Rocio Santamaria

EM consultant, Colombian diaspora. Hopeful.

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

“My name is Amos Goldberg. I am an Israeli Professor of Holocaust Studies. For nearly 30 years I have researched and taught the Holocaust, genocide and state violence.

And I want to tell whoever is willing to listen that what’s happening now in Gaza is a genocide.

A year ago when October 7th happened, like all Israelis I was in shock. It was a war crime and a crime against humanity. 1200 people - more than 800 of them civilians - were killed in one day. Children and the elderly were among those taken hostage. Communities were destroyed. It was outrageous, traumatizing, personal. Like most Israelis, I know people who were killed, who lost loved ones or whose loved ones were taken hostage.

But immediately afterwards came Israel’s response and within weeks thousands of civilians were killed in Gaza. It took me some time to digest what was unfolding before my eyes. It was agonizing to confront that reality. I was reluctant to call it a genocide.

But if you read Raphael Lemkin – the Jewish-Polish legal scholar who coined the term ‘genocide’ and was the major driving force behind the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention – what is happening in Gaza now is exactly what he had in mind when he spoke about genocide.

It does not need to look like the Holocaust to be a genocide. Each genocide looks different and not all involve killing of millions or the entire group. The United Nations Genocide Convention explicitly asserts that genocide is the act of deliberately destroying a group in whole or in part. Those are the words.

But there does need to be a clear intent.

And indeed, there are clear indications of intent to destroy Gaza: Israel’s leaders - including the prime minister and the minister of defence - and many high-ranking military officers, media personalities, rabbis, as well as ordinary soldiers were very open about what they wanted to achieve. There were countless documented incitements to turn the whole of Gaza into rubble and claims that there are no innocent people living there.

A radical atmosphere of dehumanization of the Palestinians prevails in Israeli society to an extent that I can’t remember in my 58 years of living here.

Now that vision has been enacted. Tens of thousands of innocent children, women and men have been killed. Over a hundred thousand were wounded. There is a near total destruction of infrastructure, intentional starvation and blocking of humanitarian aid. There are mass graves and reliable testimony of summary executions. Children that were shot by snipers. All the universities and almost all hospitals are gone. Almost all the population is displaced. There have been numerous bombings of civilians in so-called ‘safe zones’. Gaza does not exist anymore. It is completely destroyed. Thus, the outcome fits perfectly with the stated intentions of Israel’s leadership.

Lemkin - that scholar who coined the term ‘genocide’ - described two phases of a genocide. The first is the destruction of the annihilated group and the second is what he called ‘imposition of the national pattern’ of the perpetrator. We are now witnessing the second phase as Israel prepares ethnically cleansed areas for Israeli settlements.

And therefore, I have come to the conclusion that this is exactly what a genocide looks like. We don’t teach about genocides in order to realize it retrospectively. We teach about it in order to prevent it and to stop it.

But like in every other case of genocide in history right now we have mass denial. Both here in Israel and around the world.

But reality cannot be denied.

So yes, it is a genocide.

And once you come to this conclusion you cannot remain silent.”

- Statement to Led By Donkeys, December 2024
- Photo: Parliament Square, London, 8.40am, 4th December 2024

[Rocio Santamaria @roxycaine]

This is beyond words. An abomination

[Pop Crave @PopCrave]

Blue Cross Blue Shield will no longer cover anesthesia for the full length of certain surgeries in Connecticut, New York, and Missouri.

If a surgery exceeds a specific duration, anesthesia costs for the additional time will not be covered.

[ParalympicsGB @ParalympicsGB]

Life at work as a blind CEO 💼

On International Day of Disabled People we spent a day in the office with the boss @ClarkieGB7

#IDDP #IDPwD

[National AIDS Trust @NAT_AIDS_Trust]

Despite incredible advances made in the treatment of #HIV, there is still far too much stigma and misinformation surrounding the subject.

