The World Medical Association (WMA) has faced serious criticism for its refusal to suspend the Israeli Medical Association (IMA), despite documented accusations of Israeli doctors' complicity in the torture of Palestinian detainees and abuses occurring in Gaza.
Last month, a petition signed by 6,500 healthcare workers as part of the IMA Out! campaign, which represents a coalition of health advocacy groups, was submitted to the WMA General Assembly in Rotterdam, Netherlands. This petition calls on the international body to exclude the IMA.
During the General Assembly, hundreds of doctors participated in protests; some carried shrouds bearing the names of 18,000 deceased Palestinian children during Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Doctors assert that the IMA fails to meet basic standards of medical ethics and is complicit in serious human rights violations against Palestinians. These violations include the inability to prosecute Israeli doctors who may have overseen the torture of Palestinian detainees, as well as the deaths of Palestinian healthcare workers in Israeli prisons.
The Hind Rajab Fund (HRF), an organization striving for justice for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and human rights violations committed by Israel against Palestinians, also filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) last month. It called on the court to investigate the involvement of Israeli doctors, as well as the IMA and officials from Israel's Ministries of Health and Defense, in the torture of Palestinians.
This is the first time a WMA member has been referred to the ICC.
Doctors' Stance and Criticism of WMA
Dr. Jonathan Flaxman, a retired British Jewish general practitioner and organizer of the IMA Out! campaign, attended the protests in Rotterdam. He told Middle East Eye: "Both the WMA and the IMA refuse to investigate numerous reports received directly from various human rights agencies regarding torture and the killing of healthcare workers."
Flaxman added that the issue has roots dating back 30 years, as the WMA allegedly concealed reports of Israeli torture. In his view, the WMA acts similarly to the governments of the US and the UK by allowing Israel to evade responsibility for genocide, and he believes the WMA is complicit in the actions of the IMA.
Dr. Flaxman insists that the WMA must immediately launch an investigation into the alleged involvement of IMA members in the torture, abuse, and death of Palestinian detainees, emphasizing that this is a matter of defending medical principles.
He noted that the situation calls into question the role of the WMA as an international guarantor of medical ethics, and he understands that several national medical associations are extremely concerned about the current situation.
The WMA was founded in 1947 to uphold medical ethics after World War II, following the establishment of the involvement of doctors from Nazi Germany in war crimes. Currently, one hundred eighteen countries are represented in the international body. Each member country is obliged to adhere to WMA codes of practice, including the Tokyo Declaration of 1975, which states that doctors must not participate in torture and are obligated to condemn it.
The association was last suspended in 1976 when South Africa was blocked from participating in two general assemblies due to the complicity of doctors in torture during apartheid.
The first attempt to hold the IMA accountable for the alleged involvement of Israeli doctors in the abuse of Palestinian detainees occurred in 2009. At that time, 725 doctors from 43 countries presented findings from human rights groups at the WMA General Assembly held in Tel Aviv. At the time, IMA President Yoav Blachar also held the position of WMA President and rejected the accusations of Israeli medics' complicity in torture, calling them slander.
In 2016, 71 doctors from the UK again demanded the suspension of the IMA, but the WMA denied the request.
The Israeli association represents over 90 percent of doctors in Israel. Its current president, Zion Hagai, chairs the WMA's Committee on Socio-Medical Issues, and its executive director-lawyer, Lia Wapner, holds several advisory positions, including work in the WMA's committees on finance and planning, socio-medical issues, and medical ethics.
Dr. Flaxman believes that the international body protects the IMA. He argues that thirty years of inclusion and dialogue have only led to a deterioration of the situation, granting the IMA complete freedom of action.
Since October 2023, Israel has killed approximately 1,700 healthcare workers.
South Africa's Calls for IMA Exclusion
The demand to suspend the IMA in the WMA was initiated by the South African Medical Association (Sama) last year. However, Sama's initiative failed to gain the majority vote required for the WMA to consider excluding the Israeli group. Instead, the WMA adopted a resolution calling on the Israeli government to ensure the protection of healthcare workers in Gaza and asked all its members to publicly condemn attacks on hospitals and medical personnel.
