AUB
doctors and staff protest war and killing of civilians
Nearly 1,000 AUB doctors and administrative, academic, and hospital
staff gathered outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center
on July 31, to express outrage at the continued killing of civilians,
especially children, during the ongoing Israeli onslaught against
Lebanon. The sit-in came one day after the horrific death of more
than 60 people, 37 of them children, when an Israeli air strike hit
their bomb shelter in Qana, southern Lebanon.
AUB, as all public institutions and almost all businesses in Lebanon,
closed on July 31, which was declared a day of national mourning by
the Lebanese Cabinet a day earlier. Only hospital and essential administrative
staff reported to work.
"We are gathered here today in this spontaneous sit-in to support
the displaced families in their plight and condemn the successive
massacres of innocent people, especially children, women, and the
elderly, carried out by the Israeli army over the past three weeks,"
said Dr. Nadim Cortas, vice-president for Medical Affairs and dean
of the Medical Faculty. Already, more than 600 people have been killed
and more than 2,000 injured.
"To face this atrocious tragedy, AUB has created a volunteer
relief team, composed of doctors, nurses, professors, and medical
students, which has been visiting centers for the displaced. The AUBMC
has also made its clinics, emergency unit, and hospital available
to all war casualties."
Dr. Cortas noted that the hospital's main concern is the dwindling
supply of fuel, which will "threaten its ability to carry out
its humanitarian mission….We urge the international community,
and especially the United States, to press Israel to a cease-fire
and to lift this oppressive blockade which does not serve any purpose
other than causing a humanitarian crisis."
Carrying Lebanese flags and a banner that said, "Stop the killing
NOW, " doctors and nurses in their white coats joined administrative
staff in singing the national anthem, before they went on a short
procession around the hospital. Among those attending the sit-in were
Acting Provost Huda Zurayk, AUBMC Director Munzer Kuzayli, and Dean
of Student Affairs Maroun Kisirwani.
"What's happening is not right. It's murder, not war," said
Dr. Joseph Khoury, a young pediatrician, who had joined the protest.
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