While settler violence is currently in the headlines, it's important to recognize that the attacks are not merely isolated acts of violence by rogue civilians, but deliberate tactics to terrorize and displace Palestinians.
My latest for @arabcenterdc.org: arabcenterdc.org/resource/isr...
Our latest article: Framing Gaza: Medical Journals and the Destruction of Healthcare
We find that, through various tropes, violence against Palestinians, including health workers, is obscured, overlooked, or even justified in the medical literature.
Read here: academic.oup.com/ccc/article/...
New article: we traced functionality of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip from 7 Oct 2023 -- 31 Oct 2024.
We found that no hospitals had full functionality after 18 Oct 2023. At one point, close to 75% of the hospital system was nonfunctional.
To read (no paywall): link.springer.com/article/10.1...
My latest for @arabcenterdc.org: Israel’s Restrictions on Medical Evacuations from Gaza and the West Bank
Israel’s control over Palestinian movement has hit a new peak. For patients needing medical care, it can be a matter of life and death.
Read: arabcenterdc.org/resource/isr...
My latest for @thenewarab.bsky.social:
MSF’s impossible choice shows Israel’s stranglehold on Gaza aid
Israel has built a system that allows it to both create massive humanitarian need and control how the response to that need is allowed to function.
www.newarab.com/opinion/msfs...
PITCH US: MERIP's editors are inviting open pitches for our Summer 2026 issue on Visual Art and Cultural Production in the Middle East and North Africa!
Read more and pitch at the link below.
"...and what medication and what medical service...turning what is critically the issue of settler colonialism into an issue of poverty and child mortality and injury and wounding.”
Prescient key informant insights from our piece in Global Public Health: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
“It was critical to create a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, because that meant that you could no longer talk about Gaza being a political crisis, i.e. the problem with Gaza is how many doctors, how many hours of electricity, how many trucks of food..."
One year ago, Israeli authorities began “Operation Iron Wall,” forcibly removing 32,000 Palestinians from their homes in West Bank refugee camps.
HRW documented the forced displacement, which amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Read more:
“That day, Hind was trapped in a small car surrounded by Israeli tanks. Her cousins lay dead beside her. Her clothes were soaked in their blood. She was 5 years old.”
A piece written by the mother of Hind Rajab, a child murdered by Israeli forces two years ago: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/o...
There are many illuminating and prescient insights in this piece that we hope offer valuable contributions to the study of Palestinian health. We are very grateful to the participants of our Radcliffe Workshop that agreed to these pre-interviews.
"The funders [don't understand] that people [are] living in community, they don't live in sectors…"
"The active and damaging role of [the] donor community was the humanitarianization of Palestinians into a charity case. It wasn’t long before [the] donor community realised it wasn’t about building a society but trying to mitigate the damage being done to it."
"We don't have a [health] system, we never had the system, we have fragments of services, and they are affected by the vagaries of funding, and so we can never have long term programmes that would be independent of funders."
...and the fact that they bear witness to what happens as being critical to the changes that have happened in public opinion in Europe and the United States."
(This was predicted by our key informant in 2022, and is actively happening as we speak)
"I think we are going to see an attack, not just on Palestinian organisations, but the presence of international organisations in Palestine, so you know people like [...] even people like MSF, are going to be in the next wave because Israel identifies these organisations...
Abstract for the article: "Interrogating the role of sociopolitical determinants of health in Palestine: A qualitative study with key informants"
Our new article in Global Public Health, published open access today:
Interrogating the role of sociopolitical determinants of health in Palestine: A qualitative study with key informants
Some highlight quotes from our interviews in a thread below 👇
Read: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Yara M. Asi argues that #Israel’s mass suspension of humanitarian organizations in #Gaza represents the deliberate weaponization of aid, aimed at restricting relief and at silencing credible witnesses to mass suffering. @yara-asi.bsky.social
My latest for @arabcenterdc.org: Another Step in the Weaponization of Aid: Israel Bans Humanitarian Agencies in Gaza
Read here: arabcenterdc.org/resource/ano...
My latest for @dawnmenaorg.bsky.social: The Ceasefire Still Enabling A Humanitarian Catastrophe In Gaza
Today, Gaza has largely left the headlines. But "hell on earth" is not repaired by a ceasefire, let alone one where hundreds have been killed.
Read here: dawnmena.org/the-ceasefir...
Excited to head to @fxbharvard.bsky.social next week to talk about Peace and the Public's Health to commemorate World Human Rights Day.
To register, visit: <harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aWq4qcQ94il8...>
My latest for @arabcenterdc.org:
Sudan’s War on Civilians: A Continuation of Decades of Atrocities
Read here: arabcenterdc.org/resource/sud...
My latest in the Dec issue of @currenthistory1.bsky.social:
When Health Is the Target: Violence, Restriction, and Neglect in Palestine
Read here: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Yara M. Asi argues that the killing and imprisonment of US citizens by Israeli forces illustrate Washington’s unwillingness to protect its own nationals. @yara-asi.bsky.social
arabcenterdc.org/resource/no-...
Join the @palestinephhr.bsky.social at our next webinar:
Understanding genocide through a public health lens: Perspectives from Gaza
Date: Weds, Oct 22, 2025
Time: 11A – 12P EDT | 6P-7:30P EEST
For more info or to register, visit:
fxb.harvard.edu/blog/calenda...
Amid one of the worst periods of mass displacement for Palestinians in our history, I wrote about structural oppression of Palestinian refugees for Health Education & Behavior.
Refugee Health Under Protracted Structural Oppression: The Palestinian Story journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
“We have been left with no choice but to stop our activities, as our clinics are encircled by Israeli forces... This is the last thing we wanted.”
We have been forced to suspend our activities and leave Gaza City.
Abstract for article "The Formation and Transformation of Medical Apartheid in Palestine: A Historical Examination"
We've been working on this piece for a long time, and it's finally out!
The Formation and Transformation of Medical Apartheid in Palestine: A Historical Examination
Should be open access but currently behind a paywall, DM if you'd like a PDF!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
My latest for @arabcenterdc.org is on the US suspension of the visa process used to bring Palestinian children that need complex surgeries and treatments, in large part due to their injuries from the US-funded weapons used by Israel to devastate Gaza. Read here: arabcenterdc.org/resource/gaz...
The Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) announces its 27th annual Palestinian research fellowship competition for research in the humanities and social sciences that will contribute to Palestinian Studies. Apps due Dec 4.
Details: www.parc-us-pal.org/fellowships-...