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Updated at 8.20pm
“IT TAKES A personal toll… I have of course a family that is worried.
“But they are used to it… I’ve been working in Gaza throughout the last four Israeli attacks.
They know I come back in one piece.
One year on from the start of Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’, veteran Norwegian medic Dr Mads Gilbert has been speaking about his time working in the emergency room of Gaza’s Shifa hospital during the 2014 conflict.
“Conflict,” in fact, is a word he declines to use.
“I call it an attack or an onslaught, not a conflict – because a conflict implies … when we use that word, it implies a disagreement between two parties,” he says.
Gaza is occupied.
The 2014 conflict
2,251 Palestinians were killed during last summer’s violence, including 551 children. More than 10,000 were wounded and 100,000 were left homeless.
On the Israeli side 73 people were killed, of whom 67 were soldiers. Up to 1,600 were wounded, according to the United Nations.
The conflict broke out after an upsurge in hostilities in June of last year.
During the evening of July 7 at least 80 rockets were fired into southern and central Israel, with the military wing of Hamas claiming responsibility.
The next day, Israel launched ‘Protective Edge’ with air strikes, on what it said were “approximately 50″ Gaza targets.
Bombardments of the coastal strip continued until an Egyptian-brokered truce was reached in Cairo at the end of August.
68-year-old Gilbert, who has volunteered on and off at the Shifa hospital for the past 18 years, became a familiar face and voice last summer, regularly speaking to TV and radio reporters from the besieged territory as he attempted to convey the reality of what was happening in the city to international viewers.
His new book, documenting the 51-day conflict, ‘Night in Gaza’, has just been published – and the medic will be in Dublin this Friday for a signing, and to give a talk at Belvedere College.
It’s part of his ongoing activism effort, against what he describes as Israel’s “propaganda machine”.
“I think ordinary people, wherever they are – they don’t want people to be treated like the Palestinian people are being treated. It’s time the sharp end of these Israeli attacks came out, and that’s what I’m trying to provide. ”
Speaking out
Gilbert was permanently banned from entering the Gaza Strip by Israel last November, with Israel citing security reasons for the ban.
He insisted at the time that he had never broken any Israeli rules during his time working in the city – adding that his regular reporting on the deaths and injuries suffered by the Palestinian people had angered authorities.
“If I should take precautions to not irritate the Israeli government or not to provoke the Israeli government, then I would stay muted,” he says, in a phone interview with TheJournal.ie.
I don’t want to be muted. I want to speak up about what I see and what I experience.
“I want as many parts of the world as possible to get a grip of the reality of the sharp end of the occupation of Palestine and the Israeli bombing and the siege of Gaza.
“Only through conveying the realities on the ground can we have an open and fair discussion about right and wrong.”
From his perspective, he says:
Gaza is protecting life, Israel is providing death.
“In order to show that, you need the factual information on the ground – and if I should balance everything I say with the censorship of the Israeli government, I would have to shut up.”
The Norwegian says he only became aware of the Palestinian cause in 1967, after he volunteered to work at a kibbutz during the Six Day War.
I was brought up in the typical narrative of Israel being the blooming desert: the socialist experiment we had to support. I had never heard about the Palestinian people.
He withdrew as a volunteer, he says, “and I became an activist for the Palestinian cause”.
In 1982, working as a doctor in Lebanon, he “saw for the first time the brutality of the israeli war machine”.
He adds:
It was a sort of an endless misery of death and destruction.
Asked about the personal toll of working and operating, under siege, in the Shifa hospital, he is quick to pay tribute to his fellow staff.
“My personal situation, compared to my colleagues – the nurses, the doctors, the paramedics and the ambulance system, is easy…
“Of course it is a phenomenal strain on your emotional reserves to see all this meaningless suffering from ordinary people in Gaza,” he says.
“All these injuries: maimed, torn apart, decapitated, amputated children, women and men – of course it is an enormous stress on your feelings, because of course everyone should have been safe and alive. Every one of these injuries is man-made.
This feeling, as a doctor, of seeing all this avoidable suffering, all this avoidable blood and death and misery – of course takes an enormous toll.
“But I maintain my strength by learning from my Palestinian colleagues: to see their steadfastness, their high morale, their working capacity, and their total lack of complaints.
“They just stand tall day after day, week after week.”
Dr Mads Gilbert will be signing his latest book in Hodges Figgis on Dawson Street at 12.30pm on Friday. Tickets for his Belvedere talk can be purchased here.
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Negative equity, high taxes, stealth taxes, higher fuel costs, high interest rates, insurance rates etc.
