American Doctor (2026) Movie Script
1
[voices shouting]
[all shouting in Arabic]
[solemn music playing]
[dog whimpers]
[Perlmutter] Did you want
to see the photographs?
[Amy] Yeah.
So, during a mass
casualty event,
uh, the patients were
easily divided
into ones that were put in
the ambulance that would live.
Um...
those that were alive
when they were...
All patients who were put
in the ambulance were alive.
And this first photograph
typifies the first round of kids
that you would quickly,
functionally eliminate
from evaluation and...
[Amy] I, I, yeah.
I feel like I'm gonna end up
blurring it or not using it.
Why? That's the problem.
-Well...
-No, that's the problem.
Okay, let's shoot it.
-Yeah.
-Let's shoot it.
I mean, that shouldn't be...
Who are you offending?
I don't know. I want
to protect the dignity of...
-Of who?
-...these children.
No, I got permission
from everyone
of their survivors
to put these pictures up.
-All right.
-Right?
You're not, uh, um,
-Israel took away their dignity.
-Okay.
You're not dignifying them
unless you let their memory...
Their bodies tell the story
of this trauma,
of this genocide.
You're not doing them a service
by not showing that.
This is what my tax dollars did.
That's what
your tax dollars did.
That's what
my neighbor's tax dollars did.
They have the right
to know the truth.
You have the responsibility
as I do to tell the truth.
You pixelate this,
that's journalistic malpractice.
-Can we film it?
-[Perlmutter] Yeah.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter 1] Well, this spring,
American doctors
made the treacherous journey
into Gaza
to try and offer their services
in this desperate situation.
But what they found was far
worse than they had expected.
[Perlmutter]
What surprised me most
was how the carnage
that was induced
really focused on children,
healthcare workers,
and journalists.
That's quite an extreme
allegation to make,
that these civilians were
indeed targeted.
And, of course,
CNN cannot independently verify
any of these allegations
that you've just made.
[reporter 2]
You penned an article
in The New York Times titled,
"65 Doctors and Nurses:
What We Saw In Gaza."
What did you witness?
[Sidhwa] How can it possibly be,
that in every hospital
in the Gaza Strip,
internationals
have seen children
shot in the head on a regular,
if not, like in my case,
a daily basis.
It's hard to believe
that that's not intentional
on the part of the people
doing the shooting.
[reporter 3]
If you can give us the latest.
What has the American
Medical Association said?
[Ahmad] Nothing.
And if you try
to broach the subject,
what we're being told is that
this is a very
politically charged
and polarizing topic.
I reject that.
We're just asking
that hospitals
not be targeted,
that they not be bombed.
Hospitals need to be
protected and functioning.
Why that sort of conversation
is derailed
in the United States
is beyond me.
But it's something
that's no longer acceptable.
[dramatic music continues]
[car horn honking]
[indistinct chatter]
You are welcome.
Oh, hi, how are you?
-Fine, thank you.
-How are you?
Be safe at home, okay?
-Thank you.
-Thank you.
No, no, I'm happy to help.
Very happy to help.
[speaking Arabic]
-See you soon.
-[in English] Thank you.
-Bye-bye.
-Bye. Have a nice day.
[in Arabic]
-[monitors beeping]
-[low chatter]
[Sidhwa in English] Thank you.
[in Arabic]
[in English]
[nurse in Arabic]
[doctor in Arabic]
[Sidhwa] I think
the microwave is broken, yeah?
-[woman] Yeah.
-[Sidhwa] Yeah.
[Sidhwa] Yeah.
Ah. Pus.
Ah-ha.
Uh-huh.
[doctor] This is
the source of...
[Sidhwa] Yeah, very likely.
Oh, this is very... Oh wow.
Oh. Put your finger right where
my middle finger is,
it's right there.
-It's a very large hole.
-[doctor] Oh, yeah.
[Sidhwa] Yeah.
I think we can put
a drain inside.
It's a very big hole.
[in Arabic]
Dr. Feroze.
[in English] Very good job.
Difficult case, huh?
Very difficult case.
You know, in the United States,
we have...
Even in West Bank, you know,
we have a different type
of drainage system,
different types of sutures,
nutritional support.
All these simple things
that we don't have here,
so this man, if he survives,
it's only because of God,
not because of what we did.
-How are you?
-Fine.
[man]
[Sidhwa] No, it's...
This war has been insane.
When we drove north
through Rafah just a little bit,
and it was like, oh my God.
Just nothing, yeah.
And my government
is so powerful,
it can give them so much
explosives, so much weapons.
[Alsabe]
No, I know, but United States
is the biggest one.
[Alsabe]
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
[Sidhwa] I've always come at
the Israel-Palestine conflict
from the standpoint
of an American.
I'm not Israeli,
I'm not Palestinian,
I'm not Jewish, I'm not Muslim,
I'm not Christian.
I don't really have
any connection to it.
But the U.S.
is so heavily involved
that I've just stayed
involved with it.
Hey, Dad.
Good, what are you up to?
No, everything's good here.
Where we are is fine.
You know, you can imagine
the amount of destruction
that's been done to the city
is really amazing, but the...
The Israelis, you know,
they've...
They're at least not attacking
the city right now...
Every day or so
they're shooting people
in the very far south
and the very far north.
But thankfully not where I am.
I hope the ceasefire continues
and things keep improving, too.
[soft music playing]
Are you guys still
on the cruise, or no?
Panama was pretty?
[pastoral music playing]
[computerized voice]
Welcome to MASCON.
Please proceed
through the machines
one person at a time.
For your safety,
it is prohibited
to bring the following items...
[indistinct talking]
All right, what up?
What up, G? How are you?
Good to see you.
Where's Lou's booth?
Oh.
-Wow.
-We got the keffiyeh.
Because we're
a Palestinian brand,
we got the keffiyeh on the back.
[Ahmad] Oh wow, that's dope.
We got the bracelet.
[Ahmad] Yo, that's amazing, man.
[woman] Take this
for the family.
-[Ahmad] What's this?
-It's a mixing kit.
-We bottled the sauce, finally.
-[Ahmad] Oh my God.
That's amazing.
I wanna pay for all of this.
[in Arabic]
[in English] I do,
I want to support you guys.
-[man]
-[woman] Can we get a picture?
[Ahmad] Thank you, thank you,
guys. Appreciate y'all.
So, you know, I am Falastini.
I'm Palestinian.
Over a year ago,
January was my sixth time
that I had been to Gaza.
One time, I went
during the war on Gaza,
and twice I've been rejected.
And I want to just take you
through what it looks like
when a hospital
gets targeted and attacked.
Because this has
become a pattern
when it comes
to the Israeli military.
This has become a behavior
that they started
in October of 2023,
when they struck
Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
And when that happened
and that there was
no accountability,
we saw that this became
a series of events
that attacked every hospital.
Because the next hospital
was Shifa.
Al-Awda.
[men shouting in Arabic]
[Ahmad] Al-Aqsa.
[angry shouting]
[shrieks]
[Ahmad] When I went in January,
I went to Nasser Hospital.
I'm in front
of Nasser Hospital here.
It's about 9:00 a.m.
in the morning.
It's after a long night
of bombings.
We are trying to figure out
how many casualties
were from the night.
Many people will arrive today
because it was too dangerous
to transport them
and cases that probably
could've been saved.
[overlapping chatter]
As you're getting waves
and waves of patients,
you're struggling.
Who do you prioritize?
Who do you evaluate?
What do you have to be able
to treat them?
We got not pain medicine
to be able to give to people
whose legs have been blown off
or their arms
have been blown off.
[monitors beeping]
The hospital's
totally overwhelmed.
Patients are everywhere.
People keep coming in, and so...
And I remember
foolishly sitting in the ICU,
talking to the ICU doctor.
And I said, "I don't think
they're going to attack Nasser.
I mean, the World Health
Organization sent us here.
They told U.S. doctors
and international doctors.
They know that we're here.
They're not going
to attack Nasser."
And he looked at me, he said,
"What makes you think that
Nasser is any different
than Shifa?
Or any different than Al-Ahli?
Any different than Al-Awda?
Or any different than Indonesia?
And he just listed off
all the hospitals."
He said, "They're coming here."
[machine-gun fire]
[angry shouting]
[woman screaming]
When they hit a hospital,
it's not just that incident
that you feel that tragedy.
That's a deep tragedy that
people will feel
in the community
for the foreseeable future.
There will be scores
of people that will die
only because they didn't have
access to a hospital,
or a clinic, or a doctor.
I'm just wondering,
from a training perspective,
is there anything
you recommend....
-[man] I'm a registered nurse.
-[Ahmad] Oh, wow.
[man] I went to, I was in Rafah.
Glad you got a chance
to go home.
I tried to go back, actually.
They rejected me.
-Security reasons.
-I mean,
it's just random garbage, right.
Any way they can,
they'll just reject us.
When you got rejected,
you were in Jordan already?
I was in Cairo,
when I got rejected,
and they stormed the border.
I was there
when they shut the border.
Oh, so that's when
you got rejected.
-We had a convoy ready to go.
-Oh, my God.
They're like,
"Guys, the Israeli military
has stormed and destroyed
the border."
-So did you ever try again?
-I started in October.
And that's when I couldn't even,
nobody would even apply my name.
-They wouldn't apply your name?
-Yeah, they're were all like,
-"No, no."
-Did they know
you have Palestinian heritage?
-Yeah.
-Yeah. That sucks.
[rustling]
[Ayat] Can you get
the Falasteen book?
Can you find it?
Yeah. There it is.
Wow. Okay, let me see it.
I love that one.
It's my favorite.
-Here's Falasteen.
-Oh my God, thank you so much.
Yes.
I mean, I don't know if you're
gonna be allowed to go back.
Yeah, well, we have to.
I have to at least try.
I know, but like...
I have to try to go back
and see what happens.
Who knows? I mean,
will they let me in?
Will they not let me in?
If I get in,
will I be able to be let out?
I think all of that
we can figure out.
I don't want to overthink.
And try to get in.
I don't know.
-[Ahmad] Inshallah.
-I don't know. Inshallah.
[Ahmad] We'll see what happens.
We'll hope for the best.
We'll prepare for the worst.
[Ayat] It's really tough
to think about.
[baby cooing]
[news host] Dr. Thaer Ahmed.
Ahmad. Forgive me, Dr. Ahmad.
Are you confident that Hamas
will allow this critical aid
to get to
its civilian population?
Well, I think you have to look
at the agency
of the Palestinian people.
That's part of the pressure
that led to a ceasefire deal.
I think the people
in the Gaza Strip
are ready for this to be over.
And I think all of the parties
in the Gaza Strip
recognize that.
I just got this email
from someone who watched it.
"I just saw
being interviewed on CNN
related to the ceasefire
announced
between your Palestinian
terrorist organization
and Israel.
Doctor, you're just
as anti-Semitic
as those Hamas terrorists
you probably have treated
in your practice
in godforsaken Gaza.
Why did you not treat
Jewish hostages,
especially frail old people
and babies?
Is that not what a doctor
is supposed to do?
Can't wait for Hamas to renege
on hostage deal
before Sunday deadline
so that Israel can finish
the job of eliminating
their presence forever
of every single
Palestinian member of Hamas.
Chew on that fat, Doctor."
This is the kind of...
really frustrating part of this.
I'm not a spokesperson
for anybody.
I'm not pro anything.
I'm a Palestinian
who wants to see
babies that look like my babies
not be killed anymore.
You know, I'm a human being,
I'm a doctor,
and I want to be able
to practice
and treat anybody without having
any sort of restrictions
in place
or threat against my life, so..
This is... I mean,
I could care less
about an email like that.
[birds tweeting]
So what I did was I packed
my surgical scrubs,
hats, masks, suture,
enough to do surgery
everyday per pack.
And then I'll donate
the scrubs there.
And, um...
Some rubber bands
because they want to know
that they're willing to
exsanguinate a limb so I can...
I can use this
as a tourniquet as well.
Um. No more amputations
without a tourniquet.
Initial here, Amy.
This is my will.
So many people have talked about
my imminent demise on this trip
compared to everything else
I've ever done. It's crazy.
All right. [chuckles]
She still wants to go.
She's like, "Come on, come on.
Take me with you."
Come on, let's go.
All right. [grunts]
[soft music playing]
So, I'll hide
these antibiotic packs...
throughout my baggage.
And...
And hope that...
those screening for the IDF
aren't sharp enough
to pick up on it.
So I can be
turned down tonight.
I can be turned down
at the Jordanian border.
I can be more likely
turned down at the border
between Jordan
and the West Bank.
