Medical Science vs 'Social Justice'?

"[The 2025 framework for training future physicians] affords us the opportunity to think critically and propose a vision for the practice of medicine which is rooted in social justice, anti-racism, anti-oppression and cultural safety, promoting a broader cultural shift which is necessary for the profession."

"A new model of CanMEDS would seek to centre values such as anti-oppression, anti-racism and social justice, rather than medical expertise."

"[The new system envisioned] would prioritize bidirectional relationships with patients, providers, communities, the land, the health system and society at large rather than the individual physician as a gatekeeper of professionalized knowledge. With this new model, we can reflect a stance of humility over hubris."

Anti-racism working group

"In daily practice, [DEI] is barely given a nod. We are overwhelmed by the volume of patients that need care on a daily basis."

"Our work has bled into our evenings and weekends leaving very little time to think about what seems to be both a political and academic exercise. You can imagine the chaos that would ensue if patients were queued based on perceived oppression as opposed to the acuity of their medical condition."

"The vast majority of physicians have entered the field in order to care for others. There is an abundance of empathy and kindness among my colleagues."

"[DEI] has tried to piggyback on these noble traits and impose a social justice agenda that is driven by only a handful of activist physicians." 

Dr. David Jacobs, president, Ontario Association of Radiologists

AAMC.org

 

It was only a matter of time, after all. The overwhelming social agenda of diversity-equality-inclusion activists determined to change societal norms and to have everyone everywhere condemn 'colonialist'  and 'imperialist' racism in all its guises, where those judged white have been privileged and entitled for far too long, and it's now the turn of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour to be advantaged over white entitlement, has entered government at all levels, schools and universities, the professional bodies, unions and every other facet of society.

Now, it seems, it's the turn of the medical profession. A profession overwhelmed by the demands of its services on a growing public that cannot find primary care physicians, reflective of the shortages of medical professionals. Who themselves are beyond fatigue working long hours, trying to compensate for the dearth of family doctors, coping with infuriating government paperwork; underpaid and feeling under-appreciated. Now, a final assault on their consciousness, to imbibe the social justice message to incorporate it thoroughly in all their experiences with the public.

Under the auspices of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, a working group is opting to push for the training of future doctors to concentrate on social justice and anti-racism; medical expertise, evidently, is optional. Move over, Enlightenment ideals of science and reason; Marxist ideology is preparing to take over...

AAMC.org

 

CanMEDs is implemented by a consortium including the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the College of Family Physicians of Canada, the Canadian Medical Association, the Medical Council of Canada and the Quebec College of Physicians, as well as others. According to the anti-racism working group that reports to CanMED, the medical profession is described in their report as committing "structural violence" against the marginalized. Leading to its authors proposing a social justice solution to be implemented within the health system.

In one section of the report entitled "Decentering medical expertise", a shift away from medical expertise is called for, toward values such as anti-racism, anti-oppression, shared humanity and decolonization. What could go wrong? This "humility over hubris" concept represents the virtue of the caring and compassionate working group, deploring their haughty, pride-filled colleagues. Another section in the report calls for recognition that historical power structures such as "white supremacy, hetero-patriarchy and capitalism" inform the present, and something desperately must be done to change it.

AAMC.org

 

In Dr. Jacobs' opinion the cult of diversity, equality and inclusion strives to alter medicine from a discipline caring for patients to one championing social justice -- to the extreme detriment of the former, and therefore to society at large. Aside from which, the entire concept is the product of disturbed minds. ("This is bonkers") The goal of medicine is to train doctors in medical competency. In the world of DEI, doctors are to be "tested for 'purity of thought'."

"Equity is about recognizing and accommodating people’s differences to ensure that every individual has what they need to thrive. In the background to its policy on equity and diversity in medicine Opens in a new window, the CMA says equity is achieved when 'every person has the opportunity, with their own identity, culture, and characteristics, to create and sustain a career as, or receive care from, a medical professional without discrimination or any other cultural or characteristic-related negative bias or barrier'."

Canadian Medical Association Website

Hitting all the right notes in intersectionality; female and Black...Canadian Medical Association website

"Beyond the obvious worrisome impact on patients, there is also an impact on physicians' freedom of expression and thought."

"[DEI] is governed and policed by a small unelected and unaccountable group that is using the authority of universities and medical governing bodies to establish what is acceptable and what is unacceptable thought."

"[Medicine should return to embracing respect and partnership with patients, and] strongly reject those who would try to weave their political and social agenda into the doctor-patient relationship."

Dr. David Jacobs

• 
  

Publicly state and reaffirm its support for diversity in medical education and acknowledge the incorporation of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts as a vital aspect of medical training.

Directly oppose any local, state or federal actions that aim to limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, curriculum requirements or funding in medical education.

Advocate for resources to establish and maintain DEI offices at medical schools that are staff managed and student- and physician-guided as well as committed to longitudinal community engagement.

Investigate the impacts of state legislation regarding DEI-related efforts on the education and careers of students, trainees and faculty.

American Medical Association

Israel: We Have A Problem

"Palestinian people's voices and aspirations must be at the centre of post-crisis governance in Gaza -- unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority."

"We continue to believe that a negotiated two-state solution along the 1967 lines with mutually agreed-to swaps is the best way to advance a sustainable peace."

