Some
130 distinguished doctors in Britain Saturday called for a boycott of
the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) and its expulsion from the World
Medical Association (WMA).
"The IMA has forfeited its right to membership of the international
medical community," said the doctors, led by Professor of Surgical
Science at University College of London Colin Green and award-winning
Dr Pauline Cutting.
http://uscsjp.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/call-for-
"The Israeli Medical Association has a duty to protest about war crimes
of this kind, but has refused to do so. Appeals to the World Medical
Association and the British Medical Association have also been
rebuffed," they said.
The call comes after 18 leading Palestinian health organizations
appealed to fellow professionals abroad in March to recognise how the
IMA has forfeited its right to membership of the international medical
community.
In a letter to the Guardian, the doctors expressed grave concern about
the health-related impact of Israeli policy on Palestinian society.
"Persistent violations of medical ethics have accompanied Israel's
occupation. The Israeli Defence Force has systematically flouted the
fourth Geneva convention guaranteeing a civilian population unfettered
access to medical services," they said.
Their letter reported that instead of being given immunity, medical
staff had been killed with hundreds of ambulances fired upon by Israeli
troops.
"Desperately ill people, and newborn babies, die at checkpoints because
soldiers bar the way to hospital. The public-health infrastructure,
including water and electricity supplies, is willfully bombed," it said.
The doctors further warned that the passage of essential medicines like
anti-cancer drugs and kidney dialysis fluids were blocked, while in the
West Bank, the apartheid wall has "destroyed any coherence in the
primary health system."
In Gaza, UN rapporteurs have repeatedly described the situation as a
humanitarian catastrophe, with 25 per cent of children clinically
malnourished.
Calling for a boycott of the IMA, the doctors said that there had been
a precedent set for its expulsion from the WMA set during the apartheid
era when the Medical Association of South Africa was expelled.
"A boycott is an ethical and moral imperative when conventional
channels do not function. Otherwise, we are merely turning away," they
warned.
The Palestinian Appeal
In the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression,
We, the undersigned, Palestinian Medical and Health
institutions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, call on world
medical and health institutions to:
1. Immediately end cooperation with, and refrain from
participation in, any form of collaboration or joint activities with
the IMA.
2. Advocate for the condemnation of the IMA.
3. Support Palestinian medical and health institutions
directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as
a condition for such support.
The Medical Association -Jerusalem (Palestinian
Physician’s Union); Maqassed Hospital - Jerusalem; Red Crescent Society
- Gaza; The Gaza Community Mental Health Program; Arab Women’s Union
Hospital - Nablus; Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees -
West Bank and Gaza (Palestinian Medical Relief Society); Health Work
Committees; Union of Health Work Committees - Gaza; Union of Health
Care Committees; The National Society for Rehabilitation - Gaza; Near
East Council of Churches Committee for Refugees - Gaza; Union of
Agricultural Work Committees; Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for
the Victims of Torture (TRC); Patients Friends Society - Jenin; Union
of Palestinian Handicapped; Palestinian Family Planning and Protection
Association; Health Policy Forum; Project Loving Care - Jerusalem;
Palestinian National Institute for NGO’s.
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