It’s not just mortgages, all of our take home pay has decreased over the last 7 years, even with any pay rises you still lose out quick smart to the taxman.
Everything has gone up in price so how can people be expected to save when their income hasn’t increased. The money has to come from somewhere.
Andrew, Negative equity is a temporary thing, But the rest I agree 100% with you, Plus Car Tax is crazy and should be paid on fuel at the pumps.
Negative equity is a temporary thing?
Go on – explain.
Yes please do. Do you know something we don’t? Is my house in rural Ireland guaranteed to double in value which is what I need to get back to break even point
Hold on,nialls ,just hold on , it’s temporary ;)
Spot on Andrew
I’m a Taxi Driver in Dublin and the only people going out on a regular basis are the over 50′s and the 18 to 30 year olds.. The rest of us are been crippled with high mortgages/rents and the costs of childcare..
Thats the way its always been.
No it hasn’t.. Sure years ago big families could get by with just the Father working and the Mother could stay at home and bring up the kids.. They could still get out at the weekends for a few drinks and go away on a holiday in the summer.These days a couple both working with no children are struggling to get by.. The Government and the banks figured out a long time ago that if they cripple us with debt and taxes they have us screwed till the day we die.. Especially the poor unfortunates who took out 30 year 100% mortgages on apartments worth a fraction of the price nowadays..
What sort of lifestyle do you expect as a Taxi Driver?
Are you telling me that just because I drive a Taxi I’m not entitled to a few pints once a week and a holiday in the summer? Most people these days work their arses off and have nothing to show for it.. These days the only ones going on holidays and going out a few days a week are families on welfare payments.. Us workers pay rents/mortgages, childcare,medical bills and if our washing machine breaks we can’t get a cheque off the releiving officer for a new one.. What profession do you reckon entitles one to a few pints and a holiday?
“the poor unfortunates who took out 30 year 100% mortgages ”
Are you actually kidding me?
They have NO ONE to blame but themselves. As greedy as the bankers who sold them these lemons.
“My Problems are my Parents’ Fault:”
The under50s used to be identified as family couples, children, mortgages and the responsibilities attached were theirs.
A new thinking has emerged to blame the younger and older citizens .
How enlightened that approach is and constructive …blame the other age groups instead of taking personal responsibility for one’s own existence.
Alan what a stupid, ignorant comment to come out with!
Well said David.
Don’t heed the journal’s resident trolls.
I’d say there’s about 1 of them with multiple accounts.
Their hobbies are gravedancing on financially distressed families and living with mammy.
“Such a noble life they live”
When they look back over their lives on their death bed, such stories they will be able to tell to the nurse who changes their bed pan in their lonely cell.
Only today in the papers 1 article about Sean Dunne’s sons developing a site in New York while our citizens take the pain of bailing these guys out. They carry in like the bankers — nothing changes. Considering the bankers were in bed with the developers how come they have any money left to develope any site never mind New York ? Did Richie Boucher chase these guys to the ends of the earh like he is chasing ordinary people? I think now as there seems to be no end to their money. Other developers are exactly the same — buying up land and property now with money no issue. We bailed out these money junkies and the banks. When will they pay back?
It’s absolutely disgusting what happened in this Country.. I only had one of the “Maple Ten” in my Taxi a few weeks back. I picked him up from the Courts and this lad didn’t have a care in the world.. These lads were let away with murder because their all mates with the politicians and the Bankers.. I honestly can’t wait for the local FG/labour TD to knock my door in the next few months.. I’m just glad guns aren’t legal in this Country..
Never
and the obvious solution according to gubberment behaviour is to increase taxes!
Anyone who takes a fixed rate mortgage ends up paying more over the term than if they had stayed on a variable.
You pay for the privilege of certainty. Worryingly, interest rates for trackers are at an all time low – there will be serious issues when the ECB starts ratcheting up the rates.
That won’t be anytime soon
I took out a 5 yr fixed in 2011 @3.7%, variable rates were running at about 2.5-3%. Now, you would be lucky to get a variable rate mortgage under 4% and given your circumstances, 4.5% is more likely. Maybe I will lose out a little and maybe I won’t – but I am happy I chose the fixed interest option.
I got loads of pay cuts not to mention the increasing cost of living. This Govt promised us changes and what did they do : they rewarded tax evading companies while giving 2 fingers to struggling homeowners who want to pay their mortgage. Sh1t corrupt run by crooks
I am thinkink that negative equity is the greater pain for people who can’t repay their mortgages.
