Surviving Genocide: A Palestinian Doctor Speaks
Israel has continued to assault Gaza with bombs 13 months into a campaign. Most recently, in an Israeli air strike on a residential building in north Gaza. Donald Trump鈥檚 re-election in the United States has emboldened Israeli officials, who now speak openly of .
Palestinians are exhorting the world to act. Among them is Dr. Ahmed Abdeen, a 29-year-old aspiring neurosurgeon who graduated with top honors from Cairo鈥檚 Ain Shams University in 2022. Born in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, he was working in Gaza鈥檚 European Hospital when his medical training was cut short and he was evacuated from Gaza in early 2024.
His wife Reem Ahmed鈥檚 story of surviving 12 hours under rubble in October 2023 was in The Washington Post. Currently in Southern California seeking asylum while his family remains trapped in Gaza, Abdeen spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about the extensive trauma he and other surviving Palestinians are living with.
Sonali Kolhatkar
joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥 in her 2014聽聽of the same name.
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