Dr Josie Shakur‘s speech at a Vigil for Gaza in Edinburgh on Saturday. Below we reproduce the new version of Paul Laverty’s poem Chalk, which the author read at the Vigil.

I’d like to focus on women’s health in Gaza. Over 7,000 women have been killed. There are 3,000 new widows. One million women and girls have been displaced. One-third of healthcare workers killed are women.

A UN report two weeks ago indicated that women and girls bare the highest burden in this conflict. 

Here are some of the issues. 

There are no available period products. It’s a bit taboo to mention and it may seem trivial in the big scheme of things but it’s a major health risk – physically and mentally. Lack of pads has increased the risk of disease – hepatitis B, urinary infections, genital infections and toxic shock syndrome. These are preventable and treatable but now potentially dangerous. Bisan Owda, a Palestinian filmmaker who has been bravely journaling the current situation in Gaza, refers to the  lack of period products  as the “new suffering”.

Contraceptive and other medications to stop periods are just not available. Women are making DIY pads – clothes, blankets, bits of tents. There is one toilet per 600 people in the most crowded shelters in Khan Younis. There is no sanitation, no privacy, no dignity. 

As regards pregnancy: right now, in Gaza 50,000 women are currently pregnant with little or no access to antenatal care. These services have been destroyed. Miscarriage rates have risen by 300% and stillbirths too. 40% of pregnancies in Gaza are now high risk.

Some 15% of births are premature. What’s the outcome if there are no incubators or paediatric specialist services? These babies will not survive. 

Operating rooms designed for 30 to 40 women a day now see 300 to 400 cases per day. Women in Gaza right now will be undergoing caesarean section – in the dark, with no anaesthetic and discharged within 3 hours as there is no space for them in the hospital. There is a risk of sepsis if wounds become infected.

Childbirth for the majority of women takes place in dirty tents with no water, or amongst the rubble. Maternal mortality and infant mortality continue to increase.

There is a major issue of malnutrition and starvation: 93% people in Gaza have no food.  It’s well documented that women in conflict situations make fooda low priority.The phrase “Women eat last; children die first” is spine-chilling, but sadly it’s the reality. 

If you are stressed, malnourished or dehydrated and can’t breast feed, there is no infant formula milk in Gaza – no milk for the 180 babies born daily. 

The psychological impact of this genocide on women is huge. There is a constant threat of death to them and their children. 17,000 children are now separated from their mothers. This is traumatic – as is writing their children’s names on their limbs to identify them post-death. The pain is unimaginable.

Women also face the risk of intimidation, physical and sexual assault. 

They are also the main caregivers for the elderly, frail and disabled, limiting their movement in dangerous situations.  

We started this vigil at 1130. By 1230, three more women have been killed in Gaza. 

We need a ceasefire to end this tsunami of man-made torture. Enough is enough! 

The daughters, the sisters, the mothers, the aunts, the medics, the journalists, the artists – all Palestinians need to be in control of their destiny and we must help to facilitate this. Keep protesting. Keep donating. Keep talking about Palestine.

Paul Laverty also read his poem Chalk at the Vigil. We publish his new version below.

CHALK

Chalk.

Have you given it a thought since you left school?

Chalk is soft

part composed of tiny fragments

of calcite shells and skeletons of plankton.

Easily pulverised.

It washes off with the rain.

Does it wash away with tears?

Children are soft

part bone, (protein, collagen, minerals especially calcium)

Easily pulverised.

Gaza as a snow-globe,

the World stares in.

Every flake a shrapnel piece

tiny dots inside

scramble over new formed piles

like ants on a hill.

Do you feel that pang in the pit of your gut

each morning as the screen lights up,

and the numbers mount?

Do you go to bed and do not sleep

because all you see in the pitch

are twisted limbs under rubble

split parched lips oozing choked wails

a slow death you would not wish on a dog?

Do you feel a fury that makes your body shake

your soul scream out

your brain boil hotter

than US made phosphorous weapons

as Biden, Sunak, Starmer and their ilk

call for “more precision”

as they drop Bunker Busting Bombs on Gaza,

6,300 souls per square kilometre

forty seven per cent children?

Children are soft.

Easily pulverised.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Do you sit in your kitchen

and wonder who you are

what to do

as the United Nations charter, the Geneva convention

are shredded

by the suited colluders of Death

who defecate on dignity.

Does the black hole of near despair

sap your strength and make you want to hide?

“A fat lot of good

that’s going to do”

We hear the Gazan kids decry.

Remember childhood.

Pick up a piece of chalk.

Simple, physical.

Not digital, not a tweet,

Not a blog.

Flesh on chalk.

It fits in your pocket, down a sock,

in your purse,

take it on a walk.

Walk the chalk……

Feel mind and body connect

as you hold it in your hand

What does that breeze carry?

Faint whispers from under rocks.

What would Gazan children say to us,

if they had that piece of chalk?

Turn our street into a blackboard

Write it up by bus stop, on a pavement, on a wall.

On a wall…..

“Cuevas de las Manos”

“Cave of the Hands”, Patagonia,

13,000 years ago

children drew their hands on walls.

A thousand children in Gaza now

have lost a limb

Draw chalky hands on walls for them,

outlines that say it all.

A little piece of chalk

in a hundred tongues

a million hands

up against their lies and bombs

a chalky trail of conscience

“No, not in our Name!”

to bring the murderers down.

One day, Child Killers, you will stand in the dock.

Remember the haughty grins of Argentine Torture Generals

in their prime?

Ended up in cuffs, at last.

It takes its time, The Justice Clock

but it ticks on as you turn grey.

Failing which

on your deathbed, on your last breath

you won’t escape the gaze of the Gaza kids

whose childhood you betrayed.

Ashes to ashes, dust to chalk.

Chalk.

Dr Josie Shakur is a Glasgow GP. Paul Laverty is a screenwriter and lawyer best known for his screenplays for films directed by Ken Loach, including Carla’s Song, My Name is Joe, Bread and Roses, Sweet Sixteen, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Looking for Eric,, Route Irish, I, Daniel Blake, and most recently The Old Oak.

Image: Ceasefire demonstration in London, February 3rd, c/o Labour Hub.