Alice Rothchild is an American retired obstetrician-gynecologist, author, filmmaker, and human rights activist. She served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and practiced clinical medicine for over three decades. Her writing and advocacy focus on the intersection of public health, human rights, and military occupation in the Middle East.
Rothchild has documented health conditions in the Occupied Territories through multiple non-fiction and literary works. Her books include “Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience” (2007) and “Condition Critical: Health and Human Rights in Israel/Palestine” (2016), both of which analyze the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a public health lens. She has also written middle-grade fiction addressing Palestinian youth experiences, including “Finding Rahma” (2023). In 2013, she directed and produced the documentary “Voices Across the Divide,” which documents the history and long-term impacts of the 1948 Nakba.
As a member of the Health Advisory Council of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and a collaborator with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Rothchild has led medical delegations to the West Bank and Gaza. Her field reports document how movement restrictions, blockades, and militarization affect maternal healthcare, access to emergency medical treatments, and child psychology. She supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and has characterized the conditions imposed by the occupation as a “public health emergency.” Citing her family background as a descendant of Holocaust survivors, she argues that medical professionals have an obligation to address structural human rights violations, calling for an end to military aid and the establishment of equal rights for Palestinians.