And then you can be turned down
between the West Bank and Gaza.
[cell phone dings]
[soft music playing]
[Ahmad]
I get a WhatsApp message
from the emergency
medical team coordinator
saying, you know, my name.
And it's in red.
Everybody else's is in green.
So my name is not on the list.
There a degree of inconvenience
that's intentional here.
We're submitting
all our paperwork,
we have all our ducks in a row.
Everything is in order here.
But the Israelis
choose to notify you
at the last approval.
The night before. I mean,
literally the night before.
[cell phone vibrates and pings]
So the team was just able
to enter into Gaza right now.
Can't imagine
what the feeling is like
to reenter into the land, but...
We'll try.
We'll try to get on the next one
or the one after that.
[indistinct chatter]
Can he...
[in Arabic]
[Perlmutter] I think
augmenting his EPL
and giving him
some wrist extensions would...
Because if I hold his write
in extension,
he has meaningful
digital extension.
So he would be a wonderful
candidate for tendon transfers.
-This time?
-Yeah.
We can do it this mission.
[man, speaking Arabic]
[monitors beeping]
Our plan,
we'll do all of it for him,
and you will go the ulnar way.
Yeah, all my surgery's gonna be
on the ulnar half of his hand.
-Yeah.
-Okay.
You know how thick the grind is.
And you know
how thick the skin is.
So you know how deep to go.
Now the disease
is right under the skin, now.
So just to the point.
There you go.
He has three more sutures
to put in.
[Eid] Yeah.
Three more,
and another seven minutes.
His timing is perfect.
Yeah.
[chuckles]
[monitor beeps]
[all laughing]
-Oh, that's right.
-Yeah.
So, you lied to us.
[indistinct chatter]
[in French] a va bien?
Merci, mon cher.
-Very, very, very...
-Hi, I'm Sabrina.
Hi, Sabrina. I'm Mark.
We actually met in Cairo
when we were
on our way here last time.
Like most Americans,
I know nothing,
knew nothing about Gaza, right?
I thought everybody out here
were nothing but terrorists
because that's what I was told.
And I hear this kid
talking like he knows
what he's talking about.
Like he's giving me
the Gazan history,
or he's talking
to somebody else.
He's reiterating the history
that I didn't have time
to download...
-[Sabrina] Yeah.
-Um...
on the planes out, so, uh...
[Sabrina] Even if you
downloaded it, you can't trust
-what you--
-Yeah, right. That's for sure.
However,
I needed an introduction.
So I picked him out as the dude
I'm gonna sit next to,
or behind or in front of,
and crook my neck
and just listen to everything
-he had to say
-[chuckles]
because he was making sense.
He is about fairness
and he is about ethics,
uh, and he is about doing
the right thing.
So he was the right one
to listen to, you know.
You know we're not dating,
right. You don't have to
-talk me up this much
-[all laughing]
when I just met her
five minutes ago.
[all laughing]
I was explaining
why we do things together.
Right? Because... And then
we became dear friends since.
[news host] Mark,
I want to just ask you,
almost exactly one year ago
you co-wrote an opinion piece
titled, "As Surgeons,
We Have Never Seen
Cruelty Like Israel's Genocide
In Gaza."
That is a massive statement
to make.
And a lot has changed
since then,
including a ceasefire.
So what are your thoughts
one year on?
Well first of all,
there's never been a ceasefire,
and there's never been
a ceasefire since 1948.
Um, that's just part
of the propaganda line
that the Western media
has been feeding us
because you're being fed that.
The issue is that
when it's a thunderstorm
in Palestine since 1948
and Israel says
it's sunny outside.
The American and Western media,
I'm not picking
on you, specifically,
but the media in general
says that it's an absolutely
beautiful day in Palestine.
They're not even
opening the window.
They're just believing Israel.
-That--
-[news host] I think we are...
We are definitely
seeing reports
coming out of the region,
and we are seeing, especially
because of social media,
you are seeing things happening
live on the ground.
I mean, I was just reading some
of your previous work
and the opinion pieces
that you've put out.
And it is clear that
you're seeing a lot,
you're experiencing
a lot there.
-But we are reading that.
-That's good.
And that's not legacy
American media, is it?
But people do have, I mean,
you're speaking to us
live on air now,
so we are giving you
the opportunity
to tell us exactly
what's going on.
-That's great.
-We are telling stories
from the region as we can,
and thank you
for being on this as well.
We appreciate your time.
My pleasure.
[Perlmutter]
[Sidhwa]
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
Um...
Live on air, honestly,
I doubt it
because you're only going
to get opposition from that.
I wouldn't say, when they call
you on for this kind of thing,
it would make sense
to try to litigate it
because you just don't have
enough time, honestly.
And again, the guy's
only response is going to be,
"Oh shit,
I have to defend my boss."
Lest he get in trouble.
That's why we're a good pair,
because you talk intelligently
and I talk emotionally.
You're fact-based,
and I'm like, "Fuck you.
-Why aren't you doing your job?"
-Yeah.
Right? How can I see this death
and you not want
to report on it?
And you don't even seem to think
it's important.
Yeah, no, exactly.
Hey, Thaer. Mark and I are here.
Just wondering
what you're up to.
People here at Nasser say "Hi."
They miss you too.
Um, but anyway, yeah,
if we can help
with anything
that you're doing.
I know you've got
your connections over there,
so if we can help with
anything, just let us know.
[calm music playing]
[Ahmad] It still stings
pretty badly.
And it doesn't help to see
other people kind of get in.
Uh...
And so, because I got rejected,
I tried to file a complaint
with the State Department.
This is their response.
"Were your parents born
in Gaza or the West Bank?
As we understand local laws,
birth in the U.S. or elsewhere
to one or both parents
holding Palestinian IDs
grants the U.S.-born child
a Palestinian ID number as well.
If you haven't been issued
an actual Palestinian ID..."
and then they put
in parenthesis "Huwiya."
"...it is possible
you were listed
on one of your parents' IDs."
Who gives a crap?
Like what are you talking about?
Why are you giving me
this long-winded explanation?
You want to know
where my parents were born?
Why does that matter? I was born
at Cook County Hospital
in Chicago.
What are you talking about?
I was so pissed off.
This is the U.S. Embassy
giving me these excuses.
And then I come back here
to the United States
and get interrogated
and detained
by the Department
of Homeland Security.
[girl singing]
When you feel so mad
that you want to roar
Take a deep breath...
[inhales deeply]
...and count to four
One, two, three, four.
Let's go, Baba, let's go!
You're going to get me!
Uh-oh.
Whoa! Whoa!
[girl laughs]
[soft music playing]
Whoa.
[Ahmad speaking Arabic]
[boy speaking Arabic]
[Baraa]
[Baraa]
-[Ahmad]
-[Baraa]
-[Ahmad]
-[Baraa]
[Baraa]
[Baraa]
[man in Arabic]
[man]
[woman in Arabic]
[man]
[Ahmad] Ah. Okay, yeah.
Oh.
[in English] Very nice.
[in English] Everybody's trying
to help with his, you know...
[Ahmad] Everybody was looking
for a way to help.
[man] Yeah, yeah.
[soft music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
I'm proud of you, buddy.
Thank you very much.
Oh, no, I appreciate it.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
[man in Arabic]
[Ahmad in Arabic]
[Ahmad]
[Ahmad]
[man]
It's amazing
how the entire community
feels exactly the same way.
They all say the same thing.
They just want to be
able to do something.
They want to do something
for our people in Gaza.
...as to how to use our power
of speaking.
[Ahmad] I feel like this
tremendous sense of
survivor's guilt.
It's like, I need to step up,
I need to do more.
[Sidhwa] So, this is the back
of Nasser Hospital.
This is actually
where the mass graves
from the previous
Israeli attacks on Nasser are.
You can see the large mounds
where they were.
I don't know if the mass graves
have been exhumed
and the bodies reburied
somewhere.
I'm honestly not sure.
I certainly don't smell them,
but they've been buried here
for months
if they are, so...
Or actually more than a year,
I guess, it would actually be.
Now, this ambulance
was shot to hell.
You can see that pretty clearly.
It's funny, you don't really
think about it that much,
you know, the possibility
of violence
until you're actually in it.
[beeping]
There's...
this boy, Mohammad,
I'm pretty sure.
You put a chest tube
in him, right?
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
Right, right.
Because it was not functioning.
One, two, three.
There we go.
[in Arabic]
[in Arabic]
[Sidhwa] So, sorry,
this is actually
the 15-year-old girl
with the liver injury
who was taken back
with a stomach injury.
-[Serr in English]
-No.
[Serr]
Oh, he died?
-He died.
-Okay.
That one with the femur injury.
Can you, uh...
Does he know?
It's a video online?
-Online.
-Oh, okay.
That's okay.
At least we did what we tried.
Or, we tried what we could.
That sucks.
[Perlmutter] It's his son,
- correct?
-[Sama] Yeah.
He has the cubitus varus
deformity?
[Sama] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Right.
-Probably.
So the plan is for today,
Um. I'm not sure when.
The operating rooms
are being used
by other traumas right now.
[in Arabic]
[in Arabic]
[in English] He's saying
that he's gonna be staying here
until there's an operation room.
You're welcome.
-Inshallah.
-Inshallah.
-[Elqomboz]
-[Perlmutter] Yeah.
-Used? Prepared?
-No, uh...
-[woman]
-It's broken. Yeah.
Is there a portable X-ray
machine that can come in?
It's on the other side
of the border.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, my dad used to say,
"You have to dance
with who brought you."
-Yeah.
-Right?
[Perlmutter] All right,
let's get started.
We have our nurses.
[Elqomboz] Yeah...
[Perlmutter] Tell
all your girlfriends
that you'll text them later.
-[Elqomboz]
-Just kidding.
[Perlmutter] I know, right?
[Perlmutter] That's important.
Listen, your family is still
the most important thing
here, right?
Right? I get that, all right?
I was just teasing you.
And they're still in the north?
[Perlmutter]
Your little girl died?
Yeah.
Oh man, I'm sorry.
No, no. Thank you.
-I'm sorry.
-Thank you. Thank you.
Because there's so many traumas.
That's right. That's right.
[Perlmutter]
You bother me.
[Perlmutter] Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Jesus Christ.
Now...
that if I keep...
that's...
I don't want...
I'm sorry.
Ten months old.
[woman] I feel so sad
for him. So sorry.
[dour music playing]
[sighs]
If you want to work in Ukraine,
or in Burkina Faso, or in Ghana,
or in Mozambique,
any of these other places,
the likelihood that you'll be
killed is basically random.
You could be killed,
it's possible,
but it's no more likely
than anyone else.
That's not the case in Gaza.
That's not the case
in the West Bank, even.
If the Israelis want to
kill you here, they will do it.
And they will get away with it.
The U.S. won't do
anything about it.
Even if you're an
American citizen, they won't.
So you just have to
accept that risk
if you're going to
come work here.
He put out this narrative.
There's bombing going on.
-Yeah.
-There is smoke coming
from over there.
You can see it? I can't see it.
The... Sorry, anyway,
I should pay attention to
what I'm trying to do here.
He's going to the OR. I have
a case in the OR in 15 minutes.
A little boy.
[explosion]
-There's a bomb.
-[woman] Hold on.
Where was that?
[ominous music playing]
[activist] Gaza, Gaza,
we know your name!
Gaza, Gaza, we know your name!
We won't let you die in vain!
[crowd] We won't let you
die in vain!
[crowd bleating]
[Ahmad] I see pictures
of the journalists
that have been killed.
I see pictures of the children
that have been killed.
It's on us to make sure
that their stories are told.
Because if you turn on the news
right now,
you will not hear
anything about them.
So I ask everybody,
everybody that made it out here
in the cold.
Please, anybody that you know,
share their stories.
Your congressman, your senator,
make sure their staff
knows your name
and knows what you're about.
Thank you very much.
[applause]
[activist] Free, free Palestine!
[Ahmad] Hey, Asha, welcome back.
[Asha] Thank you, Thaer,
good to see you.
Likewise, likewise.
-[man] Hi, Mark.
-[Asha] Hi, Mark.
Hi.
[man] I want to start with you,
Mark, if that's okay.
As a Jewish American physician,
how have you found
your speaking out
has impacted your relationship
with some of your colleagues?
I think most are afraid
to speak up.
I've lost friends over this,
I've gained friends over this.
But people come and go.
And if you lose friends,
they probably weren't that much
of a friend to begin with.
[Ahmad] Ben, maybe
we can mention also,
we've seen healthcare workers
who have spoken out about this,
be suspended, be fired.
