Interim Head of World Health Organization to discuss crisis in Gaza Strip
Courtesy of UT's SJP
On Friday, Sept. 13 at 6 p.m. the interim head of the World Health Organization Office in the occupied Palestinian Territory will discuss occupation, siege and the health crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Dr. Mahmoud Daher will give his lecture in the University Center Shiloh Room. The event is sponsored by UT’s Students for Justice in Palestine.
“From this event, I hope that students will achieve higher awareness of the issues that Palestinians and Gazans face,” said Amira Sakalla, president of students for justice in Palestine. “It’s important to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a humanitarian scope and not just the political one.”
During Dr. Daher’s talk he will discuss the concern of the international community as a result of the blockade preventing sufficient health care and resources for the Palestinian people.
Sakalla thinks this event is a unique privilege for UT students.
“Students can hear from not only a World Health Organization representative, but from someone who can give a first-hand account of what happens inside the Gaza Strip,” Sakalla said.
Dr. Daher was born and raised in the Gaza Strip. He currently lives there with his wife and seven children. Sakalla believes that Dr. Daher’s experience with the subject will make the information more real.
“He is a native Gazan and has seen the health crisis with his own eyes, Sakalla said. “I want them to see the health crisis as an issue among people just like them with families just like theirs, rather than just a list of horrifying statistics.”
Edited by: Zach Dennis
Food aficionado, Jessica Carr, believes her passion for food first began while learning to cook Asian and southern cuisine with her mom. Now a senior journalism major at the University of Tennessee, Carr combines her love for writing and food by cultivating restaurant reviews through her blog. As newly appointed Editor-in-chief of the Tennessee Journalist, the official news website for UT's School of Journalism, Carr plans to build experience and one day be the editor of a food magazine. When she isn’t writing, she’s most likely in a theater enjoying the latest indie film.