Nevertheless, the IMA remained silent on the matter. Dr. Mvusis Mzukwa, chairman of Sama, told MEE that his group decided to take its own approach against the IMA. He stated that they became the first medical association to officially sever ties with the IMA.
This was followed by the British Medical Association and the Turkish Medical Association. Mzukwa also noted that they withdrew from the WMA Ethics Working Group in Taipei because it is chaired by an Israeli doctor. He finds it highly problematic that the IMA is part of the WMA's governing structures, given the associated allegations. According to him, the name of the WMA as a global body is tarnished by the presence of the IMA, and they should have suspended its activities until these disputes are resolved.
Dr. Mzukwa explained that he planned to attend the General Assembly earlier this year to gather other WMA members in support of the call to boycott the IMA. However, he and most of his South African colleagues were unable to attend due to visa issues. He suggested that the reason might have been receiving a visa for Pretoria instead of Durban, where it usually goes, and that this could be related to an attempt to gather information about him to prevent his participation in the Assembly.
MEE requested comments from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs but received no response by the time of publication. Mzukwa openly criticized the genocide in Gaza, and his position aligns with that of the South African government, which appealed to the International Court of Justice in 2023 accusing Israel of committing genocide.
Dr. Mzukwa also told MEE that Sama, IMA, and WMA held a meeting at the end of July regarding the case of Palestinian pediatrician and former head of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, Dr. Hussam Abu Safi, who has been under Israeli arrest since December 2024 and is being severely beaten. They expressed concern over the lack of access to Dr. Abu Safi, denial of medical treatment, and uncertainty about his condition. The IMA informed them that it had requested Israeli authorities to conduct medical examinations and allow external doctors into the prison where Dr. Abu Safi is held, but no evidence of this was provided, which was an alarming sign.
Support from the Israeli State Apparatus
Derek Summerfield, an honorary senior lecturer at King's College London who has researched and advocated for the psychological impact of detention and torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israel, has called for the WMA to exclude the Israeli association for nearly two decades. He told MEE: "We are dealing with two ethically corrupt structures—the WMA and the IMA—and we appeal to one to do something about the other, but the WMA has long since sold out."
Summerfield claims there is a long history of evidence of Israeli doctors' complicity in torture chambers, and today they are even more actively involved in this. He labels the IMA an example of reprehensible medical behavior because they cover up doctors involved in Israel's genocide in Gaza, and he finds it outrageous that the IMA is a full member of the WMA. In his opinion, the IMA truly serves as a pillar for the Israeli state.
Dr. Flaxman also raised questions about how the IMA's ethical policies allow exceptions to WMA principles. He pointed out that IMA policy permits compromises of fundamental ethical principles by Israeli doctors and subordination of military and defense officials to providing medical care and protecting medical personnel. This also means violating the WMA's stance on medical neutrality.
The IMA has consistently remained aloof amid ongoing attacks on medical facilities in Gaza, as well as targeted attacks on healthcare workers. In fact, it has often tried to dispute criticism of Israel's actions from international medical associations.
At this year's WMA General Assembly, the IMA set up banners outside the convention, urging medical associations not to boycott them and reminding attendees of the October 7, 2023 attacks. In November 2023, IMA President Professor Hagai refused to call for a ceasefire and justified Israel's military strikes on hospitals in Gaza, arguing that Hamas militants needed to 'uproot terrorist bases.' In the same month, 81 Israeli doctors signed a letter in support of bombing hospitals, which the IMA refused to condemn, thereby violating WMA principles on the protection of medical facilities and personnel.
Furthermore, Dr. Lia Goldstein, senior member of the IMA Ethics Bureau and chief medical officer of the Israeli prison service, approved a fasting diet imposed on thousands of Palestinian detainees after October 7 by order of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Attempts by the IMA to protect the reputation of the Israeli state were exposed in May 2024 when Hagai wrote to the Israeli prison service about the death of Dr. Adnan Al-Bursha, a Palestinian surgeon who headed the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Following a highly critical article in the British Medical Journal about the circumstances of Dr. Al-Bursha's death, Professor Hagai wrote: "We would be grateful for any information that could help us refute this claim, which, needless to say, significantly damages Israel's standing and image worldwide."
