Healthcare Workers for Palestine (HCW4P)

Healthcare Workers for Palestine (HCW4P) is a loose network of pro-Palestinian health-care professionals mostly based in the United States. 1  2 The group has chapters across the country and world, including prominent chapters in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and South Africa. 3  4  5  6  7

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At-A-Glance

Type: Other
Ideological Alignment: Left of Center
Issue Areas: Foreign Policy
Website: sites.google.com/view/hcwforpalestine?usp=sharing
Formation:

2023

Co-Founder:

Sharmain Tariq

Contents

    HCW4P engages in anti-Israel and boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) activism. The organization distributes protest toolkits, activist letter templates, and pro-Palestinian organizing materials, while endorsing demonstrations such as the 2024 March on Washington for Gaza (March4Gaza). 8 In 2025, HCW4P chapters backed a BDS campaign targeting Teva Pharmaceuticals, a major Israeli company that distributes in the United States. 9

    The group has also defended controversial activists, including a University of California San Francisco (UCSF) medical center employee disciplined over wearing a pro-Palestinian pin at work. 6 HCW4P has also promoted allegedly unsubstantiated accusations against Israel, ranging from genocide to harvesting Palestinian organs in Gaza. 1  10

    Pro-Palestinian and BDS Activism

    Healthcare Workers for Palestine offers several resources to its members, including organizing toolkits. These include educational pamphlets, protest organizing tools and tactics, and letter templates for activists to send pro-Palestinian letters to public officials. 11

    HCW4P has also endorsed and participated in pro-Palestinian protests and boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) activities. In January 2024, HCW4P endorsed the March on Washington for Gaza (March4Gaza). 8

    In 2025, HCW4P launched a BDS campaign aimed at Teva Pharmaceuticals, a major Israeli pharmaceutical distributor of generic medications in the United States. The campaign was adopted by several HCW4P chapters, including the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Philadelphia, and South African chapters. 9  12

    HCW4P has also supported individuals who have been scrutinized for their pro-Palestinian activism. In 2023, the group supported Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the former director of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, who was arrested by Israeli forces in Gaza based on U.S. Intelligence which alleged that Salmiya allowed Hamas to use the hospital as an operational command center. 13  14  15

    In March 2025, HCW4P supported Bridget Rochios, a nurse practitioner and midwife at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) medical center who was fired for refusing to remove a watermelon pin, a symbol associated with Palestinian militancy, from her uniform. HCW4P called on UCSF to reinstate Rochios, divest from Israel, and denounce what it referred to as “the Genocide Against Palestinians.” 6  16 HCW4P has also accused Israel of harvesting Palestinian organs in Gaza. 10

    HCW4P also has a history of reposting social media posts from Nerdeen Kiswani, the founder of Within Our Lifetime (WOL). Kiswani has been accused of spreading antisemitism online, particularly in an X (formerly Twitter) post that read, “We don’t want zionists [sic] in Palestine, NYC, our schools, on the train, ANYWHERE.” HCW4P’s X account reposted a Kiswani post from March 2026 that was similarly critical of Zionism. 17  18 In 2020, Stopantisemitism.org named Kiswani “antisemite of the year.” 19

    Leadership

    According to a CODEPINK Radio podcast episode from February 2025, Sharmain Tariq is a co-founder of Healthcare Workers for Palestine (HCW4P) and the founder of the Chicago chapter of HCW4P. At that time, she was a medical student from Chicago, Illinois. 5

    According to articles published in the spring of 2024, Karim Sariahmed was an organizer for HCW4P at the time. He is an Algerian-American doctor who has published op-eds expressing his opposition to the Israeli government’s policy toward Gaza and to what he has called the Israeli Defense Forces’ “barbaric kinds of violence and inhumanity” in Gaza. He has also claimed that Israel’s treatment of the war in Gaza constitutes the “destruction of Gaza’s health infrastructure.” 20  21

    Financials

    As a loose network of individual protest chapters, Healthcare Workers for Palestine (HCW4P) is not registered with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a nonprofit organization. Instead, the group encourages its members and supporters to donate to medical organizations that provide treatment to Palestinians in Gaza, including MedicalAidPal, Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, Palestinian American Medical Association, Palestinian Red Crescent Organization, and Doctors Without Borders. 22

