Medicine is a humanistic profession, grounded in ethical values of justice, beneficence and the commitment to do no harm. It is a vocation of healing, of saving lives and of easing physical and emotional suffering. Being a doctor requires inner strength – the ability to see another’s pain, to feel it and to respond with empathy and compassion, alongside the knowledge and professionalism the role demands. I believe a physician also bears a critical responsibility in advocating for their patients’ right to health and in upholding the principle of justice. In that sense, every doctor is, to me, a leader.

I explored these ideas in a new Guardian documentary, The Oath. I tell my story as a Palestinian doctor living in Israel and working within its healthcare system. Made over the past year, the film portrays the struggles and challenges I have faced in that time. However, since I was first filmed in March 2024, the situation in Gaza, and the position we are in as doctors, has only worsened – day by day, hour by hour.

As a Palestinian doctor living and working in Israel, in the midst of a longstanding conflict, I learned during my studies and work that injustice has been done to many populations living here. The occupation and coercion that Israel exercises over the Palestinian population in the occupied territories and the policy of discrimination against the Palestinian minority living within Israel cause serious harm to the right to health of these populations. Control over territories, expulsion, dispossession, violence, restriction of movement, establishment of settlements and apartheid cause great suffering to the population, prevent access to medical care and directly........

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