{"id":167886,"date":"2024-05-15T14:53:23","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T12:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=167886"},"modified":"2026-01-19T16:52:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T15:52:24","slug":"tonight-is-not-about-politics-but-about-health-workers-in-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2024\/05\/15\/tonight-is-not-about-politics-but-about-health-workers-in-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Tonight is not about politics, but about health workers in Palestine’"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the same time as a student demonstration in Amsterdam against Israel’s war in Gaza is being attacked by men in balaclavas, a lecture on healthcare in the war zone is just beginning in the Erasmus MC education centre on Monday evening, 6 May. A lecture that almost did not go ahead.<\/p>\n

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Erasmus MC initially rejected the event by student associations IFMSA-Rotterdam and Avicenna, as becomes clear from correspondence seen by EM. It was supposedly \u2018political in nature\u2019, \u2018of no interest to students\u2019 and \u2018not linked to education\u2019. Moderator Thea Hilhorst, professor of Humanitarian Studies at ISS, alluded to this in her opening words at the beginning of the meeting: \u201cTonight is not primarily about politics but about health workers in Palestine who are unable to provide health care and about patients who are unable to access health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

No political context<\/h2>

\u201cWe were told that the event would not be allowed\u201d, says Anna le Clercq, member of IFMSA-Rotterdam. \u201cThis was a first for us, because we\u2019ve organised activities about Global Health with a political context without any problems in the past.\u201d The decision appeared to have come from higher up, from the Executive Board. So the student associations contacted the Executive Board themselves. Eventually, the Executive Board decided that the event could take place, but only \u2013 as correspondence with the organisation states \u2013 if the subtitle, \u2018A comprehensive approach to the crisis in Gaza\u2019, was removed and the event was not political.<\/p>\n

\u201cErasmus MC particularly emphasised its neutrality in this conflict\u201d, Hilhorst says. As a moderator, she finds the Executive Board\u2019s approach incomprehensible. \u201cThe lecture is about a humanitarian situation in Gaza and how to deal with it as a doctor. It focuses on the attacks being made on health care, a subject that students are allowed to be critical of. Why can\u2019t a meeting be political? The Executive Board should encourage students to speak out in favour of humanitarian law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Academic freedom for students<\/h2>\n\t
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