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    References

    1. “Home.” Healthcare Workers for Palestine. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://sites.google.com/view/hcwforpalestine/home
    2. “Healthcare Workers for Palestine (HCW4P): What You Need to Know.” Anti-Defamation League. August 15, 2025. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://www.adl.org/resources/article/healthcare-workers-palestine-hcw4p-what-you-need-know
    3. “@hcw4pnyc Profile.” Instagram. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://www.instagram.com/hcw4pnyc/
    4. “@hcw4palphilly.” Linktree. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://linktr.ee/hcw4palphilly?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=5d5d0738-6483-43ae-8be1-5cbbe74ac2b2
    5. “Episode 287: Healthcare workers: The Heart of Resilience.” Apple Podcasts, CODEPINK Radio. February 12, 2025. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-287-healthcare-workers-the-heart-of-resilience/id1483662138?i=1000691502390
    6. “Call to Action for Bridget Rochios (Healthcare Workers for Palestine-Bay Area et al).” Labor for Palestine. March 20, 2025. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://laborforpalestine.net/2025/03/20/call-to-action-for-bridget-rochios-healthcare-workers-for-palestine-bay-area-et-al/
    7. “Healthcare Workers 4 Palestine.” Linktree. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://linktr.ee/hcw4palestinesa?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=34fa472f-89ec-4e77-96e9-2c3694c5fdbb
    8. “Endorsers.” March4Gaza. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://march4gaza.org/endorsers/
    9. Kelly, Marie “Boycott Teva campaign.” International Action Center. November 15, 2025. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://iacenter.org/2025/11/15/boycott-teva-campaign/
    10. “A brief history of Israel’s theft and trafficking of Palestinian organs.” Mondoweiss. February 22, 2025. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://mondoweiss.net/2025/02/a-brief-history-of-israels-theft-and-trafficking-of-palestinian-organs/
    11. “Resources.” Healthcare Workers for Palestine. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://sites.google.com/view/hcwforpalestine/resources?authuser=0
    12. “Apartheid Free Zones.” Healthcare Workers for Palestine South Africa. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://www.hcw4palestine.org.za/afz/
    13. “Free Dr. Mohamed Abu Salmiya!” Healthcare Workers for Palestine. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://sites.google.com/view/hcwforpalestine/free-dr-mohamed-abu-salmiya?authuser=0
    14. “Israeli army arrests al-Shifa Hospital director, other doctors in Gaza.” Al Jazeera. November 23, 2023. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/23/al-shifa-hospital-director-arrested-by-israeli-army-in-gaza
    15. Barnes, Julian E. “Hamas Used Gaza Hospital as a Command Center, U.S. Intelligence Says.” New York Times. January 2, 2024. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/us/politics/gaza-hospital-hamas.html
    16. “@hcw4palestinebayarea Post.” Instagram. March 19, 2025. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://www.instagram.com/p/DHZ3kLepYC0/?img_index=3
    17. “Nerdeen Kiswani and Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine: What You Need to Know.” Anti-Defamation League. June 20, 2024. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://www.adl.org/resources/article/nerdeen-kiswani-and-within-our-lifetime-united-palestine-what-you-need-know
    18. “@NerdeenKiswani Post.” X. March 27, 2026. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://x.com/NerdeenKiswani/status/2037589048210935971
    19. Ben-Nun, Sarah. “Antisemite of the year: A law student from New York.” Jerusalem Post. December 23, 2020. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/antisemite-of-the-year-a-law-student-from-new-york-652995
    20. Sariahmed, Karim. “Health Workers Have Stepped Up for Gaza. Now We Need a Lasting Movement.” The Nation. April 9, 2024. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/health-workers-gaza-organizing/
    21. Sariahmed, Karim. “Doctors justify genocide in a prestigious journal.” Mondoweiss. March 19, 2024. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/doctors-justify-genocide-in-a-prestigious-journal/
    22. “HCW Denounce Violence Against Palestinians.” GoogleDocs. Accessed May 28, 2026. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g7gJ2f2TPk84J8Xouxhid2_wq83orsiRmUy6Nq0LdnA/edit?tab=t.0