The World Medical Association (WMA), the global 118-member governing body tasked with upholding foundational medical ethics first established in 1947 in the aftermath of Nazi Germany’s documented medical war crimes, is facing widespread, intensified backlash for repeatedly declining to suspend the Israeli Medical Association (IMA), despite decades of verified allegations that Israeli doctors have been complicit in the torture of Palestinian detainees and widespread human rights abuses in Gaza. Last month, during the WMA General Assembly convened in Rotterdam, Netherlands, a coalition of health advocacy groups under the “IMA Out!” campaign submitted a formal petition signed by 6,500 medical professionals, demanding the IMA’s full expulsion from the global body. Hundreds of attending doctors staged concurrent protests, many carrying a ceremonial shroud emblazoned with the names of 18,000 Palestinian children killed amid ongoing violence in Gaza. Critics argue the IMA has systematically failed to enforce core medical ethics standards, declining to discipline members accused of overseeing torture of Palestinian detainees and the deaths of Palestinian healthcare workers in Israeli detention facilities. Parallel to the WMA advocacy push, the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) — an organization dedicated to pursuing accountability for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and human rights violations targeting Palestinians — filed a historic complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) last month, marking the first time a WMA member association has been referred to the global court. The complaint calls for investigations into potential involvement of Israeli doctors, the IMA, and senior officials from Israel’s health and defense ministries in systemic torture of Palestinian civilians. Retired British general practitioner Dr Jonathan Fluxman, a Jewish heritage physician and core organizer for the IMA Out! campaign who attended the Rotterdam protests, stated that both the WMA and IMA have for 30 years deliberately buried verified reports from independent human rights agencies documenting torture and the targeted killing of healthcare workers. He accused the WMA of mirroring the stance of U.S. and UK governments by enabling unaccountable actions against Palestinian populations, arguing the global body has become complicit in the IMA’s alleged violations and is abandoning its mandate as the global guardian of medical ethics. The WMA’s founding 1975 Declaration of Tokyo explicitly prohibits physician participation in torture and imposes a mandatory duty on all medical professionals to report such abuses. The only prior suspension in WMA history dates to 1976, when South Africa’s national medical association was barred from two consecutive general assemblies for its members’ documented complicity in apartheid-era torture. Efforts to hold the IMA accountable stretch back to 2009, when 725 physicians from 43 countries submitted human rights findings to a WMA General Assembly hosted in Tel Aviv — a gathering led at the time by then-WMA president and sitting IMA head Yoram Blachar, who dismissed the allegations as defamatory. A 2016 campaign by 71 UK-based doctors calling for IMA suspension was also rejected by WMA leadership. Critics note the IMA, which represents more than 90% of Israel’s practicing doctors, holds multiple influential leadership positions within the WMA: its current president Zion Hagay chairs the WMA’s socio-medical affairs committee, while its chief executive Leah Wapner sits on the WMA’s finance, socio-medical affairs, and medical ethics committees. Dr Fluxman emphasized that 30 years of “inclusion and dialogue” with the IMA have only led to worsening abuses, granting the Israeli association unimpeded leeway to act without ethical oversight. Since October 2023, approximately 1,700 Palestinian healthcare workers have been killed by Israeli forces. The formal push for IMA suspension was first tabled last year by the South African Medical Association (SAMA), but the motion failed to secure the required majority for expulsion proceedings. The WMA instead passed a non-binding resolution calling on the Israeli government to protect Gaza healthcare facilities and personnel, and requesting all member associations issue public statements condemning attacks on hospitals — a call the IMA has entirely ignored. SAMA became the first national medical association to formally sever ties with the IMA, followed shortly by the British Medical Association and Turkish Medical Association. SAMA also withdrew its representatives from the WMA’s Taipei Working Group on Ethics, which is chaired by an Israeli medic, citing the inherent conflict of having an association facing mass abuse allegations holding oversight of global medical ethics policy. SAMA chair Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa noted that the WMA’s reputation is being irreparably tarnished by the IMA’s continued full membership, and that the Israeli association should have been suspended pending full, independent investigations into the allegations. Dr