Exposed: How U.S. Hospitals Are Cracking Down on Gaza Solidarity
A nationwide pattern of retaliation and censorship is targeting health care workers who speak out for their colleagues in Gaza.
Peace Economy Project | November 2025
Source reporting: Marianne Dhenin, Truthout (November 17, 2025)
Across the United States, health care workers who have tried to speak out about the genocide in Gaza are facing an alarming pattern of censorship, retaliation, and harassment. Their stories illuminate a dangerous truth: our medical institutions — the places we rely on for healing — are increasingly becoming sites of political suppression.
As Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians since 2023, health care systems across the U.S. have systematically shut down conversations about the crisis, restricted educational programming, and disciplined employees whose only “offense” was advocating for human rights. Instead of supporting medical professionals calling attention to the destruction of Gaza’s health system and the targeting of their peers abroad, many institutions have aligned themselves with political pressure and donor influence.
These patterns — documented in reporting by Truthout and echoed by health care workers across the country — reveal a profession at an ethical crossroads.
Witnessing Genocide, Then Being Punished for Naming It
According to detailed reporting by journalist Marianne Dhenin for Truthout, several U.S. physicians who served in Gaza in early 2024 returned home expecting support, but instead encountered state-aligned harassment and employer intimidation. Many suffered coordinated doxxing campaigns after publicly discussing the deaths of Palestinian medical staff and the targeting of hospitals.
These attacks reflected a broader trend: across at least eight states, health care workers described being disciplined, silenced, or surveilled for Palestine-related speech — including educational talks, human rights statements, or even wearing a keffiyeh.
For Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Black health care workers, these consequences were often harsher and more immediate, deepening long-standing inequities in the medical field.
A Crisis of Anti-Palestinian Racism in Medicine
A 2024 survey by the Institute for the Understanding of Anti-Palestinian Racism found that more than half of health care workers advocating for Palestinian human rights had experienced harassment, silencing, or exclusion. Many of the experiences described in Dhenin’s reporting reflect these findings.
This racism manifests in multiple ways:
1. Censorship of Educational Events
Medical schools and hospitals quickly blocked discussions on Gaza, even when they regularly held events on other global conflicts or human rights crises.
2. Selective Policing of Conduct and Speech
Workers were subjected to special oversight — required to submit slides for approval, forbidden from holding moments of silence, or told they could not use campus spaces for discussions related to Palestine.
3. Disproportionate Targeting of Women of Color
Several cases involved the termination or suspension of women of color whose critiques of state violence were mischaracterized as misconduct.
4. Administrative Indifference to Islamophobia and Racism
Reports of anti-Palestinian or anti-Muslim incidents were ignored, while even minor or external complaints about Palestine-related speech received swift institutional escalation.
The result is a culture of fear where health care workers — particularly those from marginalized communities — feel unsafe speaking about global health, human rights, or even their own lived experiences.
Outside Pressure, Inside Compliance
The Truthout investigation also highlights the influence of:
- Pro-Israel advocacy groups
- Right-wing organizations
- Donors connected to weapons contractors
- Federal political pressure, including congressional investigations
Many of these groups have launched smear campaigns, coordinated mass-email complaints, or pressured institutions to discipline employees whose speech counters official narratives about Gaza.
Administrations have often responded more quickly to these external forces than to the safety and well-being of their own staff.
This dynamic reflects a troubling reality: U.S. medical institutions are deeply entangled with the military-industrial complex, with board members and donors tied to companies that supply weapons used in Gaza. These connections influence institutional decision-making far beyond what most patients — or employees — realize.
The Ethical Costs of Silencing Medical Witnesses
The medical oath compels practitioners to protect life and speak truth about suffering — not selectively, but universally. Punishing those who uphold these values fundamentally erodes the integrity of the profession.
Impacts on patients:
Censorship undermines culturally competent care and further alienates communities already facing medical racism.
Impacts on public health:
When medical systems refuse to acknowledge mass casualties or targeted attacks on foreign medical workers, they fail the global health standards they claim to champion.
Impacts on democracy:
Allowing politically motivated suppression of speech sets a precedent that endangers all forms of dissent.
As one physician interviewed by Truthout put it:
“If we can’t speak up for the sanctity of life everywhere, then our profession is broken.”
Why Peace Economy Project Is Speaking Out
The Peace Economy Project opposes all forms of militarism — including the silencing of those who bear witness to its harms. The repression facing health care workers today is part of a broader system that protects war, undermines accountability, and punishes solidarity.
We call on health institutions to:
- End censorship of Palestine-related speech
- Protect workers from harassment campaigns
- Ensure transparency around donor and board affiliations
- Uphold academic freedom and trauma-informed global health education
- Defend the rights of workers to speak about human rights violations
Health care cannot be separated from human rights. There is no ethics of care in which some lives are mourned publicly and others only in whispers.
Source Citation
Source reporting:
Marianne Dhenin, “Health Care Workers Spoke Out for Their Peers in Gaza. Then Came Backlash,” Truthout, November 17, 2025.
https://truthout.org