"Beyond any military operation, defeating Hamas requires defeating an idea, which is why it is critical to present a clear vision of a better future and a path to achieve that vision."

U.S.Embassy, Jerusalem, spokesperson

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden.  Susan Walsh / AP file

Mindless pap. That ship sailed so long ago, there isn't even a wake. Do these diplomats study nothing? Thinking that whatever pops into their minds must be a solution, and that their position qualifies them to dictate to a state under existential threat how it must respond, what it must accept because this is the wish of the United States that bills itself as Israel's 'greatest friend and benefactor', supplier of funding and weaponry?

 

According to this spokesperson, Palestinian leadership for the future remains "a question for the Palestinian people". Fine. The Palestinian people view Hamas as their favourite leadership option. And as far as the Palestinian Authority is concerned (Fatah) it comes a distant second in popularity. Palestinians in Gaza consider Hamas to be their champions, despite knowing full well its performance on October 7 in Israel, raping, mutilating, killing over 1,200 Israeli children, men, women and elderly.

 

Three-quarters of Palestinians admire and support their very own terrorist group. In very fact, when Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad broke down the barrier between Gaza and Israel in their planned invasion, hundreds if not thousands of ordinary Palestinian citizens entered after them, and indulged themselves in the general melee of rape and murder and abductions. Of the 240 abducted children, women, men and soldiers, not all are in the hands of Hamas; PIJ maintains some of the hostages and so do 'ordinary' Palestinians. 

These are the people whom the United States administration and its diplomats feel will continue to make good neighbours for Israel, entitled to decide who it is they wish to be governed by. And although three-quarters of Palestinians in Gaza admire and trust Hamas, a much greater number, closer to 90 percent in the West Bank, cleave to Hamas, while rejecting the Palestinian Authority. What's the diplomatic solution from the U.S. side on that? Would they accept that if Canada, say, reflected a similar threat to the U.S.?

Two weeks ago U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Gaza Strip must be given over to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, once 'hostilities' are over. That the solution to governing the territories "must include Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the P.A." He too has a short memory, having conveniently forgotten up on a high memory shelf the civil war that broke out between Fatah and Hamas when the latter fought the former in Gaza, in a not very collegial manner.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby clarified that Washington is engaged in support of a P.A. that "has the support of all Palestinians so that they can effectively help with post-conflict governance, particularly in Gaza". What world do these people live in? If the ordinary news reader in countries far from the Middle East can read verified accounts of what is happening there that describe a situation totally unlike what these diplomats speak of, their 'solutions' are utterly risible.

In the very last election held in the territories in 2006, Hamas won the majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament, and it is obvious from polls taken by a credible West Bank polling group that were elections to be held again, Hamas, despite all that has happened, most particularly its willingness to provoke a situation that would inevitably result in tens of thousands of Palestinians being 'martyred' while Hamas invites the Israel Defense Forces to retaliate when missiles are launched from crowded civilian enclaves, would be re-elected.

It seems that Palestinians too, like the declarations made by Islamists, jihadists and Hamas and Fatah, love death more than others love life. So as long as Palestinians are satisfied to keep presenting themselves as martyrs for the greater cause of destroying Israel, Hamas and Fatah and Islamic Jihad will continue their deadly assaults against Israel, unless and until Israel finally destroys them first. 

 

As for ideas being harder to destroy than people's lives, that's completely true. And the Koran is full of such 'ideas', fertilizing the fervently psychopathic minds of Palestinians who love to portray themselves as victims.

Getty Images

No Comforting Words for Israeli Women From Global Feminists

"Jagmeet Singh repeated the unverified accusation that Palestinians were guilty of sexual violence/"

"There is no actual evidence of these rapes and the babies with their heads cut off -- all these things are pieces of misinformation."

Open letter of denial of Hamas sadistic savagery

For the purpose of giving support to  women suffering from sexual violence, the University of Alberta established a Sexual Assault Centre. It became one of the signatories to this letter. Among others who signed was a Liberal MPP Sarah Jama, forced to resign from the Ontario Liberal caucus whose statements such as: "There is no actual evidence of these rapes and the babies with their heads cut off -- all these things are pieces of misinformation", led the entire Legislature to condemn her.

 

As for 'misinformation'; it was Hamas itself, proud of its exercise in sadistic savagery, that saw to the videotaping of their operatives raping women, women shoved into vehicles blood seeping between their legs. Footage of these atrocities were viewed by journalists at the invitation of the Israeli consulate in Toronto. That footage included the burned corpse of a legs-spread woman, her bared genitals below her hiked-up clothing. Those who saw the video were no longer doubtful.

Of course, there is also the first-hand accounts of survivors, of the first responders and medical examiners verifying the trauma of Hamas's planned use of mass rape as a tool of war against Jewish women. Which did not stop Canadian Defenders for Human Rights, an anti-Israel organization, from signing the letter. They reposted a tweet reading "Hamas is *not* a terrorist org. It is a legitimate resistance group against an illegal occupation. The Israeli army is a terrorist organization."

Another signee was Toronto4Palestine, which celebrated the October 7 terrorist incursion into Israel by handing out candies, joined by the Palestinian Youth Movement which describes Hamas as "the resistance in Gaza"; admiringly describing the slaughter, rape and abduction of Israelis "heroic" and "monumental".

