{"id":160258,"date":"2026-06-15T03:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T03:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/160258\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T03:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T03:26:09","slug":"medicine-must-not-be-weaponized-against-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/160258\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicine must not be weaponized against Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

In October, delegates to the World Medical Association (WMA)<\/a> Congress will gather in Rotterdam to consider a petition that, if approved, would establish a dangerous precedent for violating medical ethics.<\/p>\n

The petition, published by The Lancet and backed by several health advocacy groups, seeks to punish the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) over its \u201cfailure to speak out against the genocide of Palestinians.\u201d The petition\u2019s supporters argue that medical professionals have a moral obligation to condemn violations of international law and attacks on healthcare workers.<\/p>\n

In the first instance, expelling Israel\u2019s doctors from one of the world\u2019s most important professional medical bodies would only create new injustices in a thinly veiled attempt to rectify others.<\/p>\n

Founded in the aftermath of World War II, the WMA came into being precisely because medicine should transcend politics at all costs. The organization\u2019s intent is to ensure physicians uphold universal ethical principles for all patients, regardless of nationality, religion, or political circumstance.<\/p>\n

Any decision to suspend the IMA would move the organization in the opposite direction. It would establish a precedent that national medical associations can be expelled not for violating medical ethics<\/a> themselves, but for perceived failures to oppose the policies of their governments. Once that line is crossed, the WMA risks contaminating medicine with the politics it must avoid.<\/p>\n

\"\"IMA complicit through silence?<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the portrayal of the IMA as complicit through silence in what was described as atrocities committed by Israeli forces in Gaza<\/a> is both inaccurate and shortsighted. This perfectly illustrates the line between criticism of Israeli government policy and the demand, made by some health organizations, for Israelis to join the choir of blood libels against their nation as part of an ethical \u201clitmus test.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, in July last year, IMA chairman Prof. Zion Hagay penned an open letter warning Defense Minister Israel Katz of the risk of widespread famine in Gaza and including a public call to \u201censure medical equipment and basic humanitarian conditions\u201d for the Gaza Strip\u2019s civilian population.<\/p>\n

There is also an unavoidable question of consistency.<\/p>\n

Critics of Israel are entitled to their views, but many have noted that no comparable campaign has been mounted against medical associations representing countries whose governments have imprisoned physicians, denied healthcare to political dissidents, or committed grave human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

The National Medical Chamber of Russia is still a member despite Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s brutal war in Ukraine, and the Medical Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a member despite the regime\u2019s routine killing of protesters.<\/p>\n

Suspending the IMA would not punish the Israeli political echelon whose actions are being protested by the health groups behind the petition.<\/p>\n

Even the WMA itself has rightly warned against such an approach, as reported by The Jerusalem Post\u2019s Mathilda Heller.<\/p>\n

The WMA said in a published response that it stands against the exclusion of any of its members for the actions of their governments, as \u201cdoing so diminishes our ability to call out injustices, and threatens shrinking the dialogue among physicians at this critical time when consensus in support of our medical ethics is so needed,\u201d while also pointing out that the IMA is one of the founding members of the WMA and a \u201cstrong advocate for WMA ethics and policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel – a world leader of medical innovation<\/p>\n

In addition to being a founding member, Israel is also one of the world\u2019s leading centers of medical innovation<\/a>, and Israeli researchers and physicians have helped develop technologies that are used daily in hospitals across the globe. The beneficiaries of those innovations are not only in Israel \u2013 they are in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and across the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Would physicians in support of the petition refuse treatment based on an Israeli-developed diagnostic tool? Would they reject an Israeli medical breakthrough if it could save a patient\u2019s life?<\/p>\n

Of course not \u2013 because medicine\u2019s value lies in its universality.<\/p>\n

Medical organizations should remain places where doctors cooperate across borders, share research, establish ethical standards, and improve patient care. They should not become instruments of political boycotts.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the World Medical Association Congress must resist the temptation to turn medicine into a political front and reaffirm a principle that has guided medicine for generations: Doctors save all of humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In October, delegates to the World Medical Association (WMA) Congress will gather in Rotterdam to consider a petition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[14607,30629,5656,5652,33707,37,17688,7888],"class_list":["post-160258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-anti-israel","tag-doctor","tag-gaza-war","tag-health","tag-healthcare-system","tag-israel","tag-medical","tag-palestinian"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116751996453395785","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}