He Says 100+ Family Members in Gaza Have Been Killed

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The trauma of what is happening right now in Gaza is deeply personal for the Palestinian American cardiologist Tariq Haddad. He says he’s lost more than 100 members of his extended family. And for this reason, he turned down an invitation from Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss the administration’s response, as he tells Michel Martin, and it is a hard conversation to hear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHEL MARTIN, CONTRIBUTOR: Thanks, Christiane. Dr. Haddad, thank you so much for speaking with us.

DR. TARIQ HADDAD, PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN ADVOCATE AND CARDIOLOGIST: Happy to. Thank you for having me.

MARTIN: If you would, tell me about your family in Gaza. If you would just start with before the events of October 7th. Just tell me about your family in Gaza.

HADDAD: Both sides of my family have been there for generations. My grandmother was actually the headmaster of the United Nations schools back in the late ’60s and ’70s. And, you know, was an educator. And, you know, it was incredibly beautiful memories, but also a lot of painful memories of being under military occupation. When her students would tell her — would ask her where her — their parents’ homes are from, like what is Haifa like? What is Jaffa like? Because everybody in Gaza is essentially a refugee from what’s Israel proper. And, you know, she’d get beaten for telling — by soldiers for telling the children where their parents were from. It was — you know, the memories I have were — are similar. They’re the memories that any Palestinian has lived under occupation would have limited water. I learned very quickly that you don’t take a long shower when you live in Gaza, because your grandmother is not going to be happy with you because she won’t have enough water to do the laundry or to do the cooking. That was just — you know, that was life under occupation where you have unlimited — unequal access to water. Electricity was limited. Just lots of violence that we have to be incurring. As a 13-year-old in 1987. I was playing chess in the street and, you know, Israeli soldiers came in the street. They grabbed my cousin. They broke his arm and leg. They started shooting rubber bullets at us. I managed to escape and hid in a chicken coop all day in my neighbor’s house. That was just — that’s life under military occupation, unfortunately.

MARTIN: Do you remember what went through your mind on October 7th when you saw what was happening? Do you remember how you processed what was happening?

HADDAD: I think I — as a physician, as a human being, I processed it from a position of empathy, because that’s where I come from. That’s how I grew up. And I felt very sad, you know, because the innocent — the death of any innocent civilian, regardless of their background, is sad. And I put myself in the shoes of somebody who’s suffering, who’s had somebody, you know, killed or — you know, or in any way tortured and it was a terrible thing. I also knew what would probably be coming because Palestinians have had to deal with violence for decades, as I kind of gave you a bit of a flavor of, and I knew that violence would just get accelerated.

MARTIN: You knew that — you assumed that there would be an aggressive military response. I guess I’m wondering if you thought it would be what it has become.

HADDAD: I did have some idea because my own family, other than the stories I told you, when my youngest son was born in 2014, you know, we lost 14 members of our family from, you know, several Israeli missile strikes. Most of them children under the age of 15. So, I knew what was probably coming. I did not have any idea it would be to this extent.

MARTIN: As we are speaking now, may I ask how your own family, your own extended family in Gaza has been affected by these events?

HADDAD: Michel, it’s been, you know, probably the worst four months of our life as a family. You know, we’ve lost over 100 family members. They’ve all been killed in one way, shape, or form by the Israeli military strikes. The suffering is even worse than the death back in — on October 25th in Khan Younis. You know, one of my — several of my cousins, Jamal Al Farah, his son, who is a physician, Tawfiq Al Farah. Dr. Tawfiq’s pregnant wife, Dana, who was also killed. Their two beautiful daughters, Reem and Hala, were killed. Jamad’s brother, Assam. And his — and her — his wife, Samad, were also killed. Their three of their daughters, Rasul, Tukha, and Nadian, were all killed. Tukha, one of the daughters, in her early 20s, it was her wedding day, the day she got killed. This was all one large family all killed in one military strike. Another day, a couple days later my cousins, Hatim and Aziz Al Farra also got killed. One of — you know, Hatim was a pharmacist. Aziz was a community figure who helped everybody. Sixteen members of their family, including seven of their children, all were killed. There was only one child, Hamza, out of this entire, you know, multigenerational family that survived initially. He survived with an amputation. He woke up in the hospital to find out his father, his uncle, all his siblings had all died. And then, he himself died the next day because of the trauma injuries, because of the humanitarian crisis affected the hospitals, the bombings of the hospitals. And they couldn’t save him. And so, you know, a couple, you know, days after that, November 2nd, on my dad’s side of the family, and Hani, my cousin, who I remember even from when I was a child, survived with a minor leg injury. Any physician would recognize it as something that’s easily treatable, and yet, the next day he bled to death because he didn’t have access to any medical facilities because everything in that part of Gaza from a hospital standpoint had been destroyed. And his brother, Lani (ph), my other cousin, he survived, but he had to witness his own mother with half her body buried under the rubble and his sister shredded into multiple pieces. My other surviving cousin, Natin (ph), had to bury all of them in the backyard because there’s no access to a cemetery.