Stunningly, these denialist groups, which laud the 'resistance' of Palestinian terrorists -- Hamas's charter clearly stating that its purpose is to exterminate Jews and to destroy the Jewish state to enable Palestinians to establish their state "From the river to the sea" (Jordan river to the Mediterranean), is on a Canadian terror list, outlawed in Canada -- know full well that their heroes' barbarity is a reality, yet their portrayal of 'resistance' and victimhood is accepted at face value by a public eager to demonstrate their 'pro-Palestinian' support.

To the extent that feminist groups and leaders of sex crisis groups whose reason for existence is to support women and decry sexual violence, choose to believe the declarations of terrorist-supporting Palestinian groups over evidence readily accessible to the public of the horror of an invading army of rapists who mutilated, tortured, raped and murdered women in Israel.

According to the University of Alberta Sexual Assault Centre's website: "We actively work towards creating a campus community free of sexual violence and operate from a feminist, anti-oppressive, intersectional, trauma-informed, and person-centered framework". They've covered all the dots, crossed all the tees and fail to note that all women are believed and supported and protected under their mandate, unless they are Jewish.

They see no problem in denying the murderous rape of Israeli women as a deliberate and planned function of the war Hamas brought to Israel. Hamas operatives were taught the Hebrew words that would inform the girls and women they captured, to drop their pants. Some girls were raped so repeatedly their pelvic bones were shattered. Some women had the backs of their heels slit to keep them from running off.

In the wake of the shocking stance of the University of Alberta's sexual assault centre's director, the University president Bill Flanagan issued a statement of his own, on behalf of the university.

"I want to be clear that the former employee's personal views and opinions do not in any way represent those of the University of Alberta."

"The University of Alberta stands firmly and unequivocally against discrimination and hatred on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, national origin, and other protected categories."

"We recognize the historical and ongoing harms of antisemitism and commit to doing all we can as a university to advance a world free of prejudice and discrimination."

"I understand that this event has been profoundly hurtful and may have compromised the trust of individuals in our community. I also recognize the significant potential negative impact given the critical nature of the centre's work."

 

Other women's organizations and activists appear to believe versions of the same denial of the Hamas sexual violence on Israeli women and girls. Most have remained silent. These are groups dedicated to the welfare of women, groups whose purpose is to render emotional and practical support to women who have experienced gross sexual violence of any nature. But the sadistic savagery of the Hamas attacks on women in Israel has become an issue none want to touch.

 

The United Nations' branch for gender equality and the empowerment of women, UN Women, said nothing to acknowledge or condemn the assault and rape of helpless civilian females on October 7, in a shocking display of unconcern for an identifiable group that enjoys little support from any arm of the United Nations. UN politics was incapable on this singular issue of setting aside its usual contempt for Israel, to rally any empathy whatever for the plight of sexual savagery carried out on Israeli girls and women.

 

"We've sent letters and shared graphic documentation. Their silence is so deafening that it's sickening", explained a senior diplomat and legal adviser in Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sarah Weiss Maudi.

 

"The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women will mark the launch of the UNiTE campaign (Nov 25- Dec 10) — an initiative of 16 days of activism concluding on the day that commemorates the International Human Rights Day (10 December)."

"This 2023 campaign Invest to Prevent Violence against Women & Girls will call on citizens to show how much they care about ending violence against women and girls and call on governments worldwide to share how they are investing in gender-based violence prevention. Join the global movement with the #NoExcuse slogan calling for urgent investments to prevent violence against women and girls. Dig deeper into the campaign’s proposals –data, prevention, investments– and join the global movement with the #NoExcuse slogan to eliminate violence against women and girls."

United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, November 25

NOT A WORD!

Cultural Importation Incompatible With Canadian Values

"I wouldn't suggest this is some novel condition that we're suddenly grappling with."

"[While the question doesn't appear often in polls, it's not the first time widespread Canadian endorsement of the notion that] there should be a little more of the melting pot than the mosaic [has been expressed by a large proportion of the Canadian public]."

Andrew Enns, executive vice-president, Leger market, research and analytics 

Canada's inimitable prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is extremely fond of expressing a trite little message to critics that "diversity is our strength", despite the increasingly obvious fact that the very diversity with which Canada has invested itself through its hunger for more bodies to populate this vast geographic area so that the workforce can be increased and more productivity can be seen, at the very time when he has himself shut down the operations of energy extraction production resulting in vast  unemployment numbers and a lack of responsible exploitation of natural resources. 

 

In the process overseeing an immigration system that has brought in populations from countries mired in conflict, religious zeal, and cultural traits incapable of integrating into Canada's value system. Canada's very security and that of its various populations from China, India, Africa and the Middle East have brought with them ancient and more recent issues of victimhood and violence. Now, a new poll reveals the extent to which Canadians in general react to these issues of discontent and importation into Canada of religious and tribal aggravations.

Canadians of every colour and derivation responding to a Leger/Postmedia poll have expressed skepticism of the prime minister's little maxim, believing that, given their experiences, that while diversity can have its benefits, it also brings with it problems. Respondents to the poll in the majority endorsed the belief that new immigrants should be encouraged to accept "values and traditions" already established within Canada's culture. And at the same time, discard the cultural identity issues that are "incompatible with Canada's".

