Mads Gilbert

Mads Fredrik Gilbert (born 2 June 1947) is a Norwegian physician, humanitarian, activist, and politician for the Red Party. He is a specialist in anesthesiology and head of the emergency medicine department at the University Hospital of North Norway and Professor of emergency medicine at the University of Tromsø.

Gilbert has a broad range of experience from international humanitarian work, especially in locations where medical and political issues merge. Since the 1970s, he has been actively involved with solidarity work concerning Palestinians, and he has served as a doctor for several periods in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon for NORWAC. His efforts have been central to leading the city of Tromsø, since 2001 a twin town of Gaza, to claim to be the city that has sent more health workers to the Palestinian territories than any other in the world. His book on the Gaza War, ''Eyes on Gaza'' (2009), has been translated into several languages. Gilbert has been lauded as a "hero" in Norwegian media for his work in Gaza; his humanitarian work has been hailed by Prime Ministers Kåre Willoch, Jens Stoltenberg and Erna Solberg, and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. On 6 May 2013, King Harald V appointed Gilbert as a Commander of the Order of St. Olav for his "wide-ranging services to emergency medicine." He has also done volunteer work at a kibbutz.

Gilbert has been the subject of controversy for his political activism. In November 2014, it was announced that Israel had indefinitely banned Gilbert from entering Gaza, officially for security reasons. The decision sparked outrage and the Norwegian government subsequently requested that the decision be reversed. The Israeli Foreign Ministry later clarified that the ban regarded setting foot in Israel, not Gaza. Israel, ''Haaretz'' wrote, is the only available transit point for entering the Gaza Strip when the Rafah border from Egypt is closed. Provided by Wikipedia