MARTIN: So, it’s 100 — at this point, as we are speaking now, you understand that 100 of your own family members have died or been killed, have been killed directly in strikes or have died as a consequence of an inability to get adequate medical care or adequate shelter, et cetera.

HADDAD: Yes.

MARTIN: Is that what we understand?

HADDAD: I mean, it’s the stories. I mean, just to give your listeners an idea of what we have to go through. Every single day, I have to check and see who’s alive and who’s dead and who’s suffering. Just a few weeks ago, you know, a baby in our family, Salma al-Farra (ph), who’s 20 days old, he died from hypothermia. And this after nine of his siblings and his father had been had been killed by the Israeli missile strikes a few weeks before. I mean, the stories go on and on in terms of — like you said, access to medical facilities, four of my family members were killed while they’re trying to go to the Gaza-European hospital for shelter. They were in their car about to park in the Gaza-European Hospital, and then they got — they were hit with a missile military strike that killed all of them.

MARTIN: One of the reasons that we found you, and you graciously agreed to speak with us, is that a couple of weeks ago, the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, invited you and some other members of the Palestinian- American community to meet with him, to meet with you, to talk about, you know, the obvious. And you declined to meet with him. You wrote a piece about it for a news site, “Mondoweiss,” which is dedicated to covering these issues. But I just wanted to know when the invitation arose, like what went through your mind?

HADDAD: As I’m seeing every single day, my family die day after day. As I’m seeing the suffering, as I’m seeing the hunger, the lack of medical care, the destruction of all the homes, the civilian lack — of loss of life. And I’m seeing direct actions that our government is doing to aid this genocide. I mean, I’m seeing — and that’s what was going through my head. I’m seeing, you know, the horrors of nobody in our government even being able to ask — simply ask for a ceasefire, to stop the killing of innocent civilians, you know, that went through my head. Not only that, but, you know, we are actually releasing military supplies from our military reserve to aid in this genocide, in this killing of innocent civilians. And on top of that, just a few days before I got this invitation finding out that the humanitarian aid through the U.N. Relief and Work Agency was withdrawn by the United States. And I’m thinking about all this stuff, and then I’m asking myself, you know, how, in the love of God, am I supposed to meet with one of the people I feel is directly responsible for the death of my family and the children who have been killed in Gaza, knowing these active — these actions that he has undertaken, on top of the $14 billion that just got approved to continue this military assault, how am I supposed to meet with him knowing all of his actions that he’s undertaken and the government’s undertaken are actively killing and causing the suffering of my family?

MARTIN: To tell him yourself?

HADDAD: I couldn’t bring myself to meet with him, Michel, because I want your listeners to just put your — put themselves in my shoes. I’ve had 100 family members day by day getting killed, telling me how much they’re suffering. How am I supposed to tell that to him in person, you know, knowing all the actions he’s undertaken? I just thought it was a slap in the face. I thought with all the actions, I thought it was political grandstanding that, you know, this just a way to show that they’re — that the administration is listening to all sides. Meanwhile, they’re — with one side of their face, they’re meeting, and then on the other side they’re actively taking on policies that are killing our family. And, you know, so I just thought it was political grandstanding, and I wasn’t going to be part of political grandstanding. I’m a —

MARTIN: Well, forgive me, there are others who might see it the other way, that the decision not to meet was grandstanding, because you represent folks who do not have access to the secretary of state, and that you chose not to take advantage of it. So, for those who might feel that way, what would you say?

HADDAD: So, my response is, I — what I wanted to do is make sure he knew what his actions were doing to our family. So, the way the way I did that was to write a letter to him, a 12-page letter where I very, in a lot of detail, explained everything about my family, what my family has gone through, what his actions specifically have caused, you know, in terms of suffering to our family. So, I did open the line of communication and I was — and I gave that — I gave him that information and I had it printed and given to him and read to him at the at this meeting. So, I felt like I accomplished the task of educating him in the way that I felt should — he needed to hear. But without the grandstanding.

MARTIN: Would you mind sharing a little bit of it with us here?