A mixed view of diversity's benefits was favoured by 56 percent of respondents who, agreeing that "some elements of diversity can provide strength", nonetheless supported the reality that "problems" and "conflict" can also arise out of diversity. Only 24 percent saw diversity as an unambiguous "strength", while 21 percent characterized it as predominantly "problematical".

51 percent of respondents agreed that Canadian authorities "should do more to ensure newcomers accept Canadian values", and a higher 55 percent endorsed the idea that the country's immigration policy be premised on "encouraging newcomers to embrace broad mainstream values and traditions", leaving behind beliefs "that may be incompatible with that". 59 percent of white Canadians endorsed the "Canadian values" need, while 46 percent of non-whites did so.

 

Of Caucasians, 23 percent endorsed the counter-sentiment that newcomers be encouraged to "maintain and promote their own cultural and religious identities", that was endorsed by 38 percent of non-whites. Large, disproportionately immigrant-led demonstrations calling for the expulsion of "gender ideology" from public school curricula took place two months ago expressing social conservatism among immigrant communities not always synchronized with the various progressive frontiers championed by Canadian authorities. To be fair, many long-time Canadians found little sympathy with the "gender ideology" sentiments.

More latterly, Canadian cities have been gripped by the phenomenon of regular rallies responding to the Israel-Hamas conflict, since the national survey was conducted after the Palestinian Hamas terrorist group invaded Israel to commit an endless orgy of sadistic savagery victimizing helpless Israeli civilians, raping girls and women, mutilating and killing children, women and men and foreign farm workers on farms, in towns and villages and kibbutzim.

The well-attended, and raucous, normalcy-disturbing 'protests' billing themselves as 'pro-Palestinian' have been organized entirely by Israel-hostile groups such as Samidoun, the Palestinian Youth Movement and Toronto4Palestine, all of them on record as approving of the October 7 massacres in Israel, and all calling for the total destruction of the Jewish state. In the process creating a violent, threatening, disruptive chaos.

A few hundred Pro-Palestinian supporters held a rally on the steps of the TMU (formerly Ryerson) Student Learning Centre at Gould and Yonge Sts. on Friday October 20, 2023. Photo by Jack Boland / Postmedia Network

These groups have spared no effort to bring in official speakers who espouse Islamist extremism and using the vocabularies of pro-terror rhetoric, including a speaker in Toronto calling for Hamas to maintain control of the civilian hostages it took into Gaza for concessions forced on Israel. In Montreal an imam leading a street packed with demonstrators called out prayers to "kill" the "Zionist aggressors". The opening question of the survey found 78 percent of Canadians harboured concerns "over how the Gaza/Israel conflict is impacting Canadian communities".

The notion that non-citizens should face deportation "if they publicly express hatred toward a minority group or support a terrorist organization" was backed by 75 percent of respondents to the poll. That is a policy currently pursued across much of Europe, particularly in Germany when last month German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to pro-Hamas rallies by stating his country should begin deporting ineligible migrants "on a large scale". In Canada, no mainstream Canadian political party has expressed similar solutions, as yet. 

 

A majority of Canadians, however rejected the basic tenets of "anti-racism" ideology -- now official federal policy --  which, through agencies like the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat, openly pursue the belief that Canada's institutions are "systematically racist", and can be redeemed only through "deliberate systems and supports" that favour select "equity-seeking" groups.

In particular, the idea that "certain minority groups should be given additional rights and privileges in accordance with notions of decolonization, anti-racism and equity", was rejected by 50 percent of poll respondents, with only 24 percent backing the program.

An Unbearable Climate on Campus

"[Students will no longer tolerate our university's remorseless complicity in the occupation of Palestine and the destruction of its people."

"McGill students have demonstrated that we will remain steadfast in advancing the Palestinian struggle for liberation, despite intimidation and repression."

Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill  (SPHR) student group

McGill University students rally on campus Nov. 9, 2023. (Alyssia Rubertucci, CityNews Image)

 

McGill University gave due notice it could take steps to sever ties with its student union over its  activities voting in favour of adopting a contentious pro-Palestinian policy. A Monday vote garnered 78 percent support of students who participated, voting in favour of the policy titled Policy Against Genocide in Palestine, against the background of tensions on  university campuses brought by the Israeli-Hamas Conflict.

Jewish advocacy group B'Nai Brith Canada took legal action purposing to stop the policy from being taken to a vote. The University was called upon in an open letter signed by Jewish students and alumni to remove the question from the Students' Society of McGill University's 2023 fall referendum, one of several topics that students voted on during the referendum. Subject to a legal review, several steps remain before the policy can be adopted.

"The proposed policy, if adopted, will sharpen divisions in our community at a time when many students are already distressed", responded a  university spokesperson; despite the voting results, it was pointed out, the stance on the issue by the university will remain. The SSMU's constitution stipulates the student  union is meant to facilitate interactions between all students, behaving in their best interests.

An adoption of the policy would represent, the university stated, a breach of that constitution. The  university administration had contacted the SSMU to "outline the consequences of adopting the policy", similar to last year when students voted in favour of a Palestine Solidarity Policy, which was never ultimately adopted.

SSMU president Alexandre Ashkir observed its board of directors are set to review the policy prior to voting whether it should be ratified. According to him the union is of the belief the policy would not cause such tensions as McGill claims would result on its ratification. Piously, he claimed, would that be the case, the question would never have been included in the referendum.

