Understanding genocide through a public health lens: Perspectives from Gaza
Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm EDT | 6:00pm-7:30pm EEST
Location: Zoom – registration required
As a growing number of human rights organizations and United Nations experts have argued that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, join the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights to hear from a panel of experts who will explore the critical role of public health in understanding, documenting, and preventing genocide. We will also explore the potential of public health practitioners to inform mechanisms for accountability in Palestine/Israel.
Moderator:
Associate Professor of History | University of California, Santa Barbara
Sherene Seikaly, PhD
Sherene Seikaly is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Seikaly is the editor of the Arab Studies Journal, co-founder and co-editor of Jadaliyya e-zine, an editor of Journal of Palestine Studies, a policy member of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network, and an advisory member of R-Shief Online Archive Project. Seikaly’s Men of Capital: Scarcity and Economy in Mandate Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2016) explores how Palestinian capitalists and British colonial officials used economy to shape territory, nationalism, the home, and the body. She has published in academic journals such as International Journal of Middle East Studies and Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies as well as in online venues including Jadaliyya, Mada Masr, and 7iber.
Speakers:
Medical doctor
Abdulwhhab Abu Alamrain, MD
Abdulwhhab Abu Alamrain is a medical doctor and independent researcher from the Gaza Strip, Palestine. He is a recent graduate from the Faculty of Medicine at Al-Quds University. He volunteers at the orthopedic department in Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital during the genocide. His research interests lie at the intersection of biomedical imaging, regenerative medicine, and artificial intelligence. However, currently, he is focused on documenting the public health crisis unfolding around him in Gaza. He participated in the Palestine Social Medicine Course in August 2025.
Director of the Occupied Palestinian Territory Department | Physicians for Human Rights-Israel
Aseel Aburass, MA
Aseel Aburass is the Director of the Occupied Palestinian Territory Department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel and one of the authors of PHRI’s newest report: “Destruction of Conditions of Life: A Health Analysis of the Gaza Genocide.”
Executive Director | Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention
Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, PhD
Former Endowed Chair in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Keene State College, Keene, NH, USA and Dr. Marsha Raticoff Grossman Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Stockton University, NJ, USA. Expert in genocide, gender, prevention, and the history of colonialism. BA in History, Columbia University, New York City; MA, PhD in History, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Speaker remarks are based on their own scholarship and experience. As such, they speak for themselves, not for Harvard University.