Klara Johansson

Public Health researcher & entrepreneur. Interests: children & youths, social epidemiology, gender, mental health, injury/safety, open data. Literature & music.

[Ami Dar @AmiDar]

A year (!) of writing in one tweet: Terror is always wrong. Revenge is not a strategy. A child is a child is a child. Release all hostages now. Cease fire. Let the aid flow. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians are leaving. Without hope for a shared future this does not end.

[Jennifer Gunter @DrJenGunter]

Doing Your Own Research? Beware of data voids https://t.co/RKfSycmeiK

[Klara Johansson @KlaJoh]

@chipsandgist @EsheruKwaku https://t.co/BYQpdAB8Q2

[Ami Dar @AmiDar]

Whenever I’m feeling hopeless, I try to remind myself that everything we now see as moral or good was once a minority opinion. And so it is now. The only way forward is to work for freedom and dignity for all. Not just for my people or for yours. For all.

[עומדים ביחד نقف معًا Standing Together🟣 @omdimbeyachad]

The Israeli military’s demand for the 250,000 Gaza city residents to evacuate the area is insanity. People are choosing between the risk of aerial bombardment, live fire, starvation, dehydration or disease. These are not real choices - there is no safe place to go in Gaza.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

Talk to Israeli soldiers? Recently, I had two separate conversations with newly discharged IDF soldiers who participated in the Gaza war. Both began in a confrontational manner and subsequently went in two different directions that I wanted to share.

The first was while I was at a vigil calling for the end of the war and the release of hostages. A man came aggressively screaming towards me as I was giving a speech to the people who were in attendance. He was enraged by my comments against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. “Why do you care about Netanyahu when this is all about Hamas?” I said I absolutely despise Hamas and hold them responsible for launching this war. However, Netanyahu is a literal criminal who not only mismanaged the war and prolonged it without an end game, but has allowed Hamas to be entrenched in Gaza and keep the Palestinians divided to abort the two-state solution.

“Release the hostages!” He yelled, to which I said, “Amen, dude — not only have I been calling for the expedient release of the hostages, but I actually met with former hostages and current hostage families to humanize them and ensure that their plight is not ignored even as I and others are horrified by what’s happening in Gaza.” He proceeded to tell me about his combat experience in Jabaliya, and I told him that I grew up not far from the camp where my dad was an UNRWA doctor. He then described how Hamas fought in crowded/dense areas that were extremely difficult to work around.

I mainly listened to him as he was clearly surprised to see an actual Gazan in front of him outside of the troubled Strip. I shared with him that despite my opposition to Hamas and acknowledgment of their vicious tactics that were clearly traumatizing for him, I hold Israel responsible for the three separate airstrikes that killed over 30 members of my family for no fault of their own. I, too, carry immense trauma and pain from this war and from previous literal injuries from past airstrikes while I was a child in Gaza. After roughly ten minutes of conversation, in which I listened patiently and gave him space to share his raw feelings, he both calmed down and attempted to listen to me, though that was clearly difficult for him. He asked if he could shake my hand, to which I said yes and gave him a business card to follow up with me if he wished to.

The second encounter with a recently discharged IDF soldier who participated in the unfolding war was after I gave a talk to a group of people in which I described my background, my feelings towards Hamas, the tragedy of my family, and my hopes for a better future. This individual asked a question after my talk, and they were visibly upset and angry with me, saying that I had maligned the IDF and was not balanced enough. The individual believed that I was disrespectful towards Israel by proclaiming that the killing of my family members, including children as young as three and four months old in Israeli airstrikes, amounts to a war crime.

“No one is as moral as our army; many people in Gaza are not innocent because it is not just Hamas that are the bad people as we saw during the rescue operation of the four hostages,” the individual said while shaking and crying. They were involved in the army’s war effort but not in direct combat. I tried my best to be respectful and to give them space to share their thoughts, though I was quite surprised and disappointed that they ignored everything else in my talk, including my clear description of Hamas’s tactics and strategies that harm civilians. I pushed back on their claims that a large number of Gazans are not innocent civilians by asking if they were okay with the killing of my family members who had nothing to do with Hamas or the atrocities of October 7. I tried repeatedly to find common ground and acknowledge the feelings and traumas of this person. Unfortunately, this was a one-way effort whereby they failed to express any empathy for the loss of my family members or the tens of thousands of civilians and children who are being killed by the Israeli military’s operation.

Unlike the first example I shared above, the interaction with this individual ended in a disappointing stalemate, impasse, and an unwillingness to proceed meaningfully, and nothing constructive came out of my interaction with them. I was honestly upset that the starting point was not one of empathy and compassion and that I had been more than willing to meet them halfway but was not afforded the same willingness. Nothing that I had said meant anything as long as I was critical of Israeli policies and actions despite my abundantly clear rejection of violence and promotion of healing, reconciliation, peace, and coexistence.

These are difficult conversations, and I must admit that my willingness to have them is not in the slightest a dismissal of how challenging and hard they are. On the one hand, I believe in humanizing others, and I try to have compassion and empathy toward all people, including Israelis who have experienced pain and trauma. On the other hand, it is, at times, exceptionally hard for me, with all of my own pain and trauma, to feel like I have to sideline my own suffering and pain to listen and be the bridge-builder and peacemaker. Time and again, I have displayed an unwavering willingness to meet people more than halfway and extend my hand for dialog and engagement, even with those with whom I disagree. But I am not a flawless, emotionless human being; I, too, experience the same feelings that all traumatized people feel during this conflict.