Additionally,
medical societies,
professional societies,
for example,
the America
Medical Association,
has refused to adopt
any ceasefire statement
or take a position on this.
And this is especially notable
given their stances on Ukraine.
There's an institutional trend
to silence
and punish people who are
speaking out against this.
And we know
where this comes from. Um...
This comes from simply
Zionistic influences
that invade the board members
of every single university.
It comes from the boards
of institutions like hospitals.
But we can't stop approaching
the root of all evil,
and that's the IDF and
the Likud Party's penetration
like a mold into the fabric
of our society.
And they just don't care
at what cost that is achieved.
I always get nervous
when Mark talks.
[Perlmutter] It can stop
with a telephone call,
as Reagan had done in 1982.
[Ahmad] When he starts
talking about
getting into the
weeds of Zionism,
it's like, well, he can.
He can use language
that is fine for him,
but we'll be guilty
by association
and we'll just get
crushed for it.
[man] I think
we're coming up to time,
and I think
that's a wonderful...
[Perlmutter]
I think that I gain an audience
because I have a white face.
I think that I get invited
to these things,
maybe because
I say the right things,
but also because I represent
a hell-bent of society
that's different
than the average person
who's protesting.
[man] ...that absolutely
this genocide must stop.
[Perlmutter] So you're weaker
over here.
And you've lost more muscle
over here.
You know, this disease
only happens in people
-who drive Harleys.
-Is that right?
If you drove a Jack Bike
or a BMW like mine,
you wouldn't have had
this problem.
-Oh man, shoot.
-[chuckles]
I'm just going to have to hurt.
[both laugh]
All right, hang tight.
I have a blue flag for you.
[woman] You got it.
They know I like glazed donuts.
How much fortitude do you think
I'm gonna have
avoiding a glazed donut today?
Not any at all.
You know, you might as well
just go ahead and cave.
[Perlmutter] If I tap there,
is it sore?
[woman] I feel it
all the way up here.
[Perlmutter] Okay.
My father was my biggest
role model.
He was the only sign
of medicine
in my small, rural town
that I grew up in.
[soft music playing]
He was Jewish.
And as a Jewish physician
in World War II,
he went into
concentration camps
to provide aid
to victims of the Holocaust.
And that was a big influence
in my life.
[woman 1] Salam, everyone.
-Okay, everybody can hear me?
-[woman 2] Yes.
[woman 1] This is going to be
a raw, eyewitness testimony
from two of our amazing doctors
that'll be with us.
Um, when you were both
working with children,
how often were children shot
by snipers?
Or would you describe this
as casualties
from crossfire,
as Israel likes to label it as?
[Perlmutter] But keep in mind,
I think it's perfectly okay
to despise your government's
administration
but love the country.
You can love Israel
and still hate the right-wing
fascist government that runs it.
Praying for its change.
When you stop robbing
the land of a people
who've lived there
for a millennia,
um, and you've stopped
grabbing it at gunpoint,
the children stop dying.
[woman 1]
[Perlmutter] How about
the West Bank?
How about all of Gaza right now?
[woman 1] Okay.
[woman 2] I'm sorry,
what part of...
[overlapping chatter]
[woman 1]
[woman 3] Oh, excuse me.
Okay, thank you.
And therein lies the problem.
Her last comment.
I think they had to see
the horrors of it.
You know,
and I've seen some super ugly,
painful things in my life. Um...
At Ground Zero, at Haiti,
just horribly ugly things.
But I got to tell you,
-none of it was--
-Right, could even compare.
None. Can't even come close.
And it was tough because
even after I got back,
I totally blew you off.
-Yeah.
-I couldn't reset my clock.
It was just difficult.
You know?
It was difficult to communicate.
You were reaching out
towards people
that had either experienced it,
or that were
from Palestinian descent.
Um. And you were leaning on them
instead of leaning on me.
So I just kind of felt like
I was out in the cold.
Yeah, and also,
I didn't think that anyone
who didn't see what I saw
could ever understand
what a mass casualty event
looks like.
That all the patients
were children.
That, um...
I'm going to cry again because
it does it to me every time.
So...
Every time.
I play it in my head every time,
and I can't lose it.
Um...
[Perlmutter] Everybody together.
Let's make a fist bump
and a flower.
[imitating explosion]
[laughs]
[excited chatter]
[crying]
[tap water running]
[water dripping]
[alarm clock chirping]
[man] Hello, can you hear me?
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, hello.
Hi, nice to be here.
We saw a lot of images
from hospitals in Gaza,
tunnels that were built
underneath hospitals,
ammunition
and that sort of images.
Did you see any of that while
you were practicing there?
No, and neither has
anybody else.
And I would really encourage
Israelis to...
To just ask if your government's
telling the truth
about those things.
It's pretty ridiculous.
-You think they're lying?
-Yes, I do.
-We saw the images.
-Which images did you see?
I'd love to see them.
I've never seen any, actually...
You didn't see the IDF
spokesperson videos?
Look, I don't think
it's surprising to you
or anybody else that the IDF
spokesperson lies about things.
That doesn't mean
they're always lying,
but they are capable of lying,
we all know that.
They've done so many times,
just like my own
government's military lies.
Everybody knows that.
There's a reason
that the only people
who can find these things
are Israeli intelligence
and the Israeli military.
I'm sorry,
they're just not true.
[soft music playing]
I've got to be honest,
I'm guessing
they'll just never
run the video.
You know, if they do, then...
good for them.
My parents are from a small
ethnic minority in Pakistan
called the Parsis.
They follow a religion
called Zoroastrianism.
Zoroastrianism emphasizes
fighting for what's right
in the world,
and I'm not religious,
but I definitely inherited that
from my parents.
It really influenced how I saw
the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
I actually went and lived
in Israel for a year,
and I worked with an
Arab-Jewish cooperative there.
And then when I decided
to go to medical school,
I kind of saw my life path
as being
that I'm going
to continue learning
about the Israel-Palestine
conflict as much as I can.
Being a physician isn't some
kind of political extremist.
This was a major opportunity to
bring a different perspective
on what is done
to the Palestinians.
Like, let's look at it
in the reverse.
Benjamin Netanyahu
had his prostate taken out
-at the end of December, right?
-[man] Okay.
Does anybody think that means
Hamas can bomb the hospital?
No, nobody thinks that.
That's crazy.
Can Hamas bomb hospitals
because there are wounded
Israeli soldiers in them?
No. That's not
how hospitals work.
If someone is abusing
a hospital,
there are provisions for it
under international law
for how to actually
deal with it.
What they were showing
were CGI renderings
of what they say are the tunnels
under the hospital,
but they're not there.
[scoffs] And the guy's like,
"Haven't you seen the videos?"
What are you talking about, man?
Haven't I seen CGI videos
that anyone can make
on their computer?
Yes, I've seen those.
They don't actually prove
there's anything under there.
It's just, it's...
Dr. Feroze, thank you so
much for being with us.
Thank you. Nice to talk to you.
[in Arabic]
I'm curious on
what they're going to say.
[Sidhwa] You know,
the Israelis are gonna do
whatever they're gonna do.
[somber music playing]
But as an American,
I just don't want
my government
involved in crimes.
I think of it as just a way of
helping my country to actually
achieve its moral potential.
And for myself to achieve
my moral potential.
[woman]
Uh, to my mind,
this is a political problem,
and if we want to
solve the problem,
not just go and do medical care
but actually solve the problem,
then we need
a political solution
which requires
some political influence.
The United States government is
an active participant in this.
We do not have to accept
that as Americans.
Most physicians are absolutely
horrified by this,
but they're also frightened
by speaking out
because their institutions
are cracking down on them.
And yes, I completely
understand,
it's not that the risk is zero,
but you're literally talking
about being too afraid
to stand up for a million
children who are being starved.
It's very...
How are you going to explain
that to someone in the future?
And I still remember, while
I was just looking at this wound
bleeding on her face,
I remember thinking like,
"Did I pay for this shrapnel,
or did my neighbor,
or did their neighbor?"
You know how senseless
this all of this is.
You know it's not making
anyone safer.
Yet we're all just sleepwalking
into doing it.
The United States has paid
approximately 70 percent
of Israel's war expenditures
since October 7th.
The United States
could stop sending
jet fuel, bombs,
all sorts of weapons.
And if they did that,
the Israelis would have to
negotiate a truce,
which, incidentally,
would also be the best way
to get the hostages released.
So I don't really see
how this is helping anybody.
You know, I don't have a family
of my own.
I don't have anybody
to support.
I don't have any kids
that I need to spend time with.
So I'm kind of uniquely
positioned
to to do this work, and...
And all of the women
that I've dated, have been...
Um...
The way I've always put it
is supportive to a point.
But, uh...
But I think when they realize
that I'm not willing to...
Put this stuff aside
when there's something
that needs to be done,
even though it never seems
to make any difference
to what's going on in the world.
That causes tension, you know?
But no, honestly, um...
I think I'm just probably
a hard person to get along with.
[chuckles] I don't think it has
anything to do with this.
I wish I could blame the fact
that no woman can put up with me
on the Israel-Palestine
conflict,
but I don't think
that's the issue at all.
No, that's not the issue at all.
[man speaking Arabic]
[phone ringing]
[in English]
[man in Arabic]
[Ahmad in Arabic]
[slow music playing]
[Ahmad] Just with respect
to tomorrow,
we'll divide up
into small groups.
I'd say a couple of things,
just from my own experience,
failing a lot at this and not
kind of having the conversation
get derailed.
You guys are all
healthcare workers,
so you have to pretty quickly
figure out
the literacy level of the people
that you're interacting with.
So don't assume that who you're
talking to knows any details.
You can slow-roll it and then
engage in that conversation.
It's really important
that we make it feel real.
Like, tell them the stories.
Let them know that we're talking
about human beings.
You can dismiss the number
and say that,
"Oh, the Ministry of Health
is not accurate."
But you guys were there.
You're eyewitnesses.
You're a very small select group
of people that enter.
You know, the truth of it is,
if we don't bear witness and
treat the genocide as a disease
and go for
the cause of that disease,
then we're we're committing
medical malpractice.
Because genocide has to be
considered a medical diagnosis.
It can no longer be considered
a political entity.
It's just that the disease
happens to be
a political ideology,
and it still has to be
eliminated.
[Ahmad]
Well, we just found out that
USAID has been cut off
at the knees.
They've been told, don't spend
any money. Everything's frozen.
I'm curious
because we're talking.
There's a lot of asks that
we can come up with tomorrow.
[Sidhwa] I don't know,
the way I look at it is,
I think of it as just
asking the king for favors.
The king doesn't give a damn
about you,
but maybe he'll think
it's inconvenient for him.
Or to make him look good,
or make him sleep better
at night or whatever.
So anything that I can get out
of these people that will help--
And by these people
you mean our legislators.
I mean our elected
representatives
who definitely serve us
and the people.
[Perlmutter] Yeah, right.
[soft music playing]
[man] Mark, after this meeting,
I'm gonna text you the address,
that's gonna be your senator.
-And then after that...
-Thom Tillis?
Yeah. And then after that,
there's the congressional
briefing.
I will text you
the address to that.
We just met with
Ted Cruz's office, and...
It was fine.
Just kind of platitudes.
[Perlmutter] How do you think
that went?
[man] Dead ears. What about you?
[Perlmutter] I thought
their answers were rehearsed.
-Yeah.
-I think their ears were dead.
Yeah.
You know, this poster.
It tries to add a sense
of humanity
to the fact that these
innocent people
were taken hostage,
and that's a horrible thing.
But what it doesn't give
credence to
is that if this was a poster
of two-by-two photographs
of Palestinian hostages,
that that photograph would go
clear down that hallway
of people's faces
who are held hostage.
-You ready?
-Yeah, yeah, of course.
-Let's go.
-Always.
[door closes]
[Ahmad] We met with his aide.
He wants to reiterate
that the senator
is a staunch supporter,
an ally of Israel.
And that, that was not
going to change.
And we said we're not asking him
to change that, you know.
We think that
there's an opportunity here
to do some good,
to help save some kids' lives.
Didn't take any notes,
so I don't know
if that's going to go back
to the senator,
but, you know, it is what it is.
We'll go to our next meeting
and we'll do it again.
[Perlmutter] It was a strict
interrogation by one guy.
He's a deputy director
or something.
And his only concern
was quotes that I made...
-What?
-...on TikTok
or social media posts.
-That kind of meeting you had?
-Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
So I said, "What you're proving
is that you stalked me
-on Instagram."
-[chuckles]
I said, "I'm making no mistakes
about my differing politics
with you.