This year's turnout for the vote more than doubled from the earlier event when students voted in favour of the pro-Palestinian policy the year before. While 8,400 students voted in the referendum, representing 35 percent of eligible voters, 5,974 voted for the policy, with 1,620 voting against it, and another 807 students chose to abstain.

In response to what the school described as "abhorrent" posts made by SPHR (Students for Palestinian Human Rights McGill), the  university is attempting to revoke its use of the university's name. The policy voted on by the students calls on the university to condemn the bombing in Gaza and to cut ties with corporations "complicit in genocide, settler-colonialism, apartheid or ethnic cleansing against Palestinians".

Public comments from McGill officials since the outbreak of the war, were also criticized by the student union, characterizing them as threats aimed toward students who voice their solidarity with Palestinians. Jewish students and alumni voiced concerns that the policy could make an already "unbearable" climate on campus even worse.

 

Students from Concordia, McGill and Université de Montréal held walk-outs to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. (Erika Morris/CBC)

"[The university has taken step in recent weeks to ensure the discourse on campus remains safe and responsible] and to put in place measures to support students and colleagues who feel especially vulnerable and hurt at this time."

"Notably those who are Muslim, Jewish, and Arab."

McGill University

"Some McGill students say their right to express support for Palestinians is being suppressed, after a Quebec court temporarily put a stop to a student plan to adopt a pro-Palestinian policy at the university.

Quebec Superior Court issued a safeguard order Tuesday, preventing the student union from moving forward until the court can hear arguments from both sides on March 25, 2024."

"A McGill student — who remains anonymous and is represented by a lawyer working for Jewish advocacy group B'nai Brith Canada — filed an injunction to stop the Students' Society of McGill University (SSMU) from adopting a 'policy against genocide in Palestine' that was approved in a referendum this week."

"The policy calls on McGill University to cut ties with people, corporations and institutions that are 'complicit in genocide, settler-colonialism, apartheid, or ethnic cleansing against Palestinians'."

CBC News

Crimes Against Humanity

"Look at this ceiling. This is not just a regular tunnel. It's more convenient for long living. You have toilets and you have rooms that were built in order to contain people."

"The hospital is providing electricity. They're using the hospital infrastructure in order to provide this terror mechanism to stay alive and survive."

"This blast door allows them to prevent blasts by our air force, meaning it can maintain the preservation of parts of the tunnel."

"Above us, patients, wounded, doctors, all being a human shield for this tunnel system here at Shifa hospital."

"One direction [of a staircase] goes to the Shifa hospital. The other direction goes to different places where the terrorists can move using the safe haven, the human shield of the hospital, the human shield of these regular houses providing them shelter, held by civilians."

"And they choose it in the most barbaric and cynical way. They use it in a room that should have provided teaching for children. This is their choice. This is what we're fighting."

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesman, Israel Defense Forces 

"The director of the Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip was apprehended and transferred for ISA questioning following evidence showing that Shifa Hospital, under his direct management, served as a Hamas command and control centre."

"The Hamas terror tunnel network situated under the hospital also exploited electricity and resources taken from the hospital. In addition, Hamas stored numerous weapons inside the hospital and on the hospital grounds."

"In the hospital, under his [Abu Salmiya's] management, there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity. Findings of his involvement in terrorist activity will determine whether he will be subject to further ISA questioning."

Israel Defense Forces statement

These images released by the IDF on November 21, 2023, show the inside of a Hamas tunnel found under Gaza's Shifa Hospital. (Israel Defense Forces)

 

A video has been released by the Israeli military; its purpose is to visually guide viewers through a Hamas tunnel located under the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The amount of work represented by designing and building a network estimated to be between 250 and 500 kilometres in length is truly astonishing. Even the amenities built into the tunnel system are fairly shocking perhaps simply because it is all so unexpected. On a special guided tour, Rear Admiral Hagari takes journalists through some of the facilities underground.

At one point he reaches up to touch the drop ceiling tiles in one of the rooms off the main passage. "Look at this ceiling!" There are communications conduits and electrical outlets and Hagari explains that power emanates from the building above, the hospital. The tunnel hallways are constructed of concrete with arched ceilings to enable a man to walk through without having to bend his neck or crouch. Such arched tunnels are typical of many of the tunnels built throughout the past 15 years, he explains.

The bare essentials are augmented with handrails on stairs, kitchen countertops, tiles in kitchens and bathrooms, an air conditioning unit in one room. It was, in fact, the air conditioning mechanism on the outside surface that led the IDF investigators to locate the presence of the tunnels below surface. Interior doors are lightweight, but there is also a heavy steel blast door which can withstand invading Israeli troops.

 

Hamas terrorists bring a hostage into Shifa Hospital as seen on surveillance footage from October 7, 2023. (IDF)

 

The video, in fact, had been released on X; the guided tour for journalists enhances and explains what is seen in the video. Yet another video released on X draws viewers outside the hospital to a street located a block away from the hospital. There, an ordinary-appearing apartment hides a tunnel entranceway. Within the bombed-out structure appears what would have been a classroom with a chalkboard covered in English-language lessons.

