Just Peace Advocates co-founder and board member wrote to two Collegium Ramazzini leaders, on behalf of Friends of Sabeel North America. These letters, sent to Philip Landrigan and Andrea Vicini, are posted below. You can learn more about these circumstances by watching the webinar: “GAZA: What to do when your organisation turns a blind eye to injustice,” and hearing London Leslie, a Collegium Ramazzini fellow, speak to this issue.
Dear Philip Landrigan,
We write to you today as fellow academics and practitioners and Liberation Theology enthusiasts who believe in the preferential option for the poor. We are reaching out from deep concern at the silence of medical and academic associations in the face of the genocide being carried out against the Palestinian people. This silence is being noted as significant, and unless it is changed it is likely to be noted with shame and embarrassment for years to come. Here is a petition launched by medical and academic leaders: STOP THE SILENCE! Academic Associations Must Recognise the Genocide in Gaza.
Here are just a few of the many articles published in medical journals on this moral failure:
· Break the selective silence on the genocide in Gaza;
· Genocide in Gaza: moral and ethical failures of medical institutions; and
· Editorial, Gaza has been failed by silence and impunity.
Medical and academic associations have issued strong statements condemning violations of international humanitarian law by Russia against Ukrainians. These same associations have, however, practiced a double standard and refused to condemn violations of international humanitarian law by Israel against Palestinians. It is not possible for organisations, pledged to uphold evidence and ethics, to then practice a double standard, protecting some lives but not others, protecting some children from horrific harm but not other children.
Thousands of children have been killed in endless bombing of homes and refugee camps in Gaza. Thousands more children have been maimed. Gaza has the largest number of child amputees than any other region in the world. Food, clean water and medical care have been denied, causing still more children to die from disease. Starvation is being used as a weapon of war.
As someone who is a world leading pediatrician and Director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good, which is founded on evidence-based advocacy to advance population health and achieve social justice, we call on you to speak up.
The Collegium Ramazzini is a respected international organisation dedicated to upholding evidence, advancing occupational and environmental health and saving lives. Like other medical organisations, it has spoken out demanding that the lives of Ukrainians be protected under international humanitarian law but not the lives of Palestinians. We have reviewed your initial statement on the “Violence in Israel and Gaza.” This statement was insufficient and problematic, as Leslie London, Senior Specialist in Public Health at the School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa and Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, pointed out in the webinar listed below, because it failed to mention the:
· Attacks on the healthcare system and targeting of healthcare workers;
· Destruction of civilian infrastructure and culture heritage sites;
· Enormous impact of Israel’s bombardment on the environment;
· Use of power and food as a weapon of war; and
· Perpetrator of the violence, making it seem that no-one was accountable
Along with members of other organisations, members of the Collegium Ramazzini organised two webinars, available on social media, GAZA: What to do when your organisation turns a blind eye to injustice, to share ideas on how to get the leaders of the Collegium Ramazzini and other medical organisations to end their silence and defend the lives of Palestinians and humanitarian workers in Gaza, as they did for Ukrainians.
As clergy, professionals, and academics, we ask you to consider your own words. In describing the Program for Global Public Health and The Common Good, Philip, you said:
“The program in Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College will align closely with BC’s educational and spiritual missions because public health is deeply rooted in a philosophy of social justice and ethics, strives to eradicate inequities in health, and embodies a preferential option for the poor”; and “…public health is also good for the soul. It is rooted in a philosophy of social justice, and one of its main goals is to end—or at least lessen—the sharp disparities in health that separate white from Black, rich from poor, and mainstream from marginalized. This is the gist of what I try to convey to my students.”
In January 2024, you and the Collegium Ramazzini Executive Council rejected requests from its members to stop turning a blind eye to injustice, stating that “another Statement would not be effective” and “no audience exists for further remarks on this topic.” We strongly disagree.
In 1945 Pastor Dietrich Bonhoffer was killed by the Nazis for refusing to stay silent. Here are his words: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
As you know, the phrase “the preferential option for the poor” is rooted in liberation theology. As Gustavo Gutierez, one of the founders of liberation theology said, “The denunciation of injustice implies the rejection of the use of Christianity to legitimize the established order. And as another cofounder stated: “Being a theologian is not a matter of skilfully using methods but of being imbued with the theological spirit… liberation theology is a new way of being a theologian…Theology (not the theologian) comes afterwards; liberating practice comes first.”
As the Past President and a current member of the Executive Council of the Collegium Ramazzini, we urgently implore you to speak up and call on the Executive Council of the Collegium Ramazzini to speak up in support of the Palestinian people and against Israel’s ongoing genocide.