But that doesn't mean
we can't develop a common ground
to solve the problem
of the lack of medical aid
going to Gaza."
And then he gives you
the platonic at the end.
"Well, thank you
for your service."
[laughs] You know?
Like, stick it up your ass.
-You know? Right?
-[chuckles] Yeah.
I mean, because you don't
really mean it, right?
[Ahmad] None of what we're doing
about Gaza right now,
I expected that
I would ever have to do.
None of this social media
advocacy,
writing op eds,
trying to organize communities.
I, obviously,
based on my career path,
was not interested
in doing any of this.
I'd rather be in Gaza
with the people that are there,
and having seen what's happened
and talking to them,
they told us, you have to
advocate on our behalf.
I promise you,
there's not a single person
who's comfortable doing this,
but they all feel a sense of
duty that they have to do that.
[slow music playing]
[Sidhwa] This country
that I belong to,
that I was born in,
that I was raised in,
there's this cognitive
dissonance that exists.
My American side
actively works to suppress
my Palestinian identity.
In a very real and deadly way.
[reporter] As doctors, I wonder
if you have anything to say
to the recent claims
by President Trump himself
that he stopped
$50 million funding for Gaza,
which he claims to be used
to buy condoms.
And he also claims that funding,
the condoms would be used
to make bombs.
And you doctors, do you have
anything to say on that claim?
This is nonsense.
And it's a distraction
from the true horrors that are
happening on the ground.
And the ludicrous nature
of this sort of language
dominating the airwaves.
I mean,
it's totally unacceptable
to be focusing on
these sorts of things,
and there's nothing
that suggests
that is even
in the realm of reality.
We want hungry kids to be fed.
We want hospitals
to be able to operate
without the fear
of being attacked.
And we want Palestinians
to have a chance at life.
I will say that if we do not get
to a phase two of this ceasefire
and a phase three,
then any of the work
that we are advocating for,
in this very short period,
will be for nothing.
And it will be the cruelest
thing imaginable,
to give a glimmer of hope
to the Palestinians in Gaza,
and then for them
to hear fighter jets
overhead bombing again.
[explosion]
[reporter in Arabic]
[men shouting]
[indistinct chatter]
[in English]
[Sidhwa] So the, the bomb
that hit
went right through
the Nasser Medical Complex sign.
This is completely insane.
You don't bomb hospitals.
Everybody knows that.
It's part of the oldest part
of international law.
You know,
the first Geneva Convention
was signed in 1864,
and that was the first creation
of international law,
at least in the West.
And, and it's specifically
about not obstructing the work
of physicians and nurses.
This is this is barbarity.
This isn't how, reasonable,
civilized people behave.
It doesn't matter
what they were trying to do.
You don't bomb a hospital,
no matter what.
That's not how it works.
I was headed down there,
but then somebody pulled me
into the ICU and said,
"Hey, this guy is bleeding.
Can you look at him?"
I went over to look at the guy,
and five or six minutes later
the hospital shook.
You know, lights flickered,
just for a second,
and everyone said, "Oh,
that bomb hit the building."
There was a 15-year-old kid
in there
that Feroze had operated
on the day before
or two days before, and was
getting ready for discharge.
And that kid was incinerated.
Yeah, no. That's the first time
I've ever done
an operation on a patient
who was blown up
and then had him
get blown up again
in his hospital bed.
That's pretty unusual.
That's not something
doctors deal with very often.
[Perlmutter] You know, it just
goes to show that, honey,
they don't give a shit about
anybody else.
As long as they kill the person
that they're after.
I just don't see
the value in it.
I don't see the..
the reason to do it.
I don't see the reason to keep
doing this. I think it's crazy.
And it almost killed me
yesterday.
I mean,
if I had gone down and been
changing my kids dressing,
probably there would have been
three bodies,
and I would have been
one of them.
I don't particularly like that.
[somber music playing]
[distant gunfire]
[all shouting]
[man 1 in Arabic]
[man 2]
[girl]
-[man 1]
-[man 2]
[man 3]
[man 4]
[indistinct shouting]
[man]
[in English] I don't care!
[Sidhwa] So there was an Apache
helicopter gunship attack.
We received two little boys
probably three or four dead.
[monitors beeping]
[anxious chatter]
[Perlmutter]
[indistinct chatter]
[Perlmutter] Which room
are we using?
[man] OR Three.
They're setting up in three.
[woman] I need to know
which room.
She's starting to wake up, too.
Let's get her warm.
Well, we've got to run.
We've got to hurry.
One, two, three.
[Perlmutter] Let's get started
on saving her arm
because it's avascular.
And it's been over an hour.
I'll trade you these
for another...
[indistinct chatter]
[monitors beeping]
[speaking Arabic]
[Sidhwa] Yeah, that's what...
So three surgeons,
four fellowships,
all working on one little girl
for, what, two and a half hours?
And she's probably gonna lose
her right leg.
Very likely to lose
her left leg,
and very likely to still lose
her left arm above the elbow.
[Perlmutter] Oh,
there's a hot chance.
The pulse is diminished.
Yeah.
You can't feel it.
[indistinct murmuring]
I'll see you soon.
Thanks for everything.
Send me a picture
of your wedding, yeah?
Of course.
-I'll see you soon.
-Thank you for coming here.
No, no.
-I hope I'll see you soon.
-Thank you.
-Thank you for everything.
-No, thank you for everything,
-my friend.
-Let's keep in touch.
Nice to meet you, my friend.
Thanks for everything.
-See you soon? Inshallah.
-Inshallah.
[laughs]
I was not prepared for this.
[Sidhwa] There is this
weird thing that happens
when you leave Gaza and you...
really feel like
you have no right to leave.
You just get this feeling of...
Kind of shame.
[speaking Arabic]
-[man in Arabic]
-Bye-bye, my friend. Thank you.
[man]
-Bye-bye.
-[woman in Arabic]
Thank you for everything.
Thank you, my friend. Be safe.
[dramatic music playing]
[Perlmutter] Well,
I actually felt guilty leaving.
I felt guilty driving away
from the crumbled buildings.
Um...
And seeing, you know, all the...
The death and suffocation
that is yet to be discovered.
Because you just can't see
hundreds of millions
of tons of building
crumbled down like that
and presume
there's still not a couple
hundred thousand people
buried under that.
It's just so immense
and so widespread.
It's so immense.
[Amy] Alright, I don't want
to film too much, you know.
I just want to say welcome back.
Yeah.
Thanks.
[Perlmutter] This is my OR team.
-Say hi, everybody.
-[all] Hi.
[Perlmutter]
Introduce yourselves.
[Perlmutter] This is Drimi.
This is the world's
best anesthesiologist.
Just ask him.
Dina.
She's a nurse anesthetist
and wonderful.
And the most budding,
wonderful orthopedic surgeon
who did an index
metacarpal flange joint,
and we learned a lot
during that case.
And then we moved back over here
to the world's
best medical student.
-[laughs] Say hi, Sama.
-Hi.
[rain pattering]
[Sidhwa] So I'm...
I don't feel like
I should have left.
I think that was
a mistake, actually.
Because I actually just
don't see any scenario now
where Gaza
isn't just destroyed.
Because I was already there.
And because nobody
was coming in to replace me,
I think it would have been
better to stay,
and to witness firsthand
what was going on.
Um...
You know, I have,
I'm a relatively known quantity,
so I have some access to media,
some access to...
[exhales] To people who
can write about these things.
And so...
I just feel like I could have
provided some protection
by staying.
In retrospect,
I just wish I had,
I guess, is what
I'm trying to say.
The...
I think that would
have been the more
proper thing to do.
I don't think, honestly,
that my probably
combined 35 minutes
on American
and corporate television stuff,
has been all that useful,
to be honest.
I don't think it made
any difference
in the popular perception
of things at all.
And then, advocacy
that we've been doing
with the U.S. government
and other institutions.
I've got to be honest,
it seems pretty useless.
And I don't think we've...
At least what I've seen.
It hasn't made one dent
of difference in anything.
But the point
of all of this is, is this...
So this this is from
an anesthesiologist named Nizar.
I've got this
just yesterday, actually.
He said, "You know,
I have a five-year-old boy
named Keenan.
Today I asked him how many
kinds of birds you know.
He answered,
'I know quadcopter, helicopter,
Apache, F-16, and F-35.'"
And when he grows up,
what will we teach him?
It's a hard thing to read.
And Nizar is one
of the most dedicated fathers
I've ever met in my life.
We should support these people
in any way we can.
And you all are,
so thanks for that.
[applause]
[man] Dr. Sidhwa,
you have said several times
you're not sure
of the effectiveness
of the things you're doing.
You know, of course,
that, that's
a ridiculous statement.
Remember how long it took us
to end the war in Vietnam?
And so it's important
to carry it on.
Thank you very much.
[applause]
[Ahmad] Okay. I need your help.
You want to zip it up?
Let's put it in.
[laughs] She doesn't want to.
-Baba?
-In. Thank you, Betour.
No, no, no...
[Ahmad] You want to put
in my stethoscope, please?
Yes.
[Ahmad] All right.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, we want to take this.
We want to take this
to Falasteen.
[girl] All right. What's...
-This is for Falasteen?
-Yeah. It's for Falasteen.
I've got to put this as well.
[wistful piano music playing]
[girls chattering]
-Salaam alaikum.
-[girl] Baba, are you outside?
I'm outside, Baba.
You want to see Falasteen?
-Yes.
-You want to see Falasteen?
Yes.
Do you see it?
That's Falasteen.
Can I come over there, Baba?
[Ayat] Are you going
to listen to Mama?
You want to come
over here, Baba?
[girl] Yeah.
Betour, what about you?
[Betour] I want Baba.
You want to come to Falasteen
with Baba and Mariam?
[Betour] Yeah.
[laughs] Okay.
[Betour] Where are you going,
Baba?
Baba, I'm going
to come back home.
I wanted to go to Falasteen,
but I couldn't go.
Where are you?
Yeah.
You show up here, going to Gaza.
But there's a risk.
I think the more that
we are doing the work
that we're doing,
trying to highlight
what's happening in Gaza.
I think we risk never being able
to access any part
of Palestine again.
I mean, it's, like,
literally right over there.
But it feels so far away.
I think that shock of somebody's
trying to literally erase it.
I hope my daughters
are better than we were.
I hope they don't fail
like how we failed.
And I think that
what I would ask everybody
but myself first is,
did you do everything
that you could?
[dramatic music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[all shouting]
[man 1 in Arabic]
[explosion]
[man 2]
With our military pressure
and President Trump's
global leadership,
we achieved
this historic moment.
[cheers and applause]
[Trump] We make the best weapons
in the world,
and we've given
a lot to Israel, frankly.
And you obviously
used them very well.
[explosion]
[Ahmad] At Nasser Hospital,
we saw what happened.
How many times has that
happened in Gaza?
Somebody made that call.
Somebody made that decision.
Somebody said,
"Here's the green light.
Attack those hospitals."
So the traditional protections
that are supposed
to be afforded
to healthcare workers,
first responders
and journalists,
gone out the window.
But it's not just
about hospitals
that are being attacked.
It's the erasure
of that society.
Every aspect of life
has been destroyed.
[explosion]
[men yelling]
[crying]
[all shouting]
[sobbing]
[screaming in Arabic]
[Ahmad] But there's been
no accountability.
Who will bring
the perpetrators to justice?
Who is going to prosecute them?
[activists chanting]
[action music playing]
[yelling]
Who is going to confront
the perpetrators
in a way that they can't rest
without seeing us?
It's the best way
that we can honor
everybody that's been killed.
And it's the only way we'll be
able to achieve accountability
and justice.
[soothing music playing]
Lead the way, friend
Lead the way again
Right into the fire
Headed in, but
Don't slow down and
Throw me in the mire
And praise
The new you
Where is
It in the deep?
You'll never guess
What I just went through
Everything that
I just hold true
Implodes and breaks
Into thousands
Of little pieces
So I ask you now
Isn't this wonderful?
[humming]
Following,
Now here we are now
On this train to oblivion
There's a spirit
That invites us
But you can't seduce
Replace
Behold you
Misplace it
In the deep
You'll never guess
What I just went through
Everything that
I just hold true
Implodes and breaks
Into thousands
Of little pieces
Now I ask you now
Isn't this wonderful?
[humming]
You'll never guess
What I just went through
Everything that
I just hold true
Implodes and breaks
Into thousands
Of little pieces
So I ask you now
Isn't this wonderful?
We are now
Dissolving slowly
Name turn to echoes
No one ever heard
The astral light
Grows brighter
But it all fades
Will they forget us too?
Will they forget us too?
Could they forget us too?