The floor was lifted in a corner, revealing a short staircase leading to a glass door, and beyond it, a spiral staircase.The director of Al Shifa Hospital was arrested by Israeli forces last Thursday, and with him other several staff members of the hospital, while they were in the process of evacuating south, along the humanitarian corridor.  

A Hamas pickup truck is seen at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, as seen on surveillance footage from October 7, 2023. (IDF)

 

Following their invasion of southern Israel on October 7 -- where terrorists scoured Israeli towns, villages and kibbutzim, killing everyone they saw, mutilating people, torturing them before killing them, tossing bombs into homes, setting homes on fire that burned people's bodies to unidentifiable cores of blackened bones, gang-raping girls and women at the Nova Music Festival nearby the Be'ri Kibbutz, taking 240 infants, elderly, infirm, women, men and soldiers hostage into Gaza -- some of the hostages were taken to the hospital.

Cpl. Noa Marciano

A pathology report verified that one of the hostages, Cpl. Noa Marciano, 19, had been murdered on the premises of the hospital.

"The pathology report states that Noa was injured by an IDF strike, but not in a life-threatening way, and this is contrary to the lies published by Hamas according to which Noa was killed by IDF strikes", explained Rear Admiral Hagari. "According to intelligence information, Noa was taken inside the walls of Shifa Hospital, where she was murdered by a Hamas terrorist."

 

"On November 2, Dr. Michael Ryan, director of WHO health emergencies program, said he knew what was going on ‘above ground’ at Shifa and was aware that the use of medical facilities for military purposes is forbidden according to international law. At the same time, he claimed he doubted that any terror activities were happening at Shifa."

"It is clear now that WHO has ignored the use of medical facilities as human shields and of Hamas’s refusal to allow civilians to evacuate from them… WHO’s failure to address these issues amounts to its contribution to the continuation of a conflict that is causing much suffering to so many."

Israeli Health Minister Uriel Busso and Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov.

An IDF infographic showing where the bodies of Israeli hostages Yehudit Weiss and Noa Marciano were found near the Shifa Hospital complex. (IDF)

 

 

Deadly Delusional

"When protesters chant, 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' it is not, as some suggest, an aspirational cry echoing the hopes of Palestinians for freedom from Israeli occupation; it is -- according to this poll -- the clear expression of the genocidal intent of most Palestinians [three out of four people], who want to obliterate Israel from the map."

"Prime Minister Justin Trudeau believes [that] Israel's war against Hamas will make it harder to get to a two-state solution. He might want to run his views past ordinary Palestinians, who, according to [this] recent poll, appear committed to a Middle East where Israel doesn't exist at all."

Michael Higgins, journalist, National Post

A Palestinian demonstration in Nablus in support of prisoners held in Israeli prisons, November 14, 2023 (WAFA)

A poll, conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development, which is a research organization based in the West Bank -- recognized by the United Nations -- in a November 14 survey, asked Palestinians in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (obviously during a period with Israel's military responding to the Hamas 'provocation' of October 7 when its operatives invaded Israel to spend a horrendous day of mass butcher, rape and abduction) what type of state they would want to establish.

 

The choice was for one state for two disparate groups of people representing Arabs or Jews (i.e. Palestinians or Israelis), to which 5.4 percent responded in support. The choice of a two-state solution saw support by 17.2 percent. Then came the most popular of all the given 'solutions', the enthusiastic 74.7 percent popularity, a "Palestinian state from the river to the sea". This kind of response was not necessarily a total surprise. Previous such polls garnered similar responses.

Peace, on the terms that the West envisages, with two peaceful states side-by-side, each respecting the autonomy of the other, with a healthy trade between them and prospects of prosperity for both, seems far from the minds of the very people involved; Palestinians themselves. The survey results made it quite clear that a large majority of Palestinians are in support of terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. And by extension, supportive of the savage attacks of October 7 that saw 1,200 Israelis butchered.

Indeed, Palestinians saw comfort in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations taking place around the world; 78.2 percent were hopeful of the future of humanity, given the extent of those demonstrations, despite their belief that the West hates Muslims. Researchers interviewed 668 people, evenly split between men and women. The respondents included farmers, tradespeople, professionals like doctors and engineers, along with students and housewives. Of the group. the median age was 31, reflective of Palestinians as a 'young' demographic.

The question "How much do you support the military operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance led by Hamas on October 7th?" saw strong support of 59.3 percent, another 15.7 percent supporting it somewhat, for a combined total of 75 percent approving the slaughter of men, women and children. As for how Palestinians view the Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing that presumably carried out the deadly raid,79.1 percent of Gazans held a positive view of the group.

In the West Bank, however, that approval rating increased to 95.4 percent. Close to 60 percent of Gazans held a positive regard for Hamas, but in the West Bank, the approval rated 87.7 percent. The terrorist organization Islamic Jihad saw support of 71.9 percent of Gazans and over 90 percent of respondents in the West Bank, while the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade was positively viewed by close to 70 percent of Gazans and over 80 percent of West Bank respondents.

According to Justin Trudeau, a man who cannot deplore the prevalence of antisemitism in Canada without mourning the presence of Islamophobia, Israel's 'war on Hamas' will see the "pathway toward a secure, viable, independent Jewish state alongside a secure, viable independent Palestinian state" more difficult to achieve. An accomplishment indeed were it to occur, given the reality of one of those presumptive states supporting the destruction of the other.

