Dr. Mads Gilbert on Israel’s “systematic strategy” to destroy Palestinians

Dr. Mads Gilbert is a Norwegian physician, humanitarian, activist, and politician for the Red Party. He is a specialist in anesthesiology and head of the emergency medicine department at the University Hospital of North Norway and Professor of emergency medicine at the University of Tromsø. Since the 1970s, he has been actively involved with solidarity work concerning Palestinians, and has served as a doctor for several periods in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon. His book on the Gaza War, Eyes on Gaza (2009), has been translated into several languages. He has been the subject of controversy for his political activism. In November 2014, Israel indefinitely banned Gilbert from entering Gaza, officially for security reasons. The decision sparked outrage and the Norwegian government subsequently requested that the decision be reversed. The Israeli Foreign Ministry later clarified that the ban regarded setting foot in Israel, not Gaza. Israel, Haaretz wrote, is the only available transit point for entering the Gaza Strip when the Rafah border from Egypt is closed.