De-Healthification: Israel's Engineered Collapse of Palestinian Life

De-Healthification: Israel’s Engineered Collapse of Palestinian Life

Layth Malhis proposes “de-healthification” as a framework for understanding how Israeli control has steadily weakened Palestinian health care, ending in the near-total collapse of Gaza’s health system. The collapse, he argues, is not a side effect of wartime fighting but the product of decades of occupation, blockade and structural neglect. Because intent is more often revealed through patterns of destruction than through official statements, naming the process is a precondition for accountability.

The brief traces the process through distinct phases: neglect after 1967, visible in low bed counts and doctor-to-population ratios; violence against patients and health workers during the First Intifada; the Oslo-era permit regime that delayed or denied medical referrals; the fuel and supply restrictions of the blockade since 2007; and the current war’s attacks on hospitals and medical staff. Malhis draws on data from medical organisations, UN agencies and human rights groups throughout.

He calls on international bodies to recognise de-healthification as a crime and to assess violations over long time spans rather than incident by incident. Recovery, he argues, must be Palestinian-led and must end Israeli control over borders, fuel, supplies and permits, supported by a Palestinian-led research platform on health under occupation and stronger legal protection for medical facilities.

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