health care “genocide” in Gaza — provoking outrage from Jewish doctors who say it’s propaganda and “blood libel” against Jews.
The event — co-sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine — is titled “CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY: The Decimation of Palestinian Healthcare in the Ongoing Genocide and the Continuing Legacy of Settler-Colonialism.”
Guest speakers include Drs. Feroze Sidhwa, Simon Fitzgerald, Abdel Aziz Al Bawab, and attorney Diala Shamas — who will also testify against the “genocide” of Gazans and “war crimes” they claim Israel is committing.
Doctors with the Jewish American Medical Association said the one-sided panel reeks of “medical propaganda” and antisemitism leveled at Israeli Jews.
One of the panelists, Sidhwa, cared for patients in hospitals in the Gaza Strip for two weeks between March and April.
In a New York Times opinion piece, he wrote about treating children shot in the head in a dangerous, disaster zone under Israeli bombardment.
“Of the many things that stood out about working in a hospital in Gaza, one got to me: Nearly every day I was there, I saw a new young child who had been shot in the head or the chest, virtually all of whom went on to die. Thirteen in total. At the time, I assumed this had to be the work of a particularly sadistic soldier located nearby,” Sidhwa wrote in the piece.
“But after returning home, I met an emergency medicine physician who had worked in a different hospital in Gaza two months before me. `I couldn’t believe the number of kids I saw shot in the head,’ I told him. To my surprise, he responded: ‘Yeah, me, too. Every single day.’”
Yael Halaas, president of the American Jewish Medical Association and a New York doctor, claimed Sidwha was accusing Israeli soldiers of targeting children.
“It is antisemitic. It’s a blood libel leveled at the Jewish nation. It’s medical propaganda,” Halaas told The Post.
Irving Raphael, a retired orthopedist who conducted his medical training at SUNY Upstate Hospital in Syracuse and is a member of the Jewish Medical Association, said he has complained about similar Israel-bashing events at that campus as well.
He said the phrase “settler colonialism” used to promote the event is code for people who don’t recognize Israel, the Jewish homeland, or its right to exist.
“It’s a disregard of history. It’s blatant antisemitism. It’s propaganda,” Raphael said.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised that SUNY has not taken strong action against this event.”
SUNY Downstate, in a statement, acknowledged that the SPJ-sponsored event will take place.
“To be clear this is not an event sponsored by the administration at SUNY Downstate. Any event that promotes hate, bigotry, or antisemitism is disgusting and does not represent SUNY’s values,” a SUNY Downstate spokesman said.
“Campus leadership is aware of the event and will be closely monitoring the situation to ensure that all content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions are followed. The safety of our campus community is our top priority.”
The national Students for Justice in Palestine group and several individual chapters have applauded Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 invasion of Israel.
SJP has been involved in numerous anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests on and off college campuses.
It has 275 chapters in the US and Canada, including at SUNY Downstate.
The Anti-Defamation League, a top Jewish civil rights watchdog group, said Students for Justice in Palestine “has justified terror attacks against Israel, particularly the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught, engages in antisemitic rhetoric and propaganda and is a leading campus organizer of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns and anti-Israel protests on university campuses.”
“It has been a central organizing node for the student encampments that proliferated across American universities and colleges in the spring and summer of 2024, amid a surge in antisemitic activity and sentiment on US college campuses.”
Some colleges — including Columbia University — have suspended or banned SJP from campuses for rule-breaking activity as antisemitism has risen on college campuses throughout the country.
Elsewhere in the Empire State, the University of Rochester said Tuesday it’s investigating vandalism in which Jewish professors and others had their faces put on threatening “Wanted” posters that were posted across campus.
“This act is disturbing, divisive and intimidating …We view this as antisemitism, which will not be tolerated at our University. This isn’t who we are. This goes against everything we stand for and we have an obligation to reject it,” Rochester University President Mangelsdorf said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has denounced campus antisemitism and commissioned a study to prevent Jew-hatred and other discrimination at the City University of New York.
“When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, they committed a horrific act of terror. Governor Hochul fully condemns anyone who would glorify terrorism and believes that disgusting discourse has no place in New York State,” a Hochul spokesperson said.
“Since taking office, Governor Hochul has changed state law to crack down on hate crimes and will continue doing everything possible to keep New Yorkers safe.”