[music ends]
[voices shouting]
[all shouting in Arabic]
[solemn music playing]
[dog whimpers]
[Perlmutter] Did you want
to see the photographs?
[Amy] Yeah.
So, during a mass
casualty event,
uh, the patients were
easily divided
into ones that were put in
the ambulance that would live.
Um...
those that were alive
when they were...
All patients who were put
in the ambulance were alive.
And this first photograph
typifies the first round of kids
that you would quickly,
functionally eliminate
from evaluation and...
[Amy] I, I, yeah.
I feel like I'm gonna end up
blurring it or not using it.
Why? That's the problem.
-Well...
-No, that's the problem.
Okay, let's shoot it.
-Yeah.
-Let's shoot it.
I mean, that shouldn't be...
Who are you offending?
I don't know. I want
to protect the dignity of...
-Of who?
-...these children.
No, I got permission
from everyone
of their survivors
to put these pictures up.
-All right.
-Right?
You're not, uh, um,
-Israel took away their dignity.
-Okay.
You're not dignifying them
unless you let their memory...
Their bodies tell the story
of this trauma,
of this genocide.
You're not doing them a service
by not showing that.
This is what my tax dollars did.
That's what
your tax dollars did.
That's what
my neighbor's tax dollars did.
They have the right
to know the truth.
You have the responsibility
as I do to tell the truth.
You pixelate this,
that's journalistic malpractice.
-Can we film it?
-[Perlmutter] Yeah.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter 1] Well, this spring,
American doctors
made the treacherous journey
into Gaza
to try and offer their services
in this desperate situation.
But what they found was far
worse than they had expected.
[Perlmutter]
What surprised me most
was how the carnage
that was induced
really focused on children,
healthcare workers,
and journalists.
That's quite an extreme
allegation to make,
that these civilians were
indeed targeted.
And, of course,
CNN cannot independently verify
any of these allegations
that you've just made.
[reporter 2]
You penned an article
in The New York Times titled,
"65 Doctors and Nurses:
What We Saw In Gaza."
What did you witness?
[Sidhwa] How can it possibly be,
that in every hospital
in the Gaza Strip,
internationals
have seen children
shot in the head on a regular,
if not, like in my case,
a daily basis.
It's hard to believe
that that's not intentional
on the part of the people
doing the shooting.
[reporter 3]
If you can give us the latest.
What has the American
Medical Association said?
[Ahmad] Nothing.
And if you try
to broach the subject,
what we're being told is that
this is a very
politically charged
and polarizing topic.
I reject that.
We're just asking
that hospitals
not be targeted,
that they not be bombed.
Hospitals need to be
protected and functioning.
Why that sort of conversation
is derailed
in the United States
is beyond me.
But it's something
that's no longer acceptable.
[dramatic music continues]
[car horn honking]
[indistinct chatter]
You are welcome.
Oh, hi, how are you?
-Fine, thank you.
-How are you?
Be safe at home, okay?
-Thank you.
-Thank you.
No, no, I'm happy to help.
Very happy to help.
[speaking Arabic]
-See you soon.
-[in English] Thank you.
-Bye-bye.
-Bye. Have a nice day.
[in Arabic]
-[monitors beeping]
-[low chatter]
[Sidhwa in English] Thank you.
[in Arabic]
[in English]
[nurse in Arabic]
[doctor in Arabic]
[Sidhwa] I think
the microwave is broken, yeah?
-[woman] Yeah.
-[Sidhwa] Yeah.
[Sidhwa] Yeah.
Ah. Pus.
Ah-ha.
Uh-huh.
[doctor] This is
the source of...
[Sidhwa] Yeah, very likely.
Oh, this is very... Oh wow.
Oh. Put your finger right where
my middle finger is,
it's right there.
-It's a very large hole.
-[doctor] Oh, yeah.
[Sidhwa] Yeah.
I think we can put
a drain inside.
It's a very big hole.
[in Arabic]
Dr. Feroze.
[in English] Very good job.
Difficult case, huh?
Very difficult case.
You know, in the United States,
we have...
Even in West Bank, you know,
we have a different type
of drainage system,
different types of sutures,
nutritional support.
All these simple things
that we don't have here,
so this man, if he survives,
it's only because of God,
not because of what we did.
-How are you?
-Fine.
[man]
[Sidhwa] No, it's...
This war has been insane.
When we drove north
through Rafah just a little bit,
and it was like, oh my God.
Just nothing, yeah.
And my government
is so powerful,
it can give them so much
explosives, so much weapons.
[Alsabe]
No, I know, but United States
is the biggest one.
[Alsabe]
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
[Sidhwa] I've always come at
the Israel-Palestine conflict
from the standpoint
of an American.
I'm not Israeli,
I'm not Palestinian,
I'm not Jewish, I'm not Muslim,
I'm not Christian.
I don't really have
any connection to it.
But the U.S.
is so heavily involved
that I've just stayed
involved with it.
Hey, Dad.
Good, what are you up to?
No, everything's good here.
Where we are is fine.
You know, you can imagine
the amount of destruction
that's been done to the city
is really amazing, but the...
The Israelis, you know,
they've...
They're at least not attacking
the city right now...
Every day or so
they're shooting people
in the very far south
and the very far north.
But thankfully not where I am.
I hope the ceasefire continues
and things keep improving, too.
[soft music playing]
Are you guys still
on the cruise, or no?
Panama was pretty?
[pastoral music playing]
[computerized voice]
Welcome to MASCON.
Please proceed
through the machines
one person at a time.
For your safety,
it is prohibited
to bring the following items...
[indistinct talking]
All right, what up?
What up, G? How are you?
Good to see you.
Where's Lou's booth?
Oh.
-Wow.
-We got the keffiyeh.
Because we're
a Palestinian brand,
we got the keffiyeh on the back.
[Ahmad] Oh wow, that's dope.
We got the bracelet.
[Ahmad] Yo, that's amazing, man.
[woman] Take this
for the family.
-[Ahmad] What's this?
-It's a mixing kit.
-We bottled the sauce, finally.
-[Ahmad] Oh my God.
That's amazing.
I wanna pay for all of this.
[in Arabic]
[in English] I do,
I want to support you guys.
-[man]
-[woman] Can we get a picture?
[Ahmad] Thank you, thank you,
guys. Appreciate y'all.
So, you know, I am Falastini.
I'm Palestinian.
Over a year ago,
January was my sixth time
that I had been to Gaza.
One time, I went
during the war on Gaza,
and twice I've been rejected.
And I want to just take you
through what it looks like
when a hospital
gets targeted and attacked.
Because this has
become a pattern
when it comes
to the Israeli military.
This has become a behavior
that they started
in October of 2023,
when they struck
Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
And when that happened
and that there was
no accountability,
we saw that this became
a series of events
that attacked every hospital.
Because the next hospital
was Shifa.
Al-Awda.
[men shouting in Arabic]
[Ahmad] Al-Aqsa.
[angry shouting]
[shrieks]
[Ahmad] When I went in January,
I went to Nasser Hospital.
I'm in front
of Nasser Hospital here.
It's about 9:00 a.m.
in the morning.
It's after a long night
of bombings.
We are trying to figure out
how many casualties
were from the night.
Many people will arrive today
because it was too dangerous
to transport them
and cases that probably
could've been saved.
[overlapping chatter]
As you're getting waves
and waves of patients,
you're struggling.
Who do you prioritize?
Who do you evaluate?
What do you have to be able
to treat them?
We got not pain medicine
to be able to give to people
whose legs have been blown off
or their arms
have been blown off.
[monitors beeping]
The hospital's
totally overwhelmed.
Patients are everywhere.
People keep coming in, and so...
And I remember
foolishly sitting in the ICU,
talking to the ICU doctor.
And I said, "I don't think
they're going to attack Nasser.
I mean, the World Health
Organization sent us here.
They told U.S. doctors
and international doctors.
They know that we're here.
They're not going
to attack Nasser."
And he looked at me, he said,
"What makes you think that
Nasser is any different
than Shifa?
Or any different than Al-Ahli?
Any different than Al-Awda?
Or any different than Indonesia?
And he just listed off
all the hospitals."
He said, "They're coming here."
[machine-gun fire]
[angry shouting]
[woman screaming]
When they hit a hospital,
it's not just that incident
that you feel that tragedy.
That's a deep tragedy that
people will feel
in the community
for the foreseeable future.
There will be scores
of people that will die
only because they didn't have
access to a hospital,
or a clinic, or a doctor.
I'm just wondering,
from a training perspective,
is there anything
you recommend....
-[man] I'm a registered nurse.
-[Ahmad] Oh, wow.
[man] I went to, I was in Rafah.
Glad you got a chance
to go home.
I tried to go back, actually.
They rejected me.
-Security reasons.
-I mean,
it's just random garbage, right.
Any way they can,
they'll just reject us.
When you got rejected,
you were in Jordan already?
I was in Cairo,
when I got rejected,
and they stormed the border.
I was there
when they shut the border.
Oh, so that's when
you got rejected.
-We had a convoy ready to go.
-Oh, my God.
They're like,
"Guys, the Israeli military
has stormed and destroyed
the border."
-So did you ever try again?
-I started in October.
And that's when I couldn't even,
nobody would even apply my name.
-They wouldn't apply your name?
-Yeah, they're were all like,
-"No, no."
-Did they know
you have Palestinian heritage?
-Yeah.
-Yeah. That sucks.
[rustling]
[Ayat] Can you get
the Falasteen book?
Can you find it?
Yeah. There it is.
Wow. Okay, let me see it.
I love that one.
It's my favorite.
-Here's Falasteen.
-Oh my God, thank you so much.
Yes.
I mean, I don't know if you're
gonna be allowed to go back.
Yeah, well, we have to.
I have to at least try.
I know, but like...
I have to try to go back
and see what happens.
Who knows? I mean,
will they let me in?
Will they not let me in?
If I get in,
will I be able to be let out?
I think all of that
we can figure out.
I don't want to overthink.
And try to get in.
I don't know.
-[Ahmad] Inshallah.
-I don't know. Inshallah.
[Ahmad] We'll see what happens.
We'll hope for the best.
We'll prepare for the worst.
[Ayat] It's really tough
to think about.
[baby cooing]
[news host] Dr. Thaer Ahmed.
Ahmad. Forgive me, Dr. Ahmad.
Are you confident that Hamas
will allow this critical aid
to get to
its civilian population?
Well, I think you have to look
at the agency
of the Palestinian people.
That's part of the pressure
that led to a ceasefire deal.
I think the people
in the Gaza Strip
are ready for this to be over.
And I think all of the parties
in the Gaza Strip
recognize that.
I just got this email
from someone who watched it.
"I just saw
being interviewed on CNN
related to the ceasefire
announced
between your Palestinian
terrorist organization
and Israel.
Doctor, you're just
as anti-Semitic
as those Hamas terrorists
you probably have treated
in your practice
in godforsaken Gaza.
Why did you not treat
Jewish hostages,
especially frail old people
and babies?
Is that not what a doctor
is supposed to do?
Can't wait for Hamas to renege
on hostage deal
before Sunday deadline
so that Israel can finish
the job of eliminating
their presence forever
of every single
Palestinian member of Hamas.
Chew on that fat, Doctor."
This is the kind of...
really frustrating part of this.
I'm not a spokesperson
for anybody.
I'm not pro anything.
I'm a Palestinian
who wants to see
babies that look like my babies
not be killed anymore.
You know, I'm a human being,
I'm a doctor,
and I want to be able
to practice
and treat anybody without having
any sort of restrictions
in place
or threat against my life, so..
This is... I mean,
I could care less
about an email like that.
[birds tweeting]
So what I did was I packed
my surgical scrubs,
hats, masks, suture,
enough to do surgery
everyday per pack.
And then I'll donate
the scrubs there.
And, um...
Some rubber bands
because they want to know
that they're willing to
exsanguinate a limb so I can...
I can use this
as a tourniquet as well.
Um. No more amputations
without a tourniquet.
Initial here, Amy.
This is my will.
So many people have talked about
my imminent demise on this trip
compared to everything else
I've ever done. It's crazy.
All right. [chuckles]
She still wants to go.
She's like, "Come on, come on.
Take me with you."
Come on, let's go.
All right. [grunts]
[soft music playing]
So, I'll hide
these antibiotic packs...
throughout my baggage.
And...
And hope that...
those screening for the IDF
aren't sharp enough
to pick up on it.
So I can be
turned down tonight.
I can be turned down
at the Jordanian border.
I can be more likely
turned down at the border
between Jordan
and the West Bank.
And then you can be turned down
between the West Bank and Gaza.