When asked whether "your conviction in the possibility" of achieving peace with Israel or coexistence between Palestinians and Israel had increased or decreased, close to 90 percent responded it had decreased in both instances. Coexistence does appear under these circumstances, unlikely to occur without the inconvenient occasional daily disruptions of violent attacks by Palestinians against Jewish Israelis. 

When asked for a response to the question why it is that the United States and the West support Israel, answers included: 

• the Israeli lobby (91.5 percent);
• hatred of Muslims and Islam (89.5 percent); and
• political and economic interests in the region (96.3 percent).

Another question revealed that a large proportion of the Palestinian population will never 'forgive' Israel, with almost 96 percent cleaving to that sentiment (though the puzzle is forgive Israel for what? its existence?). And those who will never 'forget' what Israel 'did', garnered 93 percent. (What Israel DID? Does that mean having the bloody nerve to protect itself from deadly assaults?) The absolute capper: the number of Palestinians who feel pride after October 7: 94.3 percent.

 

Almost 80 percent of Palestinians are increasingly committed to a Palestinian state, than ever before. And from the responses to this poll it seems obvious enough that their dream of statehood can only come to fruition with the destruction of Israel. Their reliance on terrorist groups to deliver that prize to them sums up the chances of Israel achieving peace anytime soon -- if ever -- with a society and culture addicted to hate and violence. 

 

Palestinians shout slogans during a protest in the West Bank city of Hebron on Nov. 17. Photo by HAZEM BADER/AFP

"While support for terror organizations is high, 87.3% of the Palestinians believe that the Palestinian Authority plays a negative role. Only 23.2% believe that Fatah plays a positive role. When asked who should govern the Gaza Strip and the areas in Judea and Samaria that are under the control of the PA, only 8.4% supported the PA. In comparison, 85.8% supported Hamas continuing to play a role in the Palestinian government – 13.6% supported a Hamas-only government, while 72.2% supported a “national unity” government – i.e., a government comprised of Fatah and Hamas."

Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

Western Champions of Hamas Death-Cult

"We, the undersigned, residing in so-called Canada, urge Canadian leaders..."

"[The expulsion of Ontario's NDP MPP Sarah Jama] exposes the bankrupt situational morality of Canadian politics in a settler colonial country that can only but support white settler politics elsewhere as the condition of its own existence."

Partial contents of letter 

 

"What kind of organization would carry out such hideous violence against such obviously innocent people, and do it in the most cruel and odious manner and then willingly publicize it for all the world to see?"

"This is evil in its purest form, and that evil must be defeated."

Canadian Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre

Hamas shared a photo of a terrorist kidnapping a bloodied victim near the Gaza Strip.

Dozens of Canadian academics and organizations signed a letter that denies Israeli women were 'sexually violated' by Hamas terrorists on that fateful day of October 7. Samantha Person, director of the University of Alberta's sexual-assault centre signed that letter among others, and was duly fired. The denial of video evidence of sexual violence committed by Hamas is a message so twisted it cannot be countenanced. Decency forbids it, even as committed antisemites celebrate it as just desserts.

"I unequivocally agree with the University of Alberta's decision to dismiss the director. All spaces, including university campuses, need to be safe for all."

"Antisemitism of any kind must not be tolerated."

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith

Yet that letter was endorsed by 41 organizations and 18 individuals from the "research community", and 30 from "civil society". Four from University of Alberta; a full professor in education; two assistant lecturers, one of whom is in women's and gender studies; and a post-doctoral researcher. According to the body of the letter, all Canadian political parties "dehumanize Palestinians, facilitating Israeli-led genocide against them".

 

Politicians who fail to demand an immediate ceasefire, must resign, according to the document. Israel released a one-minute, 28-second video of two  young women desperately attempting to escape from an armed man in black, wearing the green Hamas headband. Edited together from security camera footage at Kibbutz Alumim, a collective farm of some 120 families located about a kilometre from the border with Gaza. 

 

Attendees scatter as violence breaks out at the festival.

 

The kibbutz is almost adjacent to the site of the Re'im music festival where Hamas operatives, some arriving by paraglider, slaughtered at least 364 young people from dawn onward. It was at this kibbutz that a gathering point had been conceived to receive festival survivors -- before it, too, was stormed shortly after 7:00 a.m. by Hamas terrorists. In the video shocked escapees gather at the compound's front gate. One woman sits on a curb, another comforts her.

Eight minutes later they all scramble at the sight of Hamas terrorists running to the gate with raised weapons. One of the terrorists breaks into a run toward two women, slower than the others as the group scatters in panic. Ten seconds on, the terrorist grabs a woman dressed in a flowing black skirt, grabbing her by her hair; a puff is seen, and she drops, dead. The second woman a few metres from the terrorist drops to the ground begging for her life. 

The terrorist turns his attention briefly to aim several shots at others running away, then shoots the pleading women crouching before him in the head. Dozens who escaped the first massacres at the music festival were murdered along the roads or in neighbouring communities where they fled to find shelter. Dashcam videos from Oz Davidian, a farmer living nearby, circulated last week, informing the world that he rescued over a hundred survivors from the festival grounds, speeding through Hamas-held areas, picking up people in over a dozen trips back and forth at risk of his own life.

 

At one point, Davidian drove by a group of people he thought were Israeli paramedics and soldiers but were actually terrorists.

