ALBAWABA - Hesen Jabr, a Palestinian American labor and delivery nurse, was being celebrated by NYU Langone Health for her compassion in taking care of mothers who tragically lost their kids, during her speech she made a connection between her job and the pain of mothers in Gaza before she was fired for her remarks shortly after.
“It pains me to see the women from my country going through unimaginable losses themselves during the current genocide in Gaza,” Jabr said in her speech, adding that “this award is deeply personal to me for those reasons.”
As of May 30, the Israeli aggression on Gaza strip has resulted in the death of over 36,224 Palestinians, and injury of more than 81,777, according to Gaza Ministry of Health, with an estimated number of 28 deaths caused by malnutrition as famine spreads due to blocking of humanitarian aid to the strip by the Israeli government.
On her Instagram page, Jabr said that she was called in for an assembly with the president and vice president of nursing at the hospital to address how she "put others at risk" and "ruined the ceremony" by offending people due to a small part of her speech included a tribute honoring the grieving mothers in her land, when she returned to work on May 22 for her very first shift after being awarded.
After completing the most of her shift, she said that she was "dragged once again to an office," where she was given her notice of dismissal and then carried out of the premises. Her statements caused controversy and outrage on social media on the restriction of her right to free speech.
Steve Ritea, a representative at NYU Langone, verified that Jabr was let go after her speech, stating that “Hesen Jabr was warned not to bring her views on this divisive and charged issue into the workplace,” adding that “she instead chose not to heed that at a recent employee recognition event that was widely attended by her colleagues, some of whom were upset after her comments. As a result, Jabr is no longer an NYU Langone employee.”