Please let us know your response on this urgent matter.–
Jonathan Kuttab
Executive Director FOSNA
Dear Andrea Vicini,
We write to you today as fellow academics and practitioners, and Liberation Theology enthusiasts who believe in the preferential option for the poor. We are reaching out from deep concern at the silence of medical and academic associations in the face of the genocide being carried out against the Palestinian people. This silence is being noted as significant and is likely to haunt us in the future. Here is a petition launched by medical and academic leaders: STOP THE SILENCE! Academic Associations Must Recognise the Genocide in Gaza.
Here are just a few of the many articles published in medical journals on this moral failure:
· Break the selective silence on the genocide in Gaza;
· Genocide in Gaza: moral and ethical failures of medical institutions; and
· Editorial, Gaza has been failed by silence and impunity.
Medical and academic associations issued strong statements condemning violations of international humanitarian law by Russia against Ukrainians. These same associations have, however, practiced a double standard and refused to condemn violations of international humanitarian law by Israel against Palestinians. It is not possible for organisations, pledged to uphold evidence and ethics, to then practice a double standard, protecting some lives but not others, protecting some children from horrific harm but not other children.
Thousands of children have been killed in endless bombing of homes and refugee camps in Gaza. Thousands more children have been maimed. Gaza has the largest number of child amputees than any other region in the world. Food, clean water and medical care have been denied, causing still more children to die from disease. Starvation is being used as a weapon of war. These are crimes against humanity and violate our fundamental religious beliefs which require us to care about others, especially the most vulnerable and especially children. We cannot and must not stay silent.
As a medical doctor with specialization in Pediatrics, as Chairperson of the Boston College Theology Department with expertise in moral theology and Christian ethics, and as co-chair of the international network Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, we call on you to speak up.
The Collegium Ramazzini, of which you are a Fellow, is an academy whose elected Fellows are internationally distinguished, intellectually independent physicians, scientists and advocates who have devoted their professional lives to the improvement of occupational and environmental health and who have embraced the habit of truth. The Collegium has reached out to persons of integrity in every continent. Like other medical organisations, it has spoken out demanding that the lives of Ukrainians be protected under international humanitarian law but not the lives of Palestinians. We have reviewed your initial statement on the “Violence in Israel and Gaza.” This statement was insufficient and problematic, as Leslie London as Leslie London, Senior Specialist in Public Health at the School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa and Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, pointed out in the webinar listed below, because it failed to mention the:
· Attacks on the healthcare system and targeting of healthcare workers;
· Destruction of civilian infrastructure and culture heritage sites;
· Enormous impact of Israel’s bombardment on the environment;
· Use of power and food as a weapon of war; and
· Perpetrator of the violence and circumstances.
Along with members of other organisations, members of the Collegium Ramazzini organised two webinars, available on social media, GAZA: What to do when your organisation turns a blind eye to injustice, to share ideas on how to get the leaders of the Collegium Ramazzini and other medical organisations to end their silence and defend the lives of Palestinians and humanitarian workers in Gaza, as they did for Ukrainians.
As clergy, professionals, and academics, we ask you to consider your own words. You stated: “How do we address such inequalities in health globally? First, we need to be aware that injustice is pervasive. Second, we must avoid desperation or complacent resignation; awareness of unacceptable disparities should animate social engagement to address and eliminate them. Third, it is necessary to make a preferential option for those who bear the brunt of these inequities. Scholars who embrace key tenets in Catholic social teaching, for example, do not shy away from calling such an engagement ‘a preferential option for the poor’ and for the needy, the disadvantaged, and the marginalized.”
In January 2024, the Collegium Ramazzini stated that “another Statement would not be effective” and “no audience exists for further remarks on this topic.” We disagree.
In 1945 Pastor Dietrich Bonhoffer was killed by the Nazis for refusing to stay silent. Here are his words: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
As you know, the phrase “the preferential option for the poor” is rooted in liberation theology. As Gustavo Gutierez, one of the founders of liberation theology said, “The denunciation of injustice implies the rejection of the use of Christianity to legitimize the established order. And as another cofounder stated: “Being a theologian is not a matter of skilfully using methods but of being imbued with the theological spirit… liberation theology is a new way of being a theologian…Theology (not the theologian) comes afterwards; liberating practice comes first.”
As an influential member of the Collegium Ramazzini, you are accountable for what the organisation says in your name.
We urgently implore you to speak up and call on the Executive Council of the Collegium Ramazzini to speak up in support of the Palestinian people and against Israel’s ongoing genocide.
Please let us know your response on this urgent matter.
—
Jonathan Kuttab
Executive Director FOSNA
