A MIDWIFE has begun a five-day hunger strike outside the Scottish Parliament in solidarity with civilians going hungry in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.
Sharyn Lock, 49, has vivid memories of being out in Palestine during the Gaza War in 2008/09 when she accompanied fishermen and farmers who were shot at and sometimes killed by Israeli soldiers, before volunteering as an observer and first aider with Palestine Red Crescent – the partner organisation of the Red Cross.
She remembers being in the Al Quds Red Crescent hospital, along with 50 patients and hundreds of civilians taking shelter there, when it was attacked with Israeli tank shells and white phosphorous. She will never forget carrying injured people and children as they came under sniper fire trying to get to the hospital.
It is these painful memories that have led Lock to begin a five-day fast in the hope of not only raising awareness of the plight of innocent civilians, but to also call for an immediate ceasefire.
“When we look back on this, it’ll be one of those times when we are horrified we did nothing,” Lock told The National.
“I couldn’t go on doing nothing.
“I was talking about what I’d seen [in 2008/09] to my friends, trying to give them some context, I was contacting my friends in Palestine and offering support, but it didn’t feel like enough.
“We’ve seen ethnic cleansing before, we’ve seen horrific attacks that begin to fit the definition of genocide and now we look back and think, how did we let that happen?
“This felt like the least I could do. I wanted to speak up for people on both sides who are saying this is not what we want for our countries. I wanted to speak up for the midwives trying to give care with no clean water.
“There is a sanctity of life that has got to be protected, no matter what.”
Oxfam reports only 2% of normal food supplies have been allowed to arrive into Gaza since October 9, adding that starvation is being used as a weapon of war against Gaza civilians.
Lock, who is based in Kintyre, travelled for hours before settling outside of Holyrood where she has a series of cardboard signs next to her calling for a ceasefire and an end to the occupation of Palestine by Israeli forces.
She has also penned a section from the Geneva Convention for everyone to see, which charges all parties in a conflict with the protection of hospitals, medical vehicles and staff, and other citizens who protect the wounded.
By October 23, World Health Organisation (WHO) data reported 59 attacks on Gaza’s healthcare facilities, including damage to 26 hospitals and the killing of at least 16 health workers, while there are approximately 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza who have no access to care and no safe place to give birth.
Lock is horrified by this situation, along with the fact the Al Quds hospital where she worked is under repeated Israeli orders to evacuate immediately and bombardment is occurring all around it.
She added: “I’m glad the WHO has pointed out you cannot demand a hospital evacuate without putting everyone at much greater risk. You can’t just take people out and expect them to be alright.
“You should never ask a hospital to evacuate. The Geneva Convention states all parties to a conflict must protect the healthcare facilities and healthcare workers and civilians.
“I have friends in that hospital who are sheltering there with their six kids because their house was bombed. I’m really aware that part of what I saw [back then] was Israeli snipers firing on civilians as they tied to get to the hospital. I carried injured people and injured children from sniper fire.
“One of the strongest messages all leaders should be saying is not only ceasefire now but upholding the international laws that are unequivocal about protecting civilians and healthcare facilities. None of that should be up for debate.”
"Wasting time"
Both Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer have stopped short of calling for a ceasefire and have instead insisted on humanitarian pauses to allow aid into Gaza.
Their respective stances have not been popular, with dozens of MPs from across Westminster calling for a ceasefire, while Starmer has seen councillors and officials resign over his approach.
Lock said both of them were wasting time when there is no meaningful argument against a ceasefire.
She said: “The semantics is wasting everyone’s time. I think what they are at least paying lip service to is the idea that civilians should have access to food, water, some form of safety and the wounded should be able to be collected and treated, and that’s a ceasefire.
“We’re wasting time not asking for what, under international law, civilians have a right to as a matter of urgency. A ceasefire is what is needed right now and there is no meaningful argument against it.”
As well as making people understand the situation facing civilians in the Middle East, Lock says she wants to make people see that this conflict did not start on October 7.
Fifteen years ago, she was accompanying fisherman and farmers with bullets whizzing past everyone’s heads, and that wasn’t described as war. It was everyday life for people in Palestine.
She is keen to stress the only way we will ever get past the atrocities we are seeing now is by understanding the wider context.
“The secretary of the UN talked about the appalling Hamas attacks not happening in a vacuum,” Lock said.
“I was there for daily life so I’ve seen some of what the occupation looks like. When I was first there, I was accompanying fisherman and farmers who were shot at and often injured and sometimes killed by Israeli soldiers just as part of everyday life.
“To me, as a midwife, human life is extraordinary, both the tiny ones that arrive and the work done by their mothers to bring them into the world and it’s a horrifying concept to me that any of those lives should be taken.
“We can’t just talk of the war beginning on October 7. The way to get us beyond what is going on now is to understand the context by which all the people involved in the conflict have got to it.”
Correction: This story previously stated there were "approximately 500,000 pregnant women in Gaza". This should have read 50,000 and has now been corrected.