The hundred billion of negative equity in our criminal joke-banks that the Irish people were forced to pay or the 50% negative equity in people’s homes??
After I pay my 3 mortgages I have nothing left. It’s unfair.
How about those three houses?
Loss about them. How could all these people think they could borrow exorbitant sums of money and expect to live care free for the rest of their lives? The worst thing about my generation is that we will have to pay the price of your greed and excess, not that any of them care about anybody but themselves. Go cry to your precious nanny state and let then tell you everything will be ok.
Good man derp, living up to your name!
Thanks I guess
Derp , your anger would be much better directed at the property developers who have either walked away from all their debts or have had more than half their debt written off via Nama , a salary paid to them and kept in business . The majority of people in negative equity simply bought a family home , have had no debt write off and have had to endure ( variable ) interest rate hikes as well as paying the increased taxes same as you . Is it too much to expect a modern economy to managed properly and not driven over a cliff by sheer ineptitude of those in charge and those in the golden circle . Some empathy for the majority struggling through would be nice , it may be reciprocated some day when you’re in trouble
Derpy, your generation are screwed because of your sense of entitlement. Where’s my free college education? Where’s my cheap beer?
This is just reverting to the long term trend. The normal life cycle shows that we start saving young, move into debt when we set up independent living, carrying growing that debt as we create a family and that family moves through it’s maximum cost profile. Then the family leaves home, we have reduced our mortgage and other credit and our income max’s out so we start to save again, usually in our mid fifties. This has been the pattern at least for the last forty years with occasional blips for inflation and boom/bust.
Nice to see things getting back to normal.
Most definitely. I received an impending notice of eviction last week by registered post. I challenged it and advised them proactively of my best intentions to pay and how they will get nothing if I just hand back the keys as offered and how much more it will cost them if I pursue my lack of interest in becoming homeless in court. Appears they are attempting to compromise this week :)
This is what happens when our banks don’t pass on rate cuts from the ECB.
Only last week the ECB were commenting that inflation was under target.
Out next crisis will be a pensions on a scale we can’t comprehend as our college grads are quite rightly leaving Ireland in droves to gain meaningful employment. This will lead to a pensions finding gap.
They’ll be no crisis. The pension age will just increase till the worker pensioner ratios are right. Not so long ago you needed to be 70. I’d say in the 50 years it might be pushed to 75 as we live longer. Going into the future the civil service are also becoming less of a golden ticket but still very generous.
How on earth did we manage when interest rates were above 8% obviously then we saved for the deposit and only borrowed the minimum amount, while making do with secondhand furniture until we could afford to replace it.
8% was quite a bit more manageable when mortgages were £45k rather than €300k.
Chris, we took out 20 year mortgages. We saved 20% deposit. We borrowed 2.5 times our salary.
We weren’t duped by Bertie Ahern and Brian Lenihan.
Back then you could buy a house in Dublin for 30k in todays money, there no comparison. Also them savings on deposit would grow alot quicker @ 8% then compared to the 1% interest with DIRT and PSRI taking near 50% of any return today. You need two good wages to service a mortgage now, in the 70′s,80′s one average wage would do. Housing wise you had it easy.
Also everyone is forgetting that the b&stards did away with being able to claim tax relief on the interest portion of your mortage …. Screwed & screwed again
Back then (late 80′s), houses were 3 times average wage with interest rates @ 10%. Now houses are 5 times average wage with interest rates @ 4.3 %.
Pretty much the same.
This makes interesting reading:
http://www.moneyguideireland.com/history-of-mortgage-rates-in-ireland.html
Pretty irrelevant really looking back that far in the case of Ireland.
Different Currency.
Different Economic Structure.
1970´s/1980´s Inflation
This will continue until the Irish obsession with property ownership ends.
i guess when your a pensioner and not working you need somewhere to stay rather than having to pay rent on a minimal pension
Everyone blambing everyone else for their own stupidity, I no sympathy I just laugh at these clowns who think that they are somehow a victim cause their gambling went wrong.
Don’t get a mortgage then you numpties
I’m hoping to buy my home in the next few weeks. Is it even worth it?
Go for it. Landlords (are known) will no doubt cause hardship on tenants. Get your place and eventually you will own it or your kids will
What rates are on offer with this report.
Bad rates will justify low investments.
Try competitive rates offers.
Overdraft rates pushing 14%
Saving rates 1.5 % and Dirty.
Lend some money to friends @3% and pay no dirty tax
DIRT on savings which have been taxed at source is double taxation or extortion.
Who will get involved with such exploitation…
have your say