HADDAD: Sure. So, this a portion of my letter that I told him. So, I said, the more I thought about this meeting, the more I could not emotionally bring myself to look you in the eyes, Secretary Blinken, knowing you and President Biden have knowingly contributed to the suffering and murder of so many of my family, the homelessness and dispossession of 2 million Gazans and the famine that’s befallen my remaining family members. I’d like you to put yourself in my shoes, Secretary Blinken, as I’m aware, you have a young child from comments you’ve made to friends of mine. How does one meet for what I was told to be would be three minutes with the person you hold responsible for not just the killing of your child, but rather the murder of over 80 of your family members? How do I say in three minutes to someone who will forever in history be known for actively aiding and abetting one of the worst genocides in a century what that person’s actions have done my family’s suffering, and that of my people? How do I look a person in the eyes for three minutes who not only could have prevented the death of my 85 family members and nearly 15,000 children in Gaza who have been killed, but actively contributed to their suffering and death by providing military ammunitions from our U.S. military supply to kill my family and destroy their homes? I ask you to put yourself in my shoes and ask yourself as a human being, Secretary Blinken, would you be able to meet and speak to the person primarily responsible for the most suffering and death your family has gone through for centuries and convey that in three minutes? That’s just a portion of my letter. Sorry if I got emotional. It was just hard to —

MARTIN: No, no. I am mindful when I say that my own words will not be very meaningful, but I do want to say I’m so sorry for what you have experienced and what your family’s going through.

HADDAD: I think the thing that gets lost too is — and I think this what makes it really hard, Michel, is it’s very hard every day as a Palestinian seeing the incredible dehumanization that happens to these people.

MARTIN: You feel like people are viewed as like numbers and not people? Say more about what you mean.

HADDAD: Yes. I think people see us as statistics. And they don’t realize – – I mean, you know, some of the stories I just told you, these are physicians, these are, you know, pharmacists. These are — you know, one of my family members who got killed, got killed on her day of her PhD, that she was about to get her PhD. You know, children, you know, people who are wonderful human beings. You know, and none of them — I didn’t say this, but it should go without saying, I know all my family members, not a single one of them have any political affiliation. They have no connection with anything. They didn’t deserve any of this. They are all civilians.

MARTIN: What specifically do you want the U.S. to do at this point?

HADDAD: I would love to see a ceasefire so that these poor civilians can just be safe, just temporarily. I think — you know, I think we have literally I’ve been telling them to move from Northern Gaza to Southern Gaza to Khan Yunis, which is south of there, to Rafah. And now, there’s more than a million people who are literally homeless and sitting in tents. And now, we’re telling them they’re going to be bombed there. I would love for our administration to call for a ceasefire. Obviously, there needs to be humanitarian assistance. Nearly every home has been destroyed. They need to, you know, rebuild all this — all the incredible loss of life and infrastructure there. Nearly every hospital is destroyed and not functional. You know, my family’s telling me that 13 families are in one tiny shelter building in Rafah. 13 families just in one little tent or area. There’s not even a space for anybody to pitch a tent.

MARTIN: It is a fact that as we are speaking now, there are governments around the world, including western governments, traditional allies of the United States and traditional allies of Israel that have escalated their criticisms, have said that the military campaign as it’s currently being waged is — has crossed the boundaries of acceptability. Is there anything about that that gives you hope that relief will be coming?

HADDAD: I hope so. I mean, the problem is that, you know, it’s — you know, these are band aids, right? You have to stop these military attacks. I mean, this collective punishment of two and a half million people. When in history has that ever been OK, to attack a population of two and a half million people because you have a political objective?

MARTIN: This may seem inconsequential in contrast to everything that you’re talking about. But this an election year, and many people will — it looks very likely that the choice will be between President Biden, with whom you’re very deeply angry, and the prior president, Donald Trump. I understand it may not be foremost in your mind, but I — but I’m just wondering, what do you do in a situation like that, where those seem to be the choices?

HADDAD: It’s a really difficult, you know, situation to be in. I think I speak for most Palestinians when I say we’re Palestinian-Americans are — an Arab-Americans in general are, frankly, just sick and tired of being taken for granted, for our voices being taken for granted. And I cannot — in good conscience, as a physician, as somebody who cares about human rights, there is no — nothing that would make me vote for an administration that personally is responsible for the suffering of this many people.

MARTIN: So, even though the former president and his negotiators made steps that seemed openly provocative and destructive of the potential for a two-state solution, like moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, et cetera, et cetera, you still feel that that might yield better results in the long run? Or is it more about punishing President Biden?

HADDAD: I think long-term, if people look back and say this election was a time where, you know, our leaders finally realized that they can’t — they cannot just continue to walk and trample on human rights of Palestinians because there are consequences, then so be it.

MARTIN: Even if the consequence is another term of President Trump?

HADDAD: Even if the consequence is another term of President Trump.

MARTIN: Well, Dr. Haddad, I appreciate your speaking with us at this deeply painful moment. I just want to say, I thank you for speaking with us.

HADDAD: Thank you, Michel. I really appreciate you having me on and having me share the stories of my family. So, thank you.

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AMANPOUR: Heart wrenching. And we’ve reached out to the U.S. State Department and to the IDF for comment, and we hope to follow up with them both on air at a later date.