ROTTERDAM – International pressure on the World Medical Association (WMA) to suspend the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) is growing. As the WMA gathers in Rotterdam, doctors, medical leaders and activists from around the world will come together on 8 and 10 October for an international medical summit, a major public protest and the delivery of a global petition signed by nearly 6,500 health workers.

8 October: International Medical Summit challenges the WMA

On Thursday 8 October, an international meeting at Theater Rotterdam will bring together Palestinian doctors, medical leaders and human rights activists including Palestinian Surgeon practising in Gaza dr. Hussein Shomar, BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti, South African Medical Association president dr. Mvuyisi Mzukwa, and orthopaedic surgeon Swee Ang to address the destruction of Palestinian healthcare and the responsibility of the international medical community. Professor Derek Summerfield will address the complicity of the IMA and the involvement of Israeli doctors in the torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

“Our Palestinian colleagues are being killed and imprisoned, where they are starved and tortured. Their hospitals have been destroyed and patients driven out or murdered. The IMA has said and done nothing about these war crimes against health workers, patients and hospitals. 30 years of WMA dialogue with the IMA has done nothing but give the IMA a sense of impunity, why should they change?  And we ask: where is the dialogue with Palestinian doctors in Gaza? Where is their voice in the conferences and committees of the WMA?  It is time for national medical associations and the WMA to speak out and take action. Break your ties with the IMA and suspend the IMA from the WMA now,” says Jonathan Fluxman on behalf of the IMA OUT! coalition.

The IMA is more than a bystander

According to the IMA OUT! campaign, the IMA has not merely remained silent as Palestinian healthcare has been systematically destroyed: it has legitimised that destruction and blocked international condemnation.

IMA chairman Zion Hagay argued that Hamas needed to be “rooted out” of healthcare facilities which he claimed were being used as “terror bases.” Hagay also said this year that the IMA had blocked four attempts within the WMA to condemn Israel over the destruction of Palestinian healthcare facilities.

“The IMA is not a bystander. It defends these attacks and blocks international condemnation while Palestinian healthcare is being destroyed. That is not medical neutrality. That is complicity,” says Mejrem Ahmetaj, a family doctor and member of Artsen voor Gaza in the Netherlands.

10 October: 81 empty scrubs at the WMA’s doorstep

Two days later, on Saturday 10 October, the protest moves directly to the WMA’s doorstep. 81 healthcare workers will simultaneously remove their scrubs and hang them in a long line facing the WMA meeting. Each will bear the name of a Palestinian healthcare worker currently held in illegal Israeli detention, where they are being starved and tortured.

This will form part of a protest against the ongoing membership of the IMA in the WMA, despite them breaching almost every ethical principle in the WMA’s Code of Medical Ethics. Since October 2023, more than 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed, while hospitals, ambulances and medical facilities have been damaged or destroyed on a massive scale.

“These scrubs should not be empty. Our colleagues belong with their patients, not in Israeli prisons. On Saturday, we will literally place their names at the WMA’s doorstep,” says Mejrem Ahmetaj.

Nearly 6,500 health workers call for the IMA’s suspension

At the end of the protest on Saturday 10 October, the IMA OUT! campaign will deliver the global petition to the WMA, signed by nearly 6,500 health workers from all over the world.

The petition demands that the IMA is suspended by the WMA for its gross violations of medical ethics over decades, concerning Palestinian patients and healthcare services and the complicity of Israeli doctors in the starvation, torture and medical neglect of Palestinian prisoners.

As medical leaders from around the world gather for the WMA summit in Rotterdam, doctors and healthcare workers will also call on other national medical associations to follow the South African, British and Turkish medical associations, to cut their ties with the IMA, and will push the WMA to suspend the IMA.

“The question is no longer whether the medical community should speak out, but when the WMA will finally act. We are not blaming the IMA for the actions of the Israeli government, we are blaming the IMA for its ethical failures and its justification of the bombing of Gaza’s hospitals and war crimes against Palestinian health workers. Rotterdam is the moment to take action: protect Palestinian healthcare workers and suspend the IMA,” says Loes de Kleijn, general practitioner and part of the IMA OUT! coalition.

Programme & practical information for press

8 October | 19:00–21:30 | Theater Rotterdam

International medical summit with Palestinian and international doctors, medical leaders and activists, including Mvuyisi Mzukwa, Omar Barghouti, Swee Ang and Prof Derek Summerfield. Speakers are available for interviews.

10 October | 11:00–13:00 | WTC Beursplein Rotterdam

IMA OUT! demonstration outside the WMA General Assembly. Visual moment: 81 participants wearing scrubs will stand opposite the international WMA meeting. At a coordinated moment, they will simultaneously remove their coats. The 81 coats, each bearing the name of a detained Palestinian healthcare worker, will then be hung in a single long line facing the entrance of the WMA Summit. At the end of the protest, the IMA OUT! petition, signed by nearly 6,500 health workers from around the world, will be delivered to the WMA. This will be part of a protest outside the event to highlight the need to act. We are 3 years into a genocide, the people of Gaza and the West Bank cannot wait. The time to act is now!

Available to media

• Spokespeople from the international IMA OUT! campaign
• Interviews before and during the demonstration
• Background information on the campaign to suspend the IMA
• A selection of documented statements illustrating the IMA’s complicity
• Strong photo and video opportunities during the coordinated white-coat action

Contact details for Press:
Loes de Kleijn
[email protected]
imaout.com