NYC Health Staff Group Accuses Israel of Genocide

Some staffers with New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have formed a "Global Oppression and Public Health Working Group" that accuses Israel of committing genocide, reported the New York Post.

The group held its first meeting Tuesday at the department's headquarters, during which one presenter said, "We really developed in response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

"And the working group aims to address the growing interests among the health department staff to learn about current and ongoing global oppression in its many forms and how it influences the advancement of health equity," the person added.

Weeam Hammoudeh, a Hunter College professor and committee member of the Palestine Global Mental Health Network, was one of the speakers.

Hammoudeh's academic lens treats Israeli policies and the structure of occupation as key factors affecting population health in Palestinian territories.

She has publicly criticized Israeli policies as part of her academic and public health work and during the meeting accused Israel of treating Palestinians as second-class citizens, according to the Post.

"So Palestinian citizens of Israel are citizens, but they're not considered nationals of the state, so they're more restricted in terms of the areas that they can live in, and then some ... jobs and other opportunities also require military service, and that creates another set of sort of disparities in outcomes," she said.

Sarah McKenney, the department's rapid response team operations director, helped organize the event and introduced the speakers.

Yael Halaas, president of the American Jewish Medical Association, criticized the gathering.

"This is a meeting using New York City Department of Health resources that promote libel against the Jewish people," he told the Post.

A Jewish department worker told the Post that one-sided politicization of the agency was "causing a rift among employees and sapping morale."

"We just want to do our jobs to help New Yorkers and set the tone for public health," the person said.

"The presentation talks about the suffering of Palestinians. Why? They never mention Hamas."

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