Sometimes, I have to push for my trauma and pain to be acknowledged, legitimized, and be seen as worthy of consideration and compassion. It takes a daily commitment on my part to keep an open mind and heart to have these difficult engagements. They are desperately needed and vital for forging a different path forward. At times, they are tough and complex but lead somewhere, while in some instances, they are emotionally draining without any discernible benefits.

Regardless of how demoralizingly slow progress can be, some planted seeds will grow and yield transformative outcomes.

[Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus @DrTedros]

There’s really no safe corner in #Gaza. The latest reports on evacuation orders in Gaza City will further impede delivery of very limited life saving care.

Al-Ahli and Patient Friendly hospitals are out of service. Patients either self-evacuated, were given early discharge or referred to Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals, which are suffering shortage of fuel, beds and trauma medical supplies. Indonesian Hospital is triple over its capacity.

Al-Helou Hospital is within the blocks of the evacuation order but continues to be partially functional.

As-Sahaba and Al-Shifa hospitals are in close proximity to the areas under evacuation order but remain functional so far.

Six medical points and two primary health care centers are also within the evacuation zones.

These key hospitals and medical facilities could quickly become non-functional due to hostilities in their vicinity or obstruction to access.

Ceasefire!

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

A few hours ago, the Israeli military gave evacuation orders to large swaths of eastern Khan Younis in southern Gaza, in what appears to be preparations for a new ground offensive in the area. Tens of thousands of Gazans are scrambling to evacuate the area which is already experiencing intense aerial and artillery bombardment. Most of Khan Younis' residents have already fled multiple times over the course of the war, with this being yet another chapter in the unfolding horror. How much longer can people in Gaza take this? Imagine being stuck between Hamas and Israel, and this being your life for almost a year. Enough - this war cannot go on forever.

[UNRWA @UNRWA]

"Trash is piling up everywhere, people are living under plastic sheeting where temperatures soar.” @UNWateridge

Families in #Gaza live next to mountains of garbage and sewage. With very few bathrooms available and unbearable summer heat, the sanitary conditions are desperate.

[Klara Johansson @KlaJoh]

@michaelheister @AdrianoFeria @RyanAFournier 2/2
...if we acknowledge that there is a system which is very hard to break free from, then we can also acknowledge that at baseline there is nothing wrong with men, the fault lies with the system, ie patriarchy. Which, to some extent, both men and women help uphold.

[Klara Johansson @KlaJoh]

@michaelheister @AdrianoFeria @RyanAFournier 1/2
Tbh, I'd say the opposite. If we don't see that there is a structure that rewards different behaviours in boys/men vs girls/women, then there would be no explanation for the higher prevalence of violence and general assholery among men except "its in their nature". BUT...

[Ami Dar @AmiDar]

Israelis with the photos of killed Gazans calling for a ceasefire in front of the American Embassy in Jerusalem. More power to them.

[Shaiel Ben-Ephraim @academic_la]

Remember when we were doing this after October 7? Watching the most horrific footage conceivable and trying to see if their family is in it? Palestinians are living that.

We are experiencing the same pain at the same time. So intimately close, yet so far from each other.

[Hamza @HowidyHamza]

If there is one general rule that must be followed by everyone in every particular war, regardless of the conditions or the enemy, it is not to drop high-intensity bombs on areas full of civilians.

[Magda Gad – Gad World @gad_media]

Måste-tråd om desinformation som sprids just nu. 🧵

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

A disturbing report about the conditions under which detainees from Gaza are held by the Israeli military. Most were arbitrarily gathered inside the Strip during ground operations, including my sister-in-law's brother & her brother-in-law, who were captured in Khan Younis three months ago and have not been heard from since. Men were routinely gathered, separated from women/children, and sent to Israel for interrogation. Many languish in horrendous conditions and face no clear charges or justifications for their continued detention beyond broad suspicions; they experience beatings, deprivation, abuse, and neglect. There needs to be transparency and fair justice to either let them go or provide clear evidence for their suspected crimes and imprisonment. Regardless, their conditions must be investigated and addressed to ensure that they are held in accordance with Israel's own laws, which prohibit abuse, torture, and mistreatment for vengeful reasons.

It goes without saying that Hamas is a vile criminal organization that does not respect international humanitarian law and mistreats inmates, detainees or captives, Palestinians and Israelis. But as a democratic country, Israel should not look to Hamas for setting the bar - it can and must do exponentially better when it comes to this issue. Israel should avoid the mistakes of the US during the occupation of Iraq, in which these detention facilities ended up being breeding grounds for future insurgents and extremists - either try detainees for specific crimes with evidence or release them immediately and stop the mistreatment and abuse.

@IDFSpokesperson @LTC_Shoshani @Israel_MOD @IsraeliPM @Israel @IDF @yoavgallant @ICRC_ilot @ICRC

[Klara Johansson @KlaJoh]

@BornSry @NBCOUT From abstract: The comparison group in that study is people in the general population. It does not compare pre/post transition, it just tests if transition can remove excess suicide rate compared to cis people; not if it improves it compared to not transitioning.

[Ami Dar @AmiDar]

Six months (!) after October 7th, all I feel is an overwhelming blanket of sadness. None of this had to be this way. None of it. We are human beings. We have agency. Don’t let anyone tell you “there was no other way.” Of course there was.