That day of October 7, the Hamas terrorists had virtually unchallenged control of Route 232, large sections of Israel's southwestern highway. A lengthy stretch of roadway strewn with abandoned and burnt vehicles and dead bodies are seen from the footage from Davidian's truck. "You see piles of corpses on top of each other, as if they were together and had just been slaughtered" explained Davidian in translated narration. 

 

One of the people he rescued thought he was a member of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet because of his remarkable actions amid the carnage.

Kibbutz Alumim's fate was not as dreadful as Kibbutz Be'eri, almost destroyed. Its small security force co-ordinated an impromptu defence of the compound until the Israeli Defense Forces arrived just after midnight. Hamas massacred nine Thai workers and ten Nepali student labourers at Kibbutz Alumim. It is now evacuated, with a skeleton crew left to maintain the dairy herd. 

A week following the invasion, barns were still smouldering from Hamas-set fires. Yet despite the carnage, and the evidence of sadistic violence in the rape and murder of 1,200 innocent civilians, the hostage-taking of 240 children, elderly, infirm, and soldiers, the world of academia and unions in Canada turns its back and revels in their version of events; the victory of 'resistance'.

The massacres were praised as "Palestinian anticolonial resistance" by University of Toronto professor and 'decolonization' expert Uahikea Maile. As for Kibbutz Alumim, its ownership of the land on which it sits predates the 1948 State of Israel. The land was bought from Arab landowners by the Jewish National Fund during the British era of control. It sits geographically in land designated Jewish in the UN original Partition plan.

Israeli farmer Oz Davidian (right) rescued about 120 survivors of the Hamas massacre at a music festival by driving back and forth to pick up as many people as he could while being shot at by the terrorists.

 

Searching Gaza for Hamas Terrorists

"Each and every interrogation leads to the release of new locations and the human intelligence that emerges from the Gaza Strip."

"More than ten out of these 24 battalions [were] damaged significantly. In some battalions, we eliminated hundreds of Hamas terrorists."

"This can't be replaced (Hamas commanders killed in battle) in a war."

"[The number of rockets fired at Israel is decreasing, reaching] nearly zero. [Hamas still has firepower, however, and] if we want to take it, we have to go to the south [of Gaza]."

Senior Israeli military official speaking anonymously under army guidelines 

Footage released by the IDF on November 20, 2023, of an interrogation of a Gazan terror suspect by the Shin Bet security service. (Screen capture/IDF)

 

According to new revelations by the Israeli military, over 300 members of Hamas and other terrorist groups arrested in Gaza during the Israel Defense Forces ground invasion have been interrogated. Those interrogations have  yielded invaluable intel, including revelations of locations of underground tunnels, warehouses, weapons and the use of civilian infrastructure by Hamas.

The vast underground command complex centre beneath the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza is of particular interest to the invading forces, since it is reputed to be the locale, hidden among the most vulnerable of places in wartime, a vast hospital complex, where vital command centres for the terrorists have been installed, shielded from view and presumably from attack during war.

Although Hamas, as well as Gaza health officials deny that Hamas has any positions installed within and beneath the hospital complex, intel says otherwise, and the forays by the IDF into and under the hospital have proven intel right and Hamas deceptive. Videos have been revealed from closed-circuit cameras showing Hamas operatives hustling Israeli hostages into and through the hospital.

 

Hamas terrorists bring a hostage into Shifa Hospital as seen on surveillance footage from October 7, 2023. (IDF)

 

According to the anonymous official, his intelligence unit has had thousands of telephone calls from residents of Gaza. Although no details were forthcoming, ostensibly to inform the IDF intelligence of information that might be useful in finding the sought-after evidence of Hamas duplicity in carrying out war crimes against its own population. 

The human intelligence unit of the Israeli army, Unit 504, placed thousands of calls to Gaza residents and dropped millions of leaflets to alert and urge the Palestinians to evacuate to the territory's southern area as long as Israeli forces continue to target buildings in northern Gaza. There was a battle between Israeli forces and terrorists in the vicinity of a second hospital Monday, where thousands of patients and displaced residents have sheltered for weeks. IDF troops returned fire from Hamas fighters firing on them from within the 3.5-acre hospital compound.

Since the start of the war, over ten of Hamas's battalions sustained significant degradation. The battalion represents the main Hamas army unit, with roughly a thousand operatives in each. The IDF estimates that thousands of Hamas terrorists have been killed in the Israeli offensive. Most battalions are located in northern Gaza. A large number of Hamas commanders have also been killed; some battalions with over half their commanders gone.

In northern Gaza, Hamas's main rocket arsenals are concentrated. "We're approaching the end of our campaign in northern Gaza to root out Hamas infrastructure and will turn to the rest of the Gaza Strip", explained Eylon Levy, spokesman for the Israeli government. The main thrust of the ground offensive so far has been east into Gaza City, the Hamas "centre of gravity".

Many parts of the city's largest hospital, Al Shifa, are in control of Israeli forces. Videos were found over the weekend giving proof of Hamas's exploitation of the facility, where a command centre had been built, and a network of tunnels constructed under the ground.

IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari with weapons found by IDF forces in a Hamas command center underneath Gaza City’s Rantisi Hospital, in a photo released by the military on November 13, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)