Week in Review: JVP Health Advisory Council Urgent Update + News Highlights

Please read, share, and keep up your education on Palestine.

• Palantir in Our Hospitals: How the company powering the Gaza genocide and ICE surveillance is rapidly expanding into healthcare
  - Sunday, July 12, 2026, 10am PST / 1pm EST
  - Featuring speakers from American Friends Service Committee, No Palantir in the NHS campaign, and National Nurses United
  - Register at jvphealth.org/events

  The same company enabling Israel's genocide in Gaza and powering ICE's surveillance systems now manages 1 in 5 U.S. hospital beds. Join us to learn about Palantir's rapid expansion into the healthcare sector and what we can do to stop it.

• Are you a health worker or work in a related field? There is growing opposition to the Israeli Medical Association remaining as a member of the World Medical Association. Let your voice be heard and contact your professional organizations: phmovement.org/end-medical-complicity.

  Join health workers, activists, and organizations worldwide to demand the suspension of the Israeli Medical Association from the World Medical Association. The Israeli Medical Association (IMA) has remained silent as Palestinian health workers were targeted amid the genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, endorsing Israel’s policies.

• Demand Congress reject expansion of US-Israeli military cooperation! The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is authorizing a melding of the US-Israeli military-industrial complex, including co-production of weapons, AI coordination, and more, which will make US military support for Israel almost impossible to end.

• (5/27/26): Members of the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn voted to boycott about a dozen products from Israel and Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine, capping years of contentious debate. The vote, which took place during a three-hour virtual meeting attended by about 7,000 of the co-operative’s 17,000 members, follows months of dueling campaigning. 67% of voting members supported the boycott. Read here.

• (5/29/26): To bring home the realities of the health and sanitation disaster in Gaza, an epidemic of rats and skin diseases, worsened by the collapse of sanitation capacity, the presence of raw sewage, and chronic malnutrition, are ravaging Gaza residents, particularly children. This is a full on public health emergency created by the Israeli assault. Read here.

• (6/10/26): This is an important report from Amnesty International which has accused Israel of a state-driven campaign of ethnic cleansing targeting Palestinian Bedouins in the occupied West Bank and committing the crime against humanity of forcible transfer. This builds on a mountain of evidence about Israel’s intentions in the West Bank. Read here.

• (6/7/26): Another example of the sanitation emergency in Gaza, is the overcrowded, disgusting public toilets, the lack of privacy, particularly for young women, and the families who in desparation, build rudimentry toilets in their tents. “Having the toilet in the tent is ‘revolting,’ said Mostafa Shaaban, ‘but at least it has more dignity’”. Read here.

• (8/16/25): Increasing numbers of people and organizations are recognizing the genocide in Gaza and demanding that professional organizations speak out on this travesty. “The genocide in Gaza is a defining ethical test for the global public health community, social scientists, and academic associations. Silence is not an option. As scholars and health professionals, we face a stark choice: either we uphold our collective ethical responsibility and speak out to prevent further mass violence and starvation, or we will be remembered for our selective silence and inaction during one of the most urgent moral and public health crises of our time.” Read here.

• (6/14/26): The Center for Health & Democracy Education Fund found that 9 corporate PACs involved with the health insurance industry gave millions to candidates and political parties. "This year, the report’s authors expect donations to break the annual record of $17 million set back in 2022. And this doesn’t count dark money routed through PACs that do not have to disclose their spending." No wonder the US does not have some form of universal access to health care and that Medicare Advantage, "the privatization of the single-payer system for older Americans" is corrupting Medicare. Read here.

• (6/10/26): The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is a very dangerous authorization, melding the US and Israeli military operations. Interestly, my Representative, Adam Smith, appears to have withdrawn his support (after he was not endorsed by the 37th legislative district in Washington...hmmm). Read here.

• What is clear is that the destruction of Gaza and its health care system, and the ongoing killing of its people - whether instantly by bombing or the slow death from hunger, disease, imprisonment, and despair - along with the decimation of the environment, is now being repeated in Lebanon, and in a slightly different form, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. For example:

  Lebanon, “Israel Is Emptying Lebanon of Its People”

  West Bank “OCHA Humanitarian Situation Report”; “Acute Medication Shortage Risks Lives of 4,000 West Bank Cancer Patients, Palestinian Health Ministry Says”.