[cell phone dings]
[soft music playing]
[Ahmad]
I get a WhatsApp message
from the emergency
medical team coordinator
saying, you know, my name.
And it's in red.
Everybody else's is in green.
So my name is not on the list.
There a degree of inconvenience
that's intentional here.
We're submitting
all our paperwork,
we have all our ducks in a row.
Everything is in order here.
But the Israelis
choose to notify you
at the last approval.
The night before. I mean,
literally the night before.
[cell phone vibrates and pings]
So the team was just able
to enter into Gaza right now.
Can't imagine
what the feeling is like
to reenter into the land, but...
We'll try.
We'll try to get on the next one
or the one after that.
[indistinct chatter]
Can he...
[in Arabic]
[Perlmutter] I think
augmenting his EPL
and giving him
some wrist extensions would...
Because if I hold his write
in extension,
he has meaningful
digital extension.
So he would be a wonderful
candidate for tendon transfers.
-This time?
-Yeah.
We can do it this mission.
[man, speaking Arabic]
[monitors beeping]
Our plan,
we'll do all of it for him,
and you will go the ulnar way.
Yeah, all my surgery's gonna be
on the ulnar half of his hand.
-Yeah.
-Okay.
You know how thick the grind is.
And you know
how thick the skin is.
So you know how deep to go.
Now the disease
is right under the skin, now.
So just to the point.
There you go.
He has three more sutures
to put in.
[Eid] Yeah.
Three more,
and another seven minutes.
His timing is perfect.
Yeah.
[chuckles]
[monitor beeps]
[all laughing]
-Oh, that's right.
-Yeah.
So, you lied to us.
[indistinct chatter]
[in French] a va bien?
Merci, mon cher.
-Very, very, very...
-Hi, I'm Sabrina.
Hi, Sabrina. I'm Mark.
We actually met in Cairo
when we were
on our way here last time.
Like most Americans,
I know nothing,
knew nothing about Gaza, right?
I thought everybody out here
were nothing but terrorists
because that's what I was told.
And I hear this kid
talking like he knows
what he's talking about.
Like he's giving me
the Gazan history,
or he's talking
to somebody else.
He's reiterating the history
that I didn't have time
to download...
-[Sabrina] Yeah.
-Um...
on the planes out, so, uh...
[Sabrina] Even if you
downloaded it, you can't trust
-what you--
-Yeah, right. That's for sure.
However,
I needed an introduction.
So I picked him out as the dude
I'm gonna sit next to,
or behind or in front of,
and crook my neck
and just listen to everything
-he had to say
-[chuckles]
because he was making sense.
He is about fairness
and he is about ethics,
uh, and he is about doing
the right thing.
So he was the right one
to listen to, you know.
You know we're not dating,
right. You don't have to
-talk me up this much
-[all laughing]
when I just met her
five minutes ago.
[all laughing]
I was explaining
why we do things together.
Right? Because... And then
we became dear friends since.
[news host] Mark,
I want to just ask you,
almost exactly one year ago
you co-wrote an opinion piece
titled, "As Surgeons,
We Have Never Seen
Cruelty Like Israel's Genocide
In Gaza."
That is a massive statement
to make.
And a lot has changed
since then,
including a ceasefire.
So what are your thoughts
one year on?
Well first of all,
there's never been a ceasefire,
and there's never been
a ceasefire since 1948.
Um, that's just part
of the propaganda line
that the Western media
has been feeding us
because you're being fed that.
The issue is that
when it's a thunderstorm
in Palestine since 1948
and Israel says
it's sunny outside.
The American and Western media,
I'm not picking
on you, specifically,
but the media in general
says that it's an absolutely
beautiful day in Palestine.
They're not even
opening the window.
They're just believing Israel.
-That--
-[news host] I think we are...
We are definitely
seeing reports
coming out of the region,
and we are seeing, especially
because of social media,
you are seeing things happening
live on the ground.
I mean, I was just reading some
of your previous work
and the opinion pieces
that you've put out.
And it is clear that
you're seeing a lot,
you're experiencing
a lot there.
-But we are reading that.
-That's good.
And that's not legacy
American media, is it?
But people do have, I mean,
you're speaking to us
live on air now,
so we are giving you
the opportunity
to tell us exactly
what's going on.
-That's great.
-We are telling stories
from the region as we can,
and thank you
for being on this as well.
We appreciate your time.
My pleasure.
[Perlmutter]
[Sidhwa]
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
Um...
Live on air, honestly,
I doubt it
because you're only going
to get opposition from that.
I wouldn't say, when they call
you on for this kind of thing,
it would make sense
to try to litigate it
because you just don't have
enough time, honestly.
And again, the guy's
only response is going to be,
"Oh shit,
I have to defend my boss."
Lest he get in trouble.
That's why we're a good pair,
because you talk intelligently
and I talk emotionally.
You're fact-based,
and I'm like, "Fuck you.
-Why aren't you doing your job?"
-Yeah.
Right? How can I see this death
and you not want
to report on it?
And you don't even seem to think
it's important.
Yeah, no, exactly.
Hey, Thaer. Mark and I are here.
Just wondering
what you're up to.
People here at Nasser say "Hi."
They miss you too.
Um, but anyway, yeah,
if we can help
with anything
that you're doing.
I know you've got
your connections over there,
so if we can help with
anything, just let us know.
[calm music playing]
[Ahmad] It still stings
pretty badly.
And it doesn't help to see
other people kind of get in.
Uh...
And so, because I got rejected,
I tried to file a complaint
with the State Department.
This is their response.
"Were your parents born
in Gaza or the West Bank?
As we understand local laws,
birth in the U.S. or elsewhere
to one or both parents
holding Palestinian IDs
grants the U.S.-born child
a Palestinian ID number as well.
If you haven't been issued
an actual Palestinian ID..."
and then they put
in parenthesis "Huwiya."
"...it is possible
you were listed
on one of your parents' IDs."
Who gives a crap?
Like what are you talking about?
Why are you giving me
this long-winded explanation?
You want to know
where my parents were born?
Why does that matter? I was born
at Cook County Hospital
in Chicago.
What are you talking about?
I was so pissed off.
This is the U.S. Embassy
giving me these excuses.
And then I come back here
to the United States
and get interrogated
and detained
by the Department
of Homeland Security.
[girl singing]
When you feel so mad
that you want to roar
Take a deep breath...
[inhales deeply]
...and count to four
One, two, three, four.
Let's go, Baba, let's go!
You're going to get me!
Uh-oh.
Whoa! Whoa!
[girl laughs]
[soft music playing]
Whoa.
[Ahmad speaking Arabic]
[boy speaking Arabic]
[Baraa]
[Baraa]
-[Ahmad]
-[Baraa]
-[Ahmad]
-[Baraa]
[Baraa]
[Baraa]
[man in Arabic]
[man]
[woman in Arabic]
[man]
[Ahmad] Ah. Okay, yeah.
Oh.
[in English] Very nice.
[in English] Everybody's trying
to help with his, you know...
[Ahmad] Everybody was looking
for a way to help.
[man] Yeah, yeah.
[soft music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
I'm proud of you, buddy.
Thank you very much.
Oh, no, I appreciate it.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
[man in Arabic]
[Ahmad in Arabic]
[Ahmad]
[Ahmad]
[man]
It's amazing
how the entire community
feels exactly the same way.
They all say the same thing.
They just want to be
able to do something.
They want to do something
for our people in Gaza.
...as to how to use our power
of speaking.
[Ahmad] I feel like this
tremendous sense of
survivor's guilt.
It's like, I need to step up,
I need to do more.
[Sidhwa] So, this is the back
of Nasser Hospital.
This is actually
where the mass graves
from the previous
Israeli attacks on Nasser are.
You can see the large mounds
where they were.
I don't know if the mass graves
have been exhumed
and the bodies reburied
somewhere.
I'm honestly not sure.
I certainly don't smell them,
but they've been buried here
for months
if they are, so...
Or actually more than a year,
I guess, it would actually be.
Now, this ambulance
was shot to hell.
You can see that pretty clearly.
It's funny, you don't really
think about it that much,
you know, the possibility
of violence
until you're actually in it.
[beeping]
There's...
this boy, Mohammad,
I'm pretty sure.
You put a chest tube
in him, right?
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
Right, right.
Because it was not functioning.
One, two, three.
There we go.
[in Arabic]
[in Arabic]
[Sidhwa] So, sorry,
this is actually
the 15-year-old girl
with the liver injury
who was taken back
with a stomach injury.
-[Serr in English]
-No.
[Serr]
Oh, he died?
-He died.
-Okay.
That one with the femur injury.
Can you, uh...
Does he know?
It's a video online?
-Online.
-Oh, okay.
That's okay.
At least we did what we tried.
Or, we tried what we could.
That sucks.
[Perlmutter] It's his son,
- correct?
-[Sama] Yeah.
He has the cubitus varus
deformity?
[Sama] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Right.
-Probably.
So the plan is for today,
Um. I'm not sure when.
The operating rooms
are being used
by other traumas right now.
[in Arabic]
[in Arabic]
[in English] He's saying
that he's gonna be staying here
until there's an operation room.
You're welcome.
-Inshallah.
-Inshallah.
-[Elqomboz]
-[Perlmutter] Yeah.
-Used? Prepared?
-No, uh...
-[woman]
-It's broken. Yeah.
Is there a portable X-ray
machine that can come in?
It's on the other side
of the border.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, my dad used to say,
"You have to dance
with who brought you."
-Yeah.
-Right?
[Perlmutter] All right,
let's get started.
We have our nurses.
[Elqomboz] Yeah...
[Perlmutter] Tell
all your girlfriends
that you'll text them later.
-[Elqomboz]
-Just kidding.
[Perlmutter] I know, right?
[Perlmutter] That's important.
Listen, your family is still
the most important thing
here, right?
Right? I get that, all right?
I was just teasing you.
And they're still in the north?
[Perlmutter]
Your little girl died?
Yeah.
Oh man, I'm sorry.
No, no. Thank you.
-I'm sorry.
-Thank you. Thank you.
Because there's so many traumas.
That's right. That's right.
[Perlmutter]
You bother me.
[Perlmutter] Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Jesus Christ.
Now...
that if I keep...
that's...
I don't want...
I'm sorry.
Ten months old.
[woman] I feel so sad
for him. So sorry.
[dour music playing]
[sighs]
If you want to work in Ukraine,
or in Burkina Faso, or in Ghana,
or in Mozambique,
any of these other places,
the likelihood that you'll be
killed is basically random.
You could be killed,
it's possible,
but it's no more likely
than anyone else.
That's not the case in Gaza.
That's not the case
in the West Bank, even.
If the Israelis want to
kill you here, they will do it.
And they will get away with it.
The U.S. won't do
anything about it.
Even if you're an
American citizen, they won't.
So you just have to
accept that risk
if you're going to
come work here.
He put out this narrative.
There's bombing going on.
-Yeah.
-There is smoke coming
from over there.
You can see it? I can't see it.
The... Sorry, anyway,
I should pay attention to
what I'm trying to do here.
He's going to the OR. I have
a case in the OR in 15 minutes.
A little boy.
[explosion]
-There's a bomb.
-[woman] Hold on.
Where was that?
[ominous music playing]
[activist] Gaza, Gaza,
we know your name!
Gaza, Gaza, we know your name!
We won't let you die in vain!
[crowd] We won't let you
die in vain!
[crowd bleating]
[Ahmad] I see pictures
of the journalists
that have been killed.
I see pictures of the children
that have been killed.
It's on us to make sure
that their stories are told.
Because if you turn on the news
right now,
you will not hear
anything about them.
So I ask everybody,
everybody that made it out here
in the cold.
Please, anybody that you know,
share their stories.
Your congressman, your senator,
make sure their staff
knows your name
and knows what you're about.
Thank you very much.
[applause]
[activist] Free, free Palestine!
[Ahmad] Hey, Asha, welcome back.
[Asha] Thank you, Thaer,
good to see you.
Likewise, likewise.
-[man] Hi, Mark.
-[Asha] Hi, Mark.
Hi.
[man] I want to start with you,
Mark, if that's okay.
As a Jewish American physician,
how have you found
your speaking out
has impacted your relationship
with some of your colleagues?
I think most are afraid
to speak up.
I've lost friends over this,
I've gained friends over this.
But people come and go.
And if you lose friends,
they probably weren't that much
of a friend to begin with.
[Ahmad] Ben, maybe
we can mention also,
we've seen healthcare workers
who have spoken out about this,
be suspended, be fired.
