Healthcare workers from across the Bay Area gathered at Stanford University Monday morning as part of a nationwide “pop-up clinic for the treatment of sickness from genocide” and in protest of the continuing war in Gaza.

Close to 40 people gathered at Alumni Lawn at Stanford Medical School around 10 a.m., with several doctors dressed in their white coats while also wearing keffiyehs around their necks and with fabric signs pinned to their backs. The signs read “Not another bomb, not another hospital, not another child” and other statements in red ink.

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“As a Muslim, Arab, American mother and a doctor witnessing the targeted killing of healthcare providers, the killing of civilians, children and even young men and women, and the targeted destructions of hospitals and bombing of ambulances at the hands of the Israeli forces is absolutely sickening,” said Dr. Yusra Husain, an assistant professor at Stanford Medical School. “We as healthcare providers refuse to normalize genocide. Every death and burned child is a shock to our system.”

The gathering was part of a nationwide movement by Doctors Against Genocide, with doctors from across the country calling in sick to demand an end to the war in Gaza and the release of 450 healthcare workers held prisoner by Israel, according to a news release. After a few speeches, the gathering moved to Stanford’s White Plaza, where the doctors and community members again set up their table and signs.

Healthcare workers gathered at Stanford University Monday to host a “pop-up clinic” in protest of the ongoing war in Gaza, expressing concerns about violence against healthcare workers and the destruction of healthcare facilities. (Caelyn Pender/Bay Area News Group) 

The gatherings inaugurated the Kamal Adwan Pop-up Clinic for Sickness from Genocide, where healthcare professionals handed out guidance on treating sickness from genocide: “the immense moral injury, emotional trauma and grief experienced by healthcare workers as we witness genocide and other human rights violations against patients and colleagues, such as those in Gaza,” according to a printed guide distributed at the stand. The guide also gave doctors guidance on how to provide doctor’s notes for workers wanting to take “sick from genocide” leave and gave patients advice on how to request these notes.

Dr. Rupa Marya, a professor of medicine at UCSF, said that she was suspended from her job because she has “spoken out about genocide in Gaza.” She added that her research looked into how chronic inflammatory disease such as heart disease and dementia is caused by damage from societal strife.

“Racism creates structures in society that drive inflammation for marginalized people who carry the greatest burden of chronic inflammatory disease,” she said. “Genocide is the most egregious, overt expression of racism, and it is literally making us sick.”

“Attacking healthcare infrastructure and healthcare workers accelerates the annihilation of the Palestinian people and is an act of genocide,” Marya added.

UCSF did not immediately respond Monday afternoon to a request for comment about Marya’s suspension.

The pop-up clinic offered steps of a “treatment plan:” The plan requests that attacks on Gaza hospitals stop, that abducted healthcare workers are set free and that health workers in Gaza are protected. It also calls for an arms embargo and aid and reconstruction for Israel-occupied territories.

“I’m sick from genocide, sick of the silence of our government fueling the murderous assault while making big pronouncements about peace and humanity,” said Hilton Obenzinger, a retired professor and associate director emeritus of the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford. “I’m sick of the way our government does not listen to its own people who want the war to stop, does not listen to the UN, does not listen to human rights groups and does not listen to American Jews crying out for a real ceasefire.”

Hussain also outlined specific demands the protestors asked of Stanford: that the university “condemn the genocide in Palestine” and the attacks on healthcare workers and facilities, condemn the “ongoing medical apartheid in Palestine,” and adopt an ethical procurement policy that includes not purchasing from companies “involved in Israeli war crimes,” she said.

Stanford University officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the list of demands.

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“There are absolutely no words that can adequately convey the pain and depravity of this violence,” said Rochelle Mclaughlin, a former adjunct faculty in the College of Health and Human Sciences at San Jose State University who recently resigned. “I implore my academic and healthcare colleagues to speak out against the genocide.”

Mclaughlin added that she has been “profoundly horrified, heartbroken and enraged” to witness massacres and maiming of children in the Palestinian territories.

“We cannot and will not sever our care for one another, and as we care, we are sickened by this violence, and so we take this cause to heal and to address our own inflammation and to help one another,” Marya said. “This genocide is literally making all of us sick.”