García, Colleagues Issue Joint Statement Condemning Israel’s Persecution of Palestinian Healthcare Workers

CHICAGO - Congressman Jesús "Chuy" García (IL-04), along with Congressmembers Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Summer Lee (PA-12), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), and Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) released a joint statement condemning the Israeli government's systematic persecution of Palestinian healthcare workers, and called for their immediate release from arbitrary detention.

"Over the last three years, the Israeli government has systematically destroyed the health system in Palestine, murdering at least 1,700 Palestinian doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other healthcare workers and destroying dozens of hospitals. It has arrested and arbitrarily detained hundreds of Palestinian healthcare workers, including at least 16 physicians who continue to be held in inhumane conditions. Among them is Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, whom the Israeli government has arbitrarily detained since 2024 and tortured to the point of near-death after previously murdering his son and brutally attacking his hospital," said the Members.

"Israel's systematic annihilation of medical facilities and healthcare workers is not an accident or unfortunate consequence of war; it is an intentional policy designed to further occupation, apartheid, and genocide against the Palestinian people. We demand the immediate release of Dr. Abu Safiya and all other arbitrarily detained healthcare workers and Palestinian prisoners. And we demand an end to U.S. arms transfers to Israel, including the Trump Administration's latest $2.8 billion sale of bombs. Congress must block this sale and pass the Block the Bombs Act to finally end our government's shameful complicity in Israel's mass atrocities."

Congressman García also recently led a letter condemning the violence by Israeli settlers, police and military in the village of al-Mughayyir in the occupied West Bank, and called for the release of Marwan Barghouti who has been detained and tortured in Israeli prison for over 20 years.

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