Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. The image of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, in a clean white coat, walking through the rubble of northern Gaza on December 27th 2024 towards an Israeli tank, is such an image.
Dr Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, refused to leave until the last moment. The Israeli Army had demanded forced removal of all remaining patients but there is nowhere safe to send them.
It is believed that Dr Abu Safiya is being held in the notorious Sde Teiman Detention Centre.
Israeli sources claim the hospital was a Hamas stronghold and that Dr Abu Safiya is a colonel with Hamas. They say they have arrested 240 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, 15 of whom took part in the October 7th 2023 attacks.
Dr Abu Safiya’s supporters, including the World Health Organisation, characterize him as a compassionate and dedicated doctor who refused to leave his patients.
I can’t prove or disprove claim or counterclaim. But I see the kind and battered face of a doctor who refused to leave suffering people behind. I know his son Ibrahim was killed a few months ago, yet he continued to care for others.
I also know that the label ‘terrorist’ has been used continuously to justify the most appalling destruction and slaughter. The imbalance of the solitary figure walking steadily towards two large military tanks sums up the inequality of the struggle.
Yes, somehow, Hamas has still managed to fire rockets in the last few days. Frightening for those who must wonder where they will fall and what damage the intercepted shrapnel might do. And a death sentence for the desperate families in leaking rat-infested tents among whom the Hamas fighters are hiding.
For the pattern continues as it began on 7th October. Hamas makes an audacious, horrific attack; a suicide attack for its operatives and murder for hundreds who are not Hamas operatives. Israel, traumatized, frightened, shamed, hits back with overwhelming force.
The rules of war about targeting of journalists and protection of medics have been torn up. Women and children have been seen as legitimate targets. Even the rules for protection of civilians have been weaponized so that families are forced to move again and again with fewer and fewer resources.
And despite condemnation and the case brought by South Africa to the International Criminal Court, and the interim judgement of potential genocide, and the arrest warrants issued by the International Court of Justice, the world community seems powerless.
Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory to the UN, when she reported her latest report in December 2024, called out their hypocrisy, and the danger to human rights globally of allowing the Gazan genocide to continue unchecked.
And we can see it. When our moral compass is so off that we can rationalize the arrest of a doctor and accept interrogation and humiliation of suspects as normal, then we are all in serious danger.
The UN Security Council at the beginning of December almost passed a resolution for ceasefire in Gaza, but the US vetoed it. Although release for remaining hostages was part of the call, the ceasefire was not conditional on hostage release. And so, to Israel, and therefore to the US; no deal.
The failure of the institutions set up to protect the vulnerable is infuriating and frightening. It seems little can be done. But the image of the man in a white coat calmly walking towards a tank has galvanized people world wide to photograph themselves, unmasked, holding a handmade sign: #freeDrHussamAbuSafiya.
For almost the first time since October 2023 there has been a small public demonstration in Tel Aviv calling for Abu Safiya’s release and for release of all captives and an end to genocide in Gaza. This is a small but significant step. One man’s image, facing a tank as resolutely as the student Fang Zheng did in Tiananmen Square, is helping others to be brave.
I have a friend who every Sunday since October 7th has stood with friends and strangers in silent vigil in a park near where he lives, a multicultural area of Glasgow. He says he doesn’t pray. But just standing is a prayer: a rebuke, a hope, a solidarity with those who have few choices left and are hanging on to life. Just standing, like Dr Abu Safiya with the wreckage of northern Gaza all around him.
You may have written to your MP before, but it is time to write again. The UK’s silence in the face of the destruction and annihilation and more, its complicity in supplying and resourcing the state of Israel with weapons, intelligence and logistics requires citizens to say, ‘No! Not in my name.’
The photograph of Dr Abu Safiya walking towards the tanks is already iconic. When governments are held accountable for actions and inactions, as they must be, this picture will speak of humanity, bravery and resilience. A picture worth a thousand words.