Palestinian American nurse fired for calling Israel's bloodbath in Gaza 'genocide'

A Palestinian American nurse has been fired from her position at a hospital in New York City following her description of Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide".

Hesen Jabr, who was working at the NYU Langone Health, a major New York hospital system, announced on Instagram that she received an award on May 7, and a termination letter later in the same month.

In her award acceptance speech arranged to recognize her efforts in supporting grieving the mothers who experienced pregnancy and childbirth loss, Jabr had drawn her connection with mothers who had experienced the loss of their babies “during the current genocide in Gaza”.

"It pains me to see the women from my country going through unimaginable losses themselves during the current genocide in Gaza," Jabr said in the video of her speech that she posted online. “This award is deeply personal to me for those reasons.”

“Even though I can’t hold their hands and comfort them as they grieve their unborn children and the children they have lost during this genocide, I hope to keep making them proud as I keep representing them here at NYU,” she added.

Upon returning to office on May 22, Jabr discovered that she had been dismissed from her duties at the hospital, with the hospital authorities claiming that she had “offended people” and “put others at risk” during her online speech.

“As soon as I walked into the unit, I was dragged into an impromptu meeting with the President and Vice President of Nursing at NYU Langone to discuss how I ‘put others at risk’ and ‘ruined the ceremony’ and ‘offended people’ because a small part of my speech was a tribute towards the grieving mothers in my country,” she wrote. 

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The hospital's representative has stated that Jabr had received a warning in December, advising her "not to bring her opinions on the controversial matter into the workplace, due to a previous incident".

"As a result, Jabr is no longer an NYU Langone employee."

According to the local health ministry, more than 36,200 individuals have lost their lives in Gaza due to the ongoing genocide being carried out by Israel over the past eight months, mostly women and children.

Despite pressure from the international community, the US and the West have failed to recognize Israel’s ongoing atrocities in Gaza as “genocide”.

Washington instead counts the use of “genocide” to describe Israeli actions as an act of anti-Semitism, which in turn enables the authorities to take legal action against anyone who criticizes Israel's horrors.

Previously, the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s committee members labeled peacefully protesting students across American universities as “violent” and characterized the students’ legitimate criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism.

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