Additionally,
medical societies,
professional societies,
for example,
the America
Medical Association,
has refused to adopt
any ceasefire statement
or take a position on this.
And this is especially notable
given their stances on Ukraine.
There's an institutional trend
to silence
and punish people who are
speaking out against this.
And we know
where this comes from. Um...
This comes from simply
Zionistic influences
that invade the board members
of every single university.
It comes from the boards
of institutions like hospitals.
But we can't stop approaching
the root of all evil,
and that's the IDF and
the Likud Party's penetration
like a mold into the fabric
of our society.
And they just don't care
at what cost that is achieved.
I always get nervous
when Mark talks.
[Perlmutter] It can stop
with a telephone call,
as Reagan had done in 1982.
[Ahmad] When he starts
talking about
getting into the
weeds of Zionism,
it's like, well, he can.
He can use language
that is fine for him,
but we'll be guilty
by association
and we'll just get
crushed for it.
[man] I think
we're coming up to time,
and I think
that's a wonderful...
[Perlmutter]
I think that I gain an audience
because I have a white face.
I think that I get invited
to these things,
maybe because
I say the right things,
but also because I represent
a hell-bent of society
that's different
than the average person
who's protesting.
[man] ...that absolutely
this genocide must stop.
[Perlmutter] So you're weaker
over here.
And you've lost more muscle
over here.
You know, this disease
only happens in people
-who drive Harleys.
-Is that right?
If you drove a Jack Bike
or a BMW like mine,
you wouldn't have had
this problem.
-Oh man, shoot.
-[chuckles]
I'm just going to have to hurt.
[both laugh]
All right, hang tight.
I have a blue flag for you.
[woman] You got it.
They know I like glazed donuts.
How much fortitude do you think
I'm gonna have
avoiding a glazed donut today?
Not any at all.
You know, you might as well
just go ahead and cave.
[Perlmutter] If I tap there,
is it sore?
[woman] I feel it
all the way up here.
[Perlmutter] Okay.
My father was my biggest
role model.
He was the only sign
of medicine
in my small, rural town
that I grew up in.
[soft music playing]
He was Jewish.
And as a Jewish physician
in World War II,
he went into
concentration camps
to provide aid
to victims of the Holocaust.
And that was a big influence
in my life.
[woman 1] Salam, everyone.
-Okay, everybody can hear me?
-[woman 2] Yes.
[woman 1] This is going to be
a raw, eyewitness testimony
from two of our amazing doctors
that'll be with us.
Um, when you were both
working with children,
how often were children shot
by snipers?
Or would you describe this
as casualties
from crossfire,
as Israel likes to label it as?
[Perlmutter] But keep in mind,
I think it's perfectly okay
to despise your government's
administration
but love the country.
You can love Israel
and still hate the right-wing
fascist government that runs it.
Praying for its change.
When you stop robbing
the land of a people
who've lived there
for a millennia,
um, and you've stopped
grabbing it at gunpoint,
the children stop dying.
[woman 1]
[Perlmutter] How about
the West Bank?
How about all of Gaza right now?
[woman 1] Okay.
[woman 2] I'm sorry,
what part of...
[overlapping chatter]
[woman 1]
[woman 3] Oh, excuse me.
Okay, thank you.
And therein lies the problem.
Her last comment.
I think they had to see
the horrors of it.
You know,
and I've seen some super ugly,
painful things in my life. Um...
At Ground Zero, at Haiti,
just horribly ugly things.
But I got to tell you,
-none of it was--
-Right, could even compare.
None. Can't even come close.
And it was tough because
even after I got back,
I totally blew you off.
-Yeah.
-I couldn't reset my clock.
It was just difficult.
You know?
It was difficult to communicate.
You were reaching out
towards people
that had either experienced it,
or that were
from Palestinian descent.
Um. And you were leaning on them
instead of leaning on me.
So I just kind of felt like
I was out in the cold.
Yeah, and also,
I didn't think that anyone
who didn't see what I saw
could ever understand
what a mass casualty event
looks like.
That all the patients
were children.
That, um...
I'm going to cry again because
it does it to me every time.
So...
Every time.
I play it in my head every time,
and I can't lose it.
Um...
[Perlmutter] Everybody together.
Let's make a fist bump
and a flower.
[imitating explosion]
[laughs]
[excited chatter]
[crying]
[tap water running]
[water dripping]
[alarm clock chirping]
[man] Hello, can you hear me?
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, hello.
Hi, nice to be here.
We saw a lot of images
from hospitals in Gaza,
tunnels that were built
underneath hospitals,
ammunition
and that sort of images.
Did you see any of that while
you were practicing there?
No, and neither has
anybody else.
And I would really encourage
Israelis to...
To just ask if your government's
telling the truth
about those things.
It's pretty ridiculous.
-You think they're lying?
-Yes, I do.
-We saw the images.
-Which images did you see?
I'd love to see them.
I've never seen any, actually...
You didn't see the IDF
spokesperson videos?
Look, I don't think
it's surprising to you
or anybody else that the IDF
spokesperson lies about things.
That doesn't mean
they're always lying,
but they are capable of lying,
we all know that.
They've done so many times,
just like my own
government's military lies.
Everybody knows that.
There's a reason
that the only people
who can find these things
are Israeli intelligence
and the Israeli military.
I'm sorry,
they're just not true.
[soft music playing]
I've got to be honest,
I'm guessing
they'll just never
run the video.
You know, if they do, then...
good for them.
My parents are from a small
ethnic minority in Pakistan
called the Parsis.
They follow a religion
called Zoroastrianism.
Zoroastrianism emphasizes
fighting for what's right
in the world,
and I'm not religious,
but I definitely inherited that
from my parents.
It really influenced how I saw
the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
I actually went and lived
in Israel for a year,
and I worked with an
Arab-Jewish cooperative there.
And then when I decided
to go to medical school,
I kind of saw my life path
as being
that I'm going
to continue learning
about the Israel-Palestine
conflict as much as I can.
Being a physician isn't some
kind of political extremist.
This was a major opportunity to
bring a different perspective
on what is done
to the Palestinians.
Like, let's look at it
in the reverse.
Benjamin Netanyahu
had his prostate taken out
-at the end of December, right?
-[man] Okay.
Does anybody think that means
Hamas can bomb the hospital?
No, nobody thinks that.
That's crazy.
Can Hamas bomb hospitals
because there are wounded
Israeli soldiers in them?
No. That's not
how hospitals work.
If someone is abusing
a hospital,
there are provisions for it
under international law
for how to actually
deal with it.
What they were showing
were CGI renderings
of what they say are the tunnels
under the hospital,
but they're not there.
[scoffs] And the guy's like,
"Haven't you seen the videos?"
What are you talking about, man?
Haven't I seen CGI videos
that anyone can make
on their computer?
Yes, I've seen those.
They don't actually prove
there's anything under there.
It's just, it's...
Dr. Feroze, thank you so
much for being with us.
Thank you. Nice to talk to you.
[in Arabic]
I'm curious on
what they're going to say.
[Sidhwa] You know,
the Israelis are gonna do
whatever they're gonna do.
[somber music playing]
But as an American,
I just don't want
my government
involved in crimes.
I think of it as just a way of
helping my country to actually
achieve its moral potential.
And for myself to achieve
my moral potential.
[woman]
Uh, to my mind,
this is a political problem,
and if we want to
solve the problem,
not just go and do medical care
but actually solve the problem,
then we need
a political solution
which requires
some political influence.
The United States government is
an active participant in this.
We do not have to accept
that as Americans.
Most physicians are absolutely
horrified by this,
but they're also frightened
by speaking out
because their institutions
are cracking down on them.
And yes, I completely
understand,
it's not that the risk is zero,
but you're literally talking
about being too afraid
to stand up for a million
children who are being starved.
It's very...
How are you going to explain
that to someone in the future?
And I still remember, while
I was just looking at this wound
bleeding on her face,
I remember thinking like,
"Did I pay for this shrapnel,
or did my neighbor,
or did their neighbor?"
You know how senseless
this all of this is.
You know it's not making
anyone safer.
Yet we're all just sleepwalking
into doing it.
The United States has paid
approximately 70 percent
of Israel's war expenditures
since October 7th.
The United States
could stop sending
jet fuel, bombs,
all sorts of weapons.
And if they did that,
the Israelis would have to
negotiate a truce,
which, incidentally,
would also be the best way
to get the hostages released.
So I don't really see
how this is helping anybody.
You know, I don't have a family
of my own.
I don't have anybody
to support.
I don't have any kids
that I need to spend time with.
So I'm kind of uniquely
positioned
to to do this work, and...
And all of the women
that I've dated, have been...
Um...
The way I've always put it
is supportive to a point.
But, uh...
But I think when they realize
that I'm not willing to...
Put this stuff aside
when there's something
that needs to be done,
even though it never seems
to make any difference
to what's going on in the world.
That causes tension, you know?
But no, honestly, um...
I think I'm just probably
a hard person to get along with.
[chuckles] I don't think it has
anything to do with this.
I wish I could blame the fact
that no woman can put up with me
on the Israel-Palestine
conflict,
but I don't think
that's the issue at all.
No, that's not the issue at all.
[man speaking Arabic]
[phone ringing]
[in English]
[man in Arabic]
[Ahmad in Arabic]
[slow music playing]
[Ahmad] Just with respect
to tomorrow,
we'll divide up
into small groups.
I'd say a couple of things,
just from my own experience,
failing a lot at this and not
kind of having the conversation
get derailed.
You guys are all
healthcare workers,
so you have to pretty quickly
figure out
the literacy level of the people
that you're interacting with.
So don't assume that who you're
talking to knows any details.
You can slow-roll it and then
engage in that conversation.
It's really important
that we make it feel real.
Like, tell them the stories.
Let them know that we're talking
about human beings.
You can dismiss the number
and say that,
"Oh, the Ministry of Health
is not accurate."
But you guys were there.
You're eyewitnesses.
You're a very small select group
of people that enter.
You know, the truth of it is,
if we don't bear witness and
treat the genocide as a disease
and go for
the cause of that disease,
then we're we're committing
medical malpractice.
Because genocide has to be
considered a medical diagnosis.
It can no longer be considered
a political entity.
It's just that the disease
happens to be
a political ideology,
and it still has to be
eliminated.
[Ahmad]
Well, we just found out that
USAID has been cut off
at the knees.
They've been told, don't spend
any money. Everything's frozen.
I'm curious
because we're talking.
There's a lot of asks that
we can come up with tomorrow.
[Sidhwa] I don't know,
the way I look at it is,
I think of it as just
asking the king for favors.
The king doesn't give a damn
about you,
but maybe he'll think
it's inconvenient for him.
Or to make him look good,
or make him sleep better
at night or whatever.
So anything that I can get out
of these people that will help--
And by these people
you mean our legislators.
I mean our elected
representatives
who definitely serve us
and the people.
[Perlmutter] Yeah, right.
[soft music playing]
[man] Mark, after this meeting,
I'm gonna text you the address,
that's gonna be your senator.
-And then after that...
-Thom Tillis?
Yeah. And then after that,
there's the congressional
briefing.
I will text you
the address to that.
We just met with
Ted Cruz's office, and...
It was fine.
Just kind of platitudes.
[Perlmutter] How do you think
that went?
[man] Dead ears. What about you?
[Perlmutter] I thought
their answers were rehearsed.
-Yeah.
-I think their ears were dead.
Yeah.
You know, this poster.
It tries to add a sense
of humanity
to the fact that these
innocent people
were taken hostage,
and that's a horrible thing.
But what it doesn't give
credence to
is that if this was a poster
of two-by-two photographs
of Palestinian hostages,
that that photograph would go
clear down that hallway
of people's faces
who are held hostage.
-You ready?
-Yeah, yeah, of course.
-Let's go.
-Always.
[door closes]
[Ahmad] We met with his aide.
He wants to reiterate
that the senator
is a staunch supporter,
an ally of Israel.
And that, that was not
going to change.
And we said we're not asking him
to change that, you know.
We think that
there's an opportunity here
to do some good,
to help save some kids' lives.
Didn't take any notes,
so I don't know
if that's going to go back
to the senator,
but, you know, it is what it is.
We'll go to our next meeting
and we'll do it again.
[Perlmutter] It was a strict
interrogation by one guy.
He's a deputy director
or something.
And his only concern
was quotes that I made...
-What?
-...on TikTok
or social media posts.
-That kind of meeting you had?
-Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
So I said, "What you're proving
is that you stalked me
-on Instagram."
-[chuckles]
I said, "I'm making no mistakes
about my differing politics
with you.
But that doesn't mean
we can't develop a common ground
to solve the problem
of the lack of medical aid
going to Gaza."
