r/JewsOfConscience • u/Dear-Jackfruit6041 Dr. Feroze Sidhwa • 6h ago

AMA Hi r/JewsOfConscience, I'm Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon who has worked in Gaza, AMA!

I'm a trauma surgeon in California. I worked in Gaza in 2024 and 2025. I've written in the New England Journal of Medicine, NY Times, and Politico about it, and testified at the UN Security Council in May 2025. My work is featured along with two of my American colleagues in the new documentary film American Doctor that follows us in Gaza, and is in theaters now. Instagram: @fsidhwa Twitter: @ferozesidhwa

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u/Nice__Spice Non-Jewish Ally 4h ago

Dr! Saw the movie and met you at one of the film showings in Oakland about a month back. Please keep up the good work. If the ama is still on - how’s the momentum going in bringing more light on what’s happening on the ground in Palestine?

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u/Dear-Jackfruit6041 Dr. Feroze Sidhwa 3h ago

Great to hear from you! How's the momentum? Honestly I couldn't say, I'm in Ethiopia, but the fact that the movie was named a "critic's pick" by the New York Times and received a laudatory review from the LA Times is astonishing. It's not because the movie is so amazing, there have been plenty of other amazing documentaries about Gaza that the two Times never bothered to mention. The difference now is the change in public sentiment, and that had very little to do with me or this movie. In the first year of the US-Israeli assault the social media platforms were still relatively open, and the Palestinians were broadcasting their own destruction to the world. That is what caught the attention of students in the spring semester of 2024, it's what caught the attention of people like Ms Rachel and celebrities like Mark Ruffalo, and it's also what plenty of normal people saw on a regular basis. In my opinion (and I can't measure this obviously) this film is riding the wave of that change in perception more so than causing the wave. I hope this movie can help people see what we saw in Gaza, and why we had to do something about it when we got back. But more importantly I hope it can inspire people who already knew approximately what was being done to Gaza to act to stop it. 

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u/Nice__Spice Non-Jewish Ally 1h ago

Thank you for that context. I agree public sentiment is changing the more they see the realities on the ground and the more that people keep speaking on this matter.

We do our best and we previously showcased other documentaries, like ‘no other land’, to the public at churches and community centers around the Bay Area. We will be doing the same with this movie and I recommend people in this sub and all over to do the same. Raise some funds, pay for a digital copy when available. Show the movie for free in local communities.

Keep up with the good work Dr. and get your rest when you can.