Receiving the Jerusalem Peace Prize is a great honour and I am overwhelmed and humbled indeed. It is particularly poignant at this time as Palestinians in both Occupied Gaza and West Bank are suffering unbelievable, horrific hardship and brutal violations of their basic human rights, for life, for shelter, water and food.

Dr Helen McCue AM, Jerusalem Peace Prize Address, February 23 2024.

I would like to thank Nasser Mashni, the APAN Board and Australians For Palestine for awarding me this year’s Jerusalem Peace Prize. And many thanks to the APAN staff and volunteers for their help and the amazing work they have done over the years. I also extend my congratulations to all the previous recipients.

I acknowledge that we are on the lands of the traditional owners, the people of the Kulin Nation. And I pay my respects to all elders and leaders both past, present and emerging. This land was stolen and never ceded. This always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

Receiving the Jerusalem Peace Prize is a great honour and I am overwhelmed and humbled indeed. It is particularly poignant at this time as Palestinians in both Occupied Gaza and West Bank are suffering unbelievable, horrific hardship and brutal violations of their basic human rights, for life, for shelter, water and food. I salute all of the health workers, first responders, journalists and many others who have lost their lives serving their community. And I salute all those who in spite of a continuing genocide and crushing apartheid continue to call for peace with their neighbours.

Many of you will know Dr Olfat Mahmoud my dearest friend, my Palestinian mentor, teacher and sister in struggle who sadly passed way in September last year. Throughout her life Olfat showed exceptional leadership, courage and bravery. She was inspirational, strong, just and selfless. She died far too young but she leaves a legacy that will remain an inspiration for many Palestinian women and for all Palestinians. This address is dedicated to her and to the thousands of women and children who have been massacred in Lebanon, Palestine, in Gaza and the Occupied Territories of the West Bank over these past 75 years.

The last five months have been the most disastrous for Palestinians since the 1948 Nakba. The Gaza Strip is about the size of Adelaide with a population of 2.4 million, half of them children. 80% of these are refugees under UN protection. In Gaza up to 100,000 have been killed or maimed, the majority of these being women and children. Among those killed are 340 health workers, 154 UN staff and 122 journalists. And we don’t know how many have been detained by the Israeli Defence Forces but it is in the thousands including medical staff. Nor do we know how many people are lost under the rubble, or how many have died from causes other than bombing.

Gazan’s have been deprived of essential food, water and medical aid, had their hospitals, educational, administrative, religious and cultural infrastructure destroyed and at least 80 percent or more of housing stock and other infrastructure has been totally destroyed. Right now 90 percent of the population is starving, Gazans are forced to eat weeds and animal food. Trucks supplying food have have been deliberately slowed by the IDF and Israeli citizens have been blocking their movement. Access to food has become a weapon of war.

In the Occupied West Bank Israel continues to expand settlements, confiscate lands, take natural resources, and install settlers in Palestinian population areas in total violation of its international obligations, seeking to change the demographic make-up of the Territories. And this violation has only accelerated since October last year. In the past nearly five months up to 400 Palestinians have been killed, among them 98 children and possibly 12,000 have been detained. There has been extensive damage to peoples homes and roads, in particular in the refugees camps.

Yes the attacks by Hamas on innocent civilians on October 7th were horrific and must be punished as a war crime, as is the abduction and holding of civilians. And hostages must be released but the response to this assault by the IDF is shocking in the extreme and overwhelmingly disproportionate.

Gaza has been bombed to oblivion.

The articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention, written specifically to protect civilians and health care workers, have been extensively violated by Israel. This war on Gaza is a war on hospitals and on children. Hospitals are sacred places. They are places of treatment, of healing and of dignified dying. In Gaza hospitals are places of shelter, but they have now become battlegrounds. The IDF regularly violates these sacred places, bombing around them, bombing inside them, destroying them, killing patients including children, stopping food and water, fuel, oxygen and medical supplies necessary for treatment and to save lives, as is happening right now in Nasser Hospital. For Palestinians hospitals are now places of terror, of torture and abuse and worse by the IDF. They are the killing fields of Gaza where patients are executed, medical staff are killed, or forceable detained and patients left to die and rot in their beds. The names of Al Shifa, Al Quds and al Nasser hospitals are etched in our memories as places of both extraordinary courage and extreme and unimaginable suffering.

5 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals can only partially function, and these face challenges such as a shortage of medical staff, including specialised surgeons and intensive care staff. In total some 340 medical professionals have been killed and 170 or more have been detained and tortured. WHO’s reported that by late January there have been 304 attacks in the Gaza Strip since 7 October affecting 94 health care facilities and 80 ambulances. The WHO has repeatedly been denied access to these facilities. This deliberate destruction of the health care system is part of Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza. Dr Richard Brennan who has had 30 years’ experience with WHO commented that in all these years he has not witnessed anything like that seen in Al Nasser hospital, not just the destruction by the IDF and the human misery but also the medical staff courage and resilience.

Only four out of 22 UNRWA health centres are still operational. Continued bombardment and restricted access prevent the provision of life-saving health services in these facilities, such as pre and post natal care, immunisations, chronic illness management such as diabetes and high blood pressure management.

UN staff including the UNICEF Director noting the critical role that UNRWA plays in maternal and child health said that “nearly 20,000 or more babies have been born into war. That’s a baby born into this horrendous war every 10 minutes. There are an estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza They face unimaginable challenges in accessing adequate medical care, nutrition, and protection before, during and after giving birth. Becoming a mother should be a time for celebration. In Gaza, it’s another child delivered into hell.” Miscarriage rates are up 300% and women are bleeding to death unable to access care,........

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