Here are five facts about HIV which are vital to understanding this #WorldAIDSDay

#UequalsU #CantPassItOn

[Rocio Santamaria @roxycaine]

Dear Rheum folk. Have you considered coming over to @bluesky? Very friendly and filling up with academia without the bots and targeted misinformation #ACR24

[Tsuneyasu Yoshida M.D., Ph.D.🇯🇵→🇺🇸 @drtune3640538]

Surprised...
The answer to why autoimmune diseases are more common in women is becoming clear...

#ACR24

[Rocio Santamaria @roxycaine]

@drphiliplee1 will you be looking into bluer skies? Missing your presence there

[Rocio Santamaria @roxycaine]

@carolecadwalla @RobinHadley1 Will you cross over to bluer skies?

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

WATCH: Rep. Shaundelle Brooks (D) arrives at the legislature 💪🏾

After losing her son Akilah in the Waffle House shooting, @Natrixdreammom ran for state house - and won.

If you’re looking for a little hope today, hopefully this can provide some. #FightLikeAMom

[Rocio Santamaria @roxycaine]

Sharing a photo of a remarkable sunset. Behind the thick cloud that obscures the light splitting the sky in two, there is still the sun.

[michelle angus @michangus]

Fantastic service @BlackpoolHosp managing suspected #CES patients avoiding ED, therefore reducing lengthy waits for patients to be assessed @RCollEM due to ED pressures. So important we think different about local pathways to urgent MR - great work @SteveHi94456620 #msk @NHSGIRFT

[Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières @MSF_canada]

Doctors Without Borders denounces Israeli ban on @UNRWA 's operations.

It will further undermine people's survival prospects in #Gaza and heavily impact communities in the West Bank.

[DOZA🧐 @lil_doza]

The Interviewer, Ezra Levvannt was Tommy Robinson’s former Boss.

He interviews a lovely Irish lady around the grand canal.

He got completely destroyed with logical responses,a big smile and kindness.

We live in a world where you’re interrogated if you practice humanity.

[Royal College of Emergency Medicine @RCollEM]

🚨 NEW ADVISORY STATEMENT 🚨

Management of Adults Presenting to the Emergency Department Who May Require an Emergency Laparotomy 🔗 https://t.co/g1yGE9hCal

🔗 All position and advisory statements: https://t.co/zi6byqCoJ1

#rcemPAS #MedTwitter #EmergencyMedicine

[UNICEF @UNICEF]

"Children – deeply unwell children – are being denied the medical care that could save them in Gaza, and then prevented from leaving to places where help awaits.”

Full remarks from UNICEF's @1james_elder on lethal delays in medical evacuation: https://t.co/jXDJ1rGm8W

[Mariana Sanz de Santamaría @marisanzdesa]

Conocí a Wendy en mi primer día como profe. Era directora de grupo de 10mo, con 57 estudiantes. Me presenté y uno desparramado en el pupitre me dice “y ud cachaquita cree que va a aguantar ser profe aquí? Yo le pongo dos meses” el resto se reventó se la risa. Wendy no.

[Rocio Santamaria @roxycaine]

@wesstreeting bring back Sure Start

[Institute for Fiscal Studies @TheIFS]

NEW: Access to Sure Start as a child reduced the likelihood of ending up in youth custody by a fifth.

THREAD on our new report, funded by @NuffieldFound, on Sure Start’s impact on crime and social care outcomes: [1/9]

https://t.co/Gq1iPwp2Ud

[Ben Kentish @BenKentish]

Scrapping SureStart was one of the most stupid, short-sighted and self-defeating things the Coalition did. Labour should bring it back.

[Rocio Santamaria @roxycaine]

@TracyEdwardsMBE And I will quickly admit that I don’t know enough about this subject and it is difficult, and I don’t have fully formed opinions. But I don’t think Imane’s case is as black and white and I think the trolling she receives is vile.

[Rocio Santamaria @roxycaine]

@TracyEdwardsMBE She has been a woman from birth, her medical condition, which she didn’t choose, has been used against her when she has succeeded. Genetics is complex. There is more to gender than xx/xy. To jump in the wagon of hate against her doesn’t advance our rights imho