And then he gives you
the platonic at the end.
"Well, thank you
for your service."
[laughs] You know?
Like, stick it up your ass.
-You know? Right?
-[chuckles] Yeah.
I mean, because you don't
really mean it, right?
[Ahmad] None of what we're doing
about Gaza right now,
I expected that
I would ever have to do.
None of this social media
advocacy,
writing op eds,
trying to organize communities.
I, obviously,
based on my career path,
was not interested
in doing any of this.
I'd rather be in Gaza
with the people that are there,
and having seen what's happened
and talking to them,
they told us, you have to
advocate on our behalf.
I promise you,
there's not a single person
who's comfortable doing this,
but they all feel a sense of
duty that they have to do that.
[slow music playing]
[Sidhwa] This country
that I belong to,
that I was born in,
that I was raised in,
there's this cognitive
dissonance that exists.
My American side
actively works to suppress
my Palestinian identity.
In a very real and deadly way.
[reporter] As doctors, I wonder
if you have anything to say
to the recent claims
by President Trump himself
that he stopped
$50 million funding for Gaza,
which he claims to be used
to buy condoms.
And he also claims that funding,
the condoms would be used
to make bombs.
And you doctors, do you have
anything to say on that claim?
This is nonsense.
And it's a distraction
from the true horrors that are
happening on the ground.
And the ludicrous nature
of this sort of language
dominating the airwaves.
I mean,
it's totally unacceptable
to be focusing on
these sorts of things,
and there's nothing
that suggests
that is even
in the realm of reality.
We want hungry kids to be fed.
We want hospitals
to be able to operate
without the fear
of being attacked.
And we want Palestinians
to have a chance at life.
I will say that if we do not get
to a phase two of this ceasefire
and a phase three,
then any of the work
that we are advocating for,
in this very short period,
will be for nothing.
And it will be the cruelest
thing imaginable,
to give a glimmer of hope
to the Palestinians in Gaza,
and then for them
to hear fighter jets
overhead bombing again.
[explosion]
[reporter in Arabic]
[men shouting]
[indistinct chatter]
[in English]
[Sidhwa] So the, the bomb
that hit
went right through
the Nasser Medical Complex sign.
This is completely insane.
You don't bomb hospitals.
Everybody knows that.
It's part of the oldest part
of international law.
You know,
the first Geneva Convention
was signed in 1864,
and that was the first creation
of international law,
at least in the West.
And, and it's specifically
about not obstructing the work
of physicians and nurses.
This is this is barbarity.
This isn't how, reasonable,
civilized people behave.
It doesn't matter
what they were trying to do.
You don't bomb a hospital,
no matter what.
That's not how it works.
I was headed down there,
but then somebody pulled me
into the ICU and said,
"Hey, this guy is bleeding.
Can you look at him?"
I went over to look at the guy,
and five or six minutes later
the hospital shook.
You know, lights flickered,
just for a second,
and everyone said, "Oh,
that bomb hit the building."
There was a 15-year-old kid
in there
that Feroze had operated
on the day before
or two days before, and was
getting ready for discharge.
And that kid was incinerated.
Yeah, no. That's the first time
I've ever done
an operation on a patient
who was blown up
and then had him
get blown up again
in his hospital bed.
That's pretty unusual.
That's not something
doctors deal with very often.
[Perlmutter] You know, it just
goes to show that, honey,
they don't give a shit about
anybody else.
As long as they kill the person
that they're after.
I just don't see
the value in it.
I don't see the..
the reason to do it.
I don't see the reason to keep
doing this. I think it's crazy.
And it almost killed me
yesterday.
I mean,
if I had gone down and been
changing my kids dressing,
probably there would have been
three bodies,
and I would have been
one of them.
I don't particularly like that.
[somber music playing]
[distant gunfire]
[all shouting]
[man 1 in Arabic]
[man 2]
[girl]
-[man 1]
-[man 2]
[man 3]
[man 4]
[indistinct shouting]
[man]
[in English] I don't care!
[Sidhwa] So there was an Apache
helicopter gunship attack.
We received two little boys
probably three or four dead.
[monitors beeping]
[anxious chatter]
[Perlmutter]
[indistinct chatter]
[Perlmutter] Which room
are we using?
[man] OR Three.
They're setting up in three.
[woman] I need to know
which room.
She's starting to wake up, too.
Let's get her warm.
Well, we've got to run.
We've got to hurry.
One, two, three.
[Perlmutter] Let's get started
on saving her arm
because it's avascular.
And it's been over an hour.
I'll trade you these
for another...
[indistinct chatter]
[monitors beeping]
[speaking Arabic]
[Sidhwa] Yeah, that's what...
So three surgeons,
four fellowships,
all working on one little girl
for, what, two and a half hours?
And she's probably gonna lose
her right leg.
Very likely to lose
her left leg,
and very likely to still lose
her left arm above the elbow.
[Perlmutter] Oh,
there's a hot chance.
The pulse is diminished.
Yeah.
You can't feel it.
[indistinct murmuring]
I'll see you soon.
Thanks for everything.
Send me a picture
of your wedding, yeah?
Of course.
-I'll see you soon.
-Thank you for coming here.
No, no.
-I hope I'll see you soon.
-Thank you.
-Thank you for everything.
-No, thank you for everything,
-my friend.
-Let's keep in touch.
Nice to meet you, my friend.
Thanks for everything.
-See you soon? Inshallah.
-Inshallah.
[laughs]
I was not prepared for this.
[Sidhwa] There is this
weird thing that happens
when you leave Gaza and you...
really feel like
you have no right to leave.
You just get this feeling of...
Kind of shame.
[speaking Arabic]
-[man in Arabic]
-Bye-bye, my friend. Thank you.
[man]
-Bye-bye.
-[woman in Arabic]
Thank you for everything.
Thank you, my friend. Be safe.
[dramatic music playing]
[Perlmutter] Well,
I actually felt guilty leaving.
I felt guilty driving away
from the crumbled buildings.
Um...
And seeing, you know, all the...
The death and suffocation
that is yet to be discovered.
Because you just can't see
hundreds of millions
of tons of building
crumbled down like that
and presume
there's still not a couple
hundred thousand people
buried under that.
It's just so immense
and so widespread.
It's so immense.
[Amy] Alright, I don't want
to film too much, you know.
I just want to say welcome back.
Yeah.
Thanks.
[Perlmutter] This is my OR team.
-Say hi, everybody.
-[all] Hi.
[Perlmutter]
Introduce yourselves.
[Perlmutter] This is Drimi.
This is the world's
best anesthesiologist.
Just ask him.
Dina.
She's a nurse anesthetist
and wonderful.
And the most budding,
wonderful orthopedic surgeon
who did an index
metacarpal flange joint,
and we learned a lot
during that case.
And then we moved back over here
to the world's
best medical student.
-[laughs] Say hi, Sama.
-Hi.
[rain pattering]
[Sidhwa] So I'm...
I don't feel like
I should have left.
I think that was
a mistake, actually.
Because I actually just
don't see any scenario now
where Gaza
isn't just destroyed.
Because I was already there.
And because nobody
was coming in to replace me,
I think it would have been
better to stay,
and to witness firsthand
what was going on.
Um...
You know, I have,
I'm a relatively known quantity,
so I have some access to media,
some access to...
[exhales] To people who
can write about these things.
And so...
I just feel like I could have
provided some protection
by staying.
In retrospect,
I just wish I had,
I guess, is what
I'm trying to say.
The...
I think that would
have been the more
proper thing to do.
I don't think, honestly,
that my probably
combined 35 minutes
on American
and corporate television stuff,
has been all that useful,
to be honest.
I don't think it made
any difference
in the popular perception
of things at all.
And then, advocacy
that we've been doing
with the U.S. government
and other institutions.
I've got to be honest,
it seems pretty useless.
And I don't think we've...
At least what I've seen.
It hasn't made one dent
of difference in anything.
But the point
of all of this is, is this...
So this this is from
an anesthesiologist named Nizar.
I've got this
just yesterday, actually.
He said, "You know,
I have a five-year-old boy
named Keenan.
Today I asked him how many
kinds of birds you know.
He answered,
'I know quadcopter, helicopter,
Apache, F-16, and F-35.'"
And when he grows up,
what will we teach him?
It's a hard thing to read.
And Nizar is one
of the most dedicated fathers
I've ever met in my life.
We should support these people
in any way we can.
And you all are,
so thanks for that.
[applause]
[man] Dr. Sidhwa,
you have said several times
you're not sure
of the effectiveness
of the things you're doing.
You know, of course,
that, that's
a ridiculous statement.
Remember how long it took us
to end the war in Vietnam?
And so it's important
to carry it on.
Thank you very much.
[applause]
[Ahmad] Okay. I need your help.
You want to zip it up?
Let's put it in.
[laughs] She doesn't want to.
-Baba?
-In. Thank you, Betour.
No, no, no...
[Ahmad] You want to put
in my stethoscope, please?
Yes.
[Ahmad] All right.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, we want to take this.
We want to take this
to Falasteen.
[girl] All right. What's...
-This is for Falasteen?
-Yeah. It's for Falasteen.
I've got to put this as well.
[wistful piano music playing]
[girls chattering]
-Salaam alaikum.
-[girl] Baba, are you outside?
I'm outside, Baba.
You want to see Falasteen?
-Yes.
-You want to see Falasteen?
Yes.
Do you see it?
That's Falasteen.
Can I come over there, Baba?
[Ayat] Are you going
to listen to Mama?
You want to come
over here, Baba?
[girl] Yeah.
Betour, what about you?
[Betour] I want Baba.
You want to come to Falasteen
with Baba and Mariam?
[Betour] Yeah.
[laughs] Okay.
[Betour] Where are you going,
Baba?
Baba, I'm going
to come back home.
I wanted to go to Falasteen,
but I couldn't go.
Where are you?
Yeah.
You show up here, going to Gaza.
But there's a risk.
I think the more that
we are doing the work
that we're doing,
trying to highlight
what's happening in Gaza.
I think we risk never being able
to access any part
of Palestine again.
I mean, it's, like,
literally right over there.
But it feels so far away.
I think that shock of somebody's
trying to literally erase it.
I hope my daughters
are better than we were.
I hope they don't fail
like how we failed.
And I think that
what I would ask everybody
but myself first is,
did you do everything
that you could?
[dramatic music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[all shouting]
[man 1 in Arabic]
[explosion]
[man 2]
With our military pressure
and President Trump's
global leadership,
we achieved
this historic moment.
[cheers and applause]
[Trump] We make the best weapons
in the world,
and we've given
a lot to Israel, frankly.
And you obviously
used them very well.
[explosion]
[Ahmad] At Nasser Hospital,
we saw what happened.
How many times has that
happened in Gaza?
Somebody made that call.
Somebody made that decision.
Somebody said,
"Here's the green light.
Attack those hospitals."
So the traditional protections
that are supposed
to be afforded
to healthcare workers,
first responders
and journalists,
gone out the window.
But it's not just
about hospitals
that are being attacked.
It's the erasure
of that society.
Every aspect of life
has been destroyed.
[explosion]
[men yelling]
[crying]
[all shouting]
[sobbing]
[screaming in Arabic]
[Ahmad] But there's been
no accountability.
Who will bring
the perpetrators to justice?
Who is going to prosecute them?
[activists chanting]
[action music playing]
[yelling]
Who is going to confront
the perpetrators
in a way that they can't rest
without seeing us?
It's the best way
that we can honor
everybody that's been killed.
And it's the only way we'll be
able to achieve accountability
and justice.
[soothing music playing]
Lead the way, friend
Lead the way again
Right into the fire
Headed in, but
Don't slow down and
Throw me in the mire
And praise
The new you
Where is
It in the deep?
You'll never guess
What I just went through
Everything that
I just hold true
Implodes and breaks
Into thousands
Of little pieces
So I ask you now
Isn't this wonderful?
[humming]
Following,
Now here we are now
On this train to oblivion
There's a spirit
That invites us
But you can't seduce
Replace
Behold you
Misplace it
In the deep
You'll never guess
What I just went through
Everything that
I just hold true
Implodes and breaks
Into thousands
Of little pieces
Now I ask you now
Isn't this wonderful?
[humming]
You'll never guess
What I just went through
Everything that
I just hold true
Implodes and breaks
Into thousands
Of little pieces
So I ask you now
Isn't this wonderful?
We are now
Dissolving slowly
Name turn to echoes
No one ever heard
The astral light
Grows brighter
But it all fades
Will they forget us too?
Will they forget us too?
Could they forget us too?
[music ends]