Health activists seek suspension of Israeli Medical Association from world body

A network of healthcare professionals from India has sought the Indian Medical Association’s support in petitioning for the suspension of the Israeli Medical Association from the World Medical Association (WMA). Over 1,150 persons have signed the petition to be placed before the WMA in its general assembly meeting in Rotterdam in October this year.Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), a network of healthcare professionals, health workers and health activists in India, has written to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) “to take a principled stand in defence of medical ethics and international humanitarian law, by supporting appropriate disciplinary action, including the suspension of the Israeli Medical Association within the World Medical Association (WMA) until it fulfils its ethical obligations regarding the ongoing attacks on healthcare and health workers in the occupied Palestinian territory”.The petition referred to the Israeli Medical Association’s silence on the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure and the reported killing, detention, and mistreatment of Palestinian medical personnel. It has been endorsed by several international organisations including the People’s Health Movement, Doctors for Gaza and the Health Advisory Council of the Jewish Voice for Peace.The JSA letter referred to the unprecedented destruction and genocide in Gaza, especially targeting Gaza’s health system, carried out by Israeli forces. “Hospitals, ambulances and primary healthcare facilities have been repeatedly attacked; healthcare workers have been killed, injured, detained or disappeared in large numbers; and access to essential medicines, fuel, water, and humanitarian relief has been systematically obstructed and denied to a huge number of ordinary citizens. Children were specifically targeted during these brutal attacks, as widely documented,’ stated the letter.It urged the Indian Medical Association to join the global medical community in reaffirming that attacks on healthcare workers, health systems and patients, irrespective of where they occur, are unacceptable and must never be normalised.Unlike the Indian Medical Association, which has been silent on the issue, the British Medical Association (BMA) has repeatedly condemned the attacks on hospitals in Gaza and killing of health workers and journalists. “Medicine is an international profession, and as doctors we must call out when our colleagues and patients come under attack,” stated the BMA.In October 2024, the WMA adopted a BMA proposed resolution on the protection of healthcare in Israel and Gaza and called on all parties to abide by international humanitarian law and the principle of medical neutrality to safeguard the rights and protection of healthcare facilities, healthcare personnel and patients from further threat, interference and attack. In October 2025, the South African Medical Association suspended links with the Israeli Medical Association and called for its suspension from the WMA.