On Thursday, Sept. 18, a press conference was held in front of the Pete V. Domenici United States Courthouse in light of the expired one-year deadline set by the United Nations General Assembly to enforce the International Court of Justice advisory opinion that declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories illegal.
During the press conference, New Mexico House Speaker Javier Martínez (D-Bernalillo) and emergency physician Clayton Dalton, who worked at a Gaza hospital in January, condemned Israel’s military actions.
The press conference was sponsored by the Southwest Coalition for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace Albuquerque and the New Mexico Alliance for Justice in Palestine.
“In Gaza and in the West Bank, where the whole world has been witnessing a humanitarian crisis that is not just heartbreaking, but it is a genocide,” Martínez said.
On Sept. 16, the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, established by the U.S.’ Human Rights Council, concluded that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip against Palestinians, issuing a report that calls for action from the international community to end the genocide and punish those responsible for it, according to the U.N. Israel rejected the report, calling it “distorted and false,” according to The Associated Press.
The U.S., for the sixth time, vetoed a U.N. resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, following a vote in the U.N. Security Council on the same day as the press conference, according to the U.N.
SWCP founder and activist Samia Assed, who was the primary organizer of the event, called for people to reach out to representatives, workplaces and religious institutions, to “support the efforts of the United Nations” she said.
“As a Palestinian, this was very empowering for me,” Assed told the Daily Lobo. “Time is of essence, the genocide is devastating, we don’t sleep, we don’t eat, we don’t know how to function; it seems very surreal, it feels like we’re in doomsday or an apocalypse.”
Dalton told the Daily Lobo that he ended up traveling to Gaza with a team of doctors during the ceasefire in January, where he worked at the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and saw the “consequences of the war.”
Dalton saw children with penetrating shrapnel wounds to the abdomen, infections from traumatic injuries, amputated limbs from “bombs exploding” and complications from open fractures from airstrikes, he said. People who needed medical care for illnesses like diabetes or kidney disease in Gaza couldn’t reliably access care and end up succumbing to illnesses that can “otherwise be taken care of,” Dalton said.
“Everything is touched by destruction,” Dalton said. “It’s really hard to imagine if you’ve never been in a place like that. But it would be as though every building around us right now in downtown Albuquerque was in various stages of destruction.”
Dalton said he felt “arbitrary, unearned privilege,” when returning home and that seeing the contrast after living in Gaza was “nauseating.”
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“It’s a very strange feeling to step into this hell and live there for a period of time with people who are just like you and me,” Dalton said. “They’re just people like us. They’re not terrorists. They’re just people living in an absolutely barren, ruined landscape.”
Leila Chapa is the social media editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at socialmedia@dailylobo.com or on X @lchapa06
Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on X @paloma_chapa88
Leila Chapa is the social media editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at socialmedia@dailylobo.com or on X @lchapa06
Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @paloma_chapa88
