Israel - Day One
On October 13, 2023, I headed to Israel as a Medical Examiner from the USA with APF, sanctioned by the Israeli Ministry of Health and cleared by the Pentagon.
Myself and three other board certified Medical Examiners, including Judy Melinek, Ariel Goldschmidt and Carl Wigren headed to Israel as the first four American volunteer physicians to assist in the identification and documentation of war crimes from the October 7, 2023 massacre. Amir Goldstein, the Executive Director of American Healthcare Professionals and Friends for Medicine in Israel, accompanied our group to Israel. American Healthcare Professionals and Friends for Medicine in Israel (APF) was founded 50 years ago following the Yom Kippur War, as a physician reserve, it had not been activated until 10/07/2023, and it had no medical examiners.
With the rapid organization of this first delegation of volunteer physicians to go to Israel, we were flagged by the Pentagon, at JFK International Airport. We were stopped and questioned why forensic pathologists were headed to Israel, where we were going, staying, and for whom we were working. Of course, we had none of this information for our own protection. Thank goodness Ariel, our official was with us to answer all questions. All of this was done of course to protect us. But imagine being questioned by a Pentagon official at JFK Airport in NYC after 911, as a very educated person and having no valid answers. It was the beginning of a very surreal trip.
While standing in line in JFK, I noticed that I was the only non-orthodox Jewish woman in the line and the 2 other physicians were perhaps the only non-orthodox Jewish men in the queue.
At the terminal we were suddenly upgraded to first class. Another surreal moment.
We landed in Israel at 2AM, collected our luggage, had a brief photo-opportunity, and were whisked off to our first Tel Aviv hotel, where we slept for 3 hours before starting to work.
At 7:00AM, we arrived at the Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, to begin orientation and then work. We were in a safe area, and not Ramla.
During the orientation it became very apparent that we would have to team up as physicians during our daily 8-hour shift. Everything was in Hebrew, Drs. J. Melinek (JM) and A. Goldschmidt (AG) spoke both Hebrew and English while Dr. C. Wigren (CW) and I (DLG) only spoke English.
In the autopsy suite we worked with a team of approximately 5, one of which was a volunteer transcriptionist, who wrote everything in Hebrew. JM and I and AG and CW. JM and I quickly created a Hebrew - English vocabulary list on a whiteboard, as a quick reference to accomplish the work at hand.
In the beginning we were instructed to only document items to aid in identification, but one case in and it became apparent that we had to document the presence / absence of injuries as war crimes for future use. My job is to objectively document the presence or absence of injuries and the presence or absence of disease and other physical identifiers. What is done with the information is for a court a law. I am a scientist and must remain objective. I speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves. And I do not speak with the press.
At the end of workday one for the USA Forensic Delegation the media arrived. Medical Examiners (forensic pathologists) are trained to not speak with the press, to maintain case integrity. We do not give out any information as it may compromise the integrity of a case in the future in a court of law. The press was swarming, we were uncomfortable, and we were guests of Israel. Balancing and managing this delicate situation was new to all 4 of us.
End of workday 1.
