The Faculty of Public Health (FPH) Universitas Indonesia (UI) held a Hybrid Dialogue as a direct practice for learning Leadership, Systems Thinking and Team Learning, in the Learning Organization and Systems Thinking (OPBS) class by responding and showing concern for the humanitarian tragedy in Palestine. The event which took place on Saturday, December 9, 2023 was attended by the PMI Central Management – Head of Health and Social Affairs, Sri Sajjana Prajna Wekadigunawan, DVM., M.P.H., Ph.D.; IMANI-CARE representative, Dr. Ahmad Jamaluddin M.Kes., and Chairman of the MER-C Presidium, dr. Sarbini A.M., as speaker. With the theme “Humanitarian Tragedy in Palestine and Threats to Fulfillment of Public Health: A Systems Thinking Approach”, FPH UI invites students to look at the humanitarian tragedy in Palestine and analyze it from a public health perspective.
PMI Central Management – Head of Health and Social Affairs, Sri Sajjana Prajna, delivered a topic related to the humanitarian voice that has been echoed through the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) humanitarian programs to respond to emergency situations. “Together we are grateful to Allah SWT, and we believe with positive hope that we are capable and there is still hope to achieve our goals. “Imagine the children of Gaza, Palestine today, the hope of continuing a quality education and getting the best nutrition may only be hidden in their dreams,” said Sri Sajjana. This is a tragic fact regarding the dangers faced by the community, health service workers and other stakeholders in Gaza, Palestine. In addition, it is important to optimize supplies and energy to operate hospitals, shelters, water, facilities, and meet increasingly scarce logistics needs. “As hostilities continue and increase in intensity, no place in Gaza is safe and every day there is a struggle for people to survive,” he added.
Gaza also often loses electricity, including in its hospitals, even though newborn babies should be in incubators and elderly patients need oxygen periodically. In the sanitation sector, water cannot be pumped or desalinated, so many families do not have access to clean drinking water. Through this opportunity, Sri Sajjana also openly said that the Indonesian Red Cross was opening health services and alerting ambulances during the Defending Palestine Action activities which were held at Silang Monas, Jakarta. PMI volunteers also distributed humanitarian donation flyers for the Gaza conflict to the participants present. PMI continues to open donations until December 31, 2023.
Chairman of the MER-C Presidium, dr. Sarbini A.M., conveyed more details regarding the conflict in Palestine. According to him, humanitarian conflict always creates strong inner turmoil, therefore we can synergize with each other wherever we are. In fact, the burden of this conflict is not only focused on Gaza but also on the West Bank which is experiencing extraordinary suffering. “However, for this part we cannot help more because de jure it is still under Israeli rule,” he said. It has been more than 2 months since there has been an extraordinary massacre in Gaza-Palestine. Therefore, MER-C always tries to make approaches to all parties so that this conflict stops immediately. According to Dr. Sarbini, there are 3 factors that can stop Israel’s attacks, namely demonstrations putting pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas’ attacks on Israel, and Joe Biden’s pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu.
On the other hand, many parties have the wrong view of this conflict. What needs to be known is that the conflict in Palestine is not a religious conflict, but rather genocide, colonialism, and a humanitarian conflict. “It is very unfortunate that there are children of the nation who still fly the Israeli flag, even though in the Constitution it is written that colonialism over the world must be abolished. The people in Gaza are brave people. “Keep moving because in reality we can’t help with more than logistics, food and medicine,” said Dr. Sarbini.
This idea was also strengthened by the presentation of the next resource person, namely Dr. Ahmad Jamaluddin M.Kes (IMANI-CARE) who specifically discussed the direct impact of this conflict on public health services in Gaza, Palestine. There were 212 attacks on health facilities, the operation of only 14 of the 36 hospitals in Gaza, 56 health facilities and 59 ambulances were affected. Not only that, Dr. Ahmad said that the bed occupancy rate in hospitals reached 171%, while in the ICU the occupancy rate reached 221%. This moment is certainly a valuable lesson that leads us to see the real context and at the same time clears the lens of our eyes to see the situation that is really occurring between Israel and Palestine today and 75 years earlier. There is always an opportunity to have an impact even though basically we feel that we have tried to liberate Palestine when in fact it is Palestine that is liberating our views.
Apart from discussions, FPH UI OPBS class students also presented an analysis of the humanitarian tragedy in Palestine regarding the fulfillment of public health through poster work. Lack of access to health services, high maternal and child mortality, the climate, water and food crisis, and mental health are some of the focus topics discussed in the student posters.
“God willing, everything in substance is positive support for humanity and focuses on the context of health is fundamental human rights. That this is part of the journey to realize health for all, leaving no one behind, no one left behind. In line with the SDGs, with the highest constitutional mandate of the country we love. So, the hope is that this activity is part of the process to produce humanist leaders,” said Prof. Dumilah Ayuningtyas explained the background to giving poster assignments to students. (DND)
