Hundreds of Doctors Urge World Medical Association to Suspend Israeli Medical Association
Theo Al Jazeera
Hundreds of doctors protested outside the World Medical Association summit in Rotterdam, demanding the suspension of the Israeli Medical Association over its alleged silence as Palestine's health system was systematically destroyed. The IMA Out! campaign delivered a petition signed by more than 6,500 healthcare workers worldwide.
Hundreds of doctors gathered outside the World Medical Association (WMA) summit in the Netherlands, calling for the suspension of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) from the organization.
On Saturday, 81 healthcare workers removed their protective gear and hung it in a long row opposite the WMA general assembly in Rotterdam. Each set of gear bore the name of a Palestinian healthcare worker currently being unlawfully detained by Israel.
This was part of a protest against the Israeli association's continued membership in the WMA, "despite violating nearly every ethical principle in the WMA's Medical Ethics Code," the IMA Out! coalition, which organized the protest, said in a statement.
"These suits should not be empty. Our colleagues belong beside their patients, not in Israeli prisons. Today, we placed their names right outside the doors of the WMA," said Mejrem Ahmetaj, a general practitioner and member of IMA Out!.
Since October 2023, Israel's genocidal war in Gaza has killed more than 1,700 Palestinian healthcare workers and destroyed nearly all hospitals and medical facilities in the territory.
The IMA Out! campaign accuses the Israeli medical association of remaining silent as Palestine's health system was systematically destroyed.
"The IMA is not a bystander. They defend these attacks and block international condemnation while Palestine's health system is destroyed. That is not medical neutrality. That is complicity," Ahmetaj added.
At a meeting of international doctors, health leaders and human rights activists during the WMA summit on Thursday, the destruction of Palestine's health system and the responsibility of the international medical community were discussed, according to the campaign.
"Our Palestinian colleagues are being killed and imprisoned, where they are starved and tortured. Their hospitals have been destroyed, patients driven out or killed. The IMA has said and done nothing in the face of these war crimes against healthcare workers, patients and hospitals," a statement from Jonathan Fluxman on behalf of IMA Out! said.
"Thirty years of WMA dialogue with the IMA has achieved nothing but giving the IMA a sense of immunity from accountability... It is time for national medical associations and the WMA to speak out and act. Cut ties with the IMA and suspend the IMA from the WMA now," he added.
The IMA Out! campaign said it delivered a petition calling for the IMA's suspension, signed by more than 6,500 healthcare workers from around the world.
They also demanded accountability for the complicity of Israeli doctors in the starvation, torture and medical neglect of Palestinian prisoners.
Among those detained by Israel is Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, whose unlawful detention has sparked international outrage. He had been held in the notorious Sde Teiman prison and was subjected to torture and medical neglect. The protesting doctors in Rotterdam held banners demanding his release.
Elyas, Abu Safia's son, speaking at a meeting organized by the campaign, said: "My father and all Palestinian prisoners must be treated in accordance with medical ethics, and doctors must adhere to the Hippocratic Oath they swore. Care cannot be based on whose lives are considered worthy."
