Opinion: ‘Postponing’ Palestinian doctor’s talk was a missed opportunity at HCMC

Last month, a queer Palestinian doctor was slated to speak at HCMC about Palestinian history and the impact of what is happening in Palestine on health care and health care workers locally and globally. Unfortunately, we were censored and the event was abruptly and indefinitely “postponed.”

As a former executive chair of the Asian Collective at Hennepin Healthcare, I invited her to speak along with other members of our committee. The content was approved by the chief of the Health Equity Department, Nneka Sederstrom, who consulted with CEO Jennifer DeCubellis. Everything was completed and adhered to standard policy and guidelines.

Despite this, Sederstrom alleged that the event was “co-opted” for “activism,” concluded that hospitals are not supposed to be places of “advocacy,” and finally shared that the event was supposed to solely focus on “normalizing Palestinian culture.”

I want to be clear that Dr. Christine Harb was not invited to speak about “normalizing Palestinian culture,” rather she was invited to speak about the sanctity of Palestinian lives, public health, and health care workers. It is our obligation to, at the very least, talk about what is being done to our overseas counterparts.

This event was abruptly “postponed” and canceled for reasons which are suspect. Hennepin Healthcare has mandated that if Dr. Harb, or any other Palestinian guest lecturer, were invited back to speak that there would be new guidelines to censor their topics and PowerPoint presentations in order to maintain a sole focus on “cultural celebration.” This subjects her to discriminatory pre-approval processes and limits topics to a degree that no Palestinian or planning committee would agree to.

The Hennepin Healthcare equity department’s mission is to “partner with our entire community, internal and external … by actively eliminating barriers due to racism, or any other consequence of social position or socially influenced circumstances.” The department should lead that charge for everyone so affected, including Palestinians.

Anytime an administrator accuses an employee of bringing in their outside “activism,” watch out for hypocrisy. Every cutting-edge department, position, and innovative initiative is the result of activism. Hennepin Healthcare is a safety net hospital system, which means its entire existence is dependent on advocacy.

DEI departments across the country are the product of generations of civil rights activism. That is how inequities are remedied. Writer Octavia Butler said, “Belief initiates and guides action — or it does nothing.” There are two ways to respond to glaring injustices. Either you try to help — or you don’t.

As an occupational therapist who works in a mental health program at HCMC, most of the modalities we employ use this same formula: Find a value you hold dear and take small steps to live by it. Fighting for equity, human life, and freedom of speech is what leaders take risks to do. Health care leaders must do better at this painful moment.

The cutting edge of public health advocacy would be to demonstrate solidarity with hospitals and health care workers that are being systematically bombed and killed in Palestine. Call it DEI work, trauma-informed care, employee or patient wellness. Regardless, it takes conviction, conversation, and action to address inequality and stand up for what’s right. It takes problem-solving, discussions about harm, history, and the future.

These can be uncomfortable discussions at work. What is arguably more uncomfortable is knowing there is a clear double standard being applied. HCMC’s award-winning Compass Program discusses the genocide and colonization of indigenous Dakota and Anishinaabe people, which it should. Why is it not allowed when it comes to Palestinians?

By impeding honest discussion, HCMC is undermining improvements of the same social determinants of health we seek to better for our patients. Many employees and patients have families who have survived traumas and lost loved ones, in circumstances similar to those faced today by Palestinians. The connections are clear and the consequences of censorship are predictable. Bottle it up and the pressure comes out somewhere. If it’s not directly supported and guided, unprocessed emotions often come out sideways.

Speaking of coming out sideways, let’s talk about the “z-word,” Zionism head on, since that topic is likely why the event was canceled. Like it or not, you can’t talk about Palestine without addressing it. Asking a Palestinian doctor to not speak of Zionism during an educational or celebratory event, would be like asking for African American people celebrating Juneteenth to not talk about slavery. It cannot be done. Zionism is the ideology which justifies systemic violence against, and forced displacement of, Palestinians. It is the principal determinant of public health for Palestinians.

Free and open discussions of issues related to health care, both globally and locally, help make health care better for everyone, everywhere. If the targeting of Palestinian hospitals, emergency vehicles and health care workers goes unchallenged, we can be certain it will soon become the norm in other conflicts. Health care leaders should seek opportunities to help their workers talk about, process and respond to such weighted questions, not turn them down.

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