Mzukwa and most of his SAMA colleagues were ultimately barred from attending the Rotterdam General Assembly after their visas were inexplicably rerouted to Pretoria instead of their usual processing location in Durban, making it impossible to collect the documents in time for the event. He stated he had planned to deliver a public speech formally calling for the IMA’s expulsion, and noted he has strong suspicions the visa disruption was a deliberate intervention to prevent his advocacy. The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment on the incident by the time of publication. SAMA, which aligns with the South African government’s 2023 genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, held a tripartite meeting with the IMA and WMA in late July to raise urgent concerns over detained Palestinian paediatrician Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, former head of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, who has been held in Israeli custody since December 2024 and subjected to documented brutal beatings. Dr Mzukwa stated the IMA claimed it had requested Israeli authorities conduct independent medical exams and allow external physicians access to Dr Abu Safiya, but provided no verifiable evidence to support the claim, a development SAMA flagged as a major red flag. Dr Derek Summerfield, honorary senior lecturer at King’s College London who has spent nearly two decades researching the psychiatric impacts of Palestinian detention and torture, described both the WMA and IMA as ethically compromised institutions, noting that decades of peer-reviewed, verified evidence confirms Israeli doctors are not just complicit, but actively participate in torture operations at detention sites. He added the IMA acts as a state-backed institutional buttress shielding Israeli officials from accountability for abuses targeting Gaza’s healthcare system. Additional documentation reveals the IMA’s internal ethical policies allow Israeli doctors to override core WMA principles and defer unconditionally to military and security officials on healthcare access and protection of medical personnel, in direct violation of WMA rules on medical neutrality. Rather than condemning attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system, the IMA has actively campaigned to shield Israeli state actions from international criticism: during this year’s WMA General Assembly, the IMA installed public banners outside the Rotterdam convention center urging member associations not to boycott it, and referencing the 7 October 2023 attacks to justify its positions. In November 2023, IMA president Professor Hagay refused to call for a ceasefire and publicly defended Israeli military strikes on Gaza hospitals, claiming the facilities were being used as “terror bases” that required military intervention. That same month, 81 Israeli doctors signed an open letter endorsing the bombing of Gaza hospitals, a position the IMA refused to condemn, in direct contravention of WMA protections for healthcare infrastructure. Further, Dr Liav Goldstein, a senior member of the IMA’s ethics bureau and chief medical officer of the Israeli Prison Service, formally approved a deliberate starvation diet imposed on thousands of Palestinian prisoners after 7 October by Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Internal IMA correspondence obtained via whistleblower reports shows that in May 2024, after the British Medical Journal published a damning exposé on the death in Israeli custody of prominent Palestinian orthopaedic surgeon Dr Adnan al-Bursh, former head of Al-Shifa Hospital’s orthopaedic department, IMA president Hagay wrote to the Israeli Prison Service requesting any information that could help “refute this claim” to avoid damage to Israel’s global public reputation. Whistleblower testimonies from the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev desert, converted into a mass detention camp at the start of the Gaza conflict, have documented systemic, widespread abuse of Palestinian detainees, including deliberate denial of medical treatment by Israeli medics, conditions where prisoners are held naked, shackled, and forced to wear nappies, and routine amputations performed without anaesthesia. Thousands of Palestinian civilians, including healthcare and humanitarian workers, have been detained at Sde Teiman under Israel’s “unlawful combatants” law, which strips detainees of basic legal protections and allows indefinite detention without charge or trial. Multiple detainees have died in the facility. IMA ethics board director Yossi Walfisch has dismissed all abuse allegations, claiming prisoners at Sde Teiman receive “appropriate medical care.” Dr al-Bursh was held at Sde Teiman before being transferred to Ofer Prison, where he died; released fellow detainees testified he was repeatedly subjected to brutal beatings, torture, and sexual violence during his detention. HRF director general Dyab Abou Jahjah noted that evidence proves physician participation in abuse at Sde Teiman is structural, stating Israeli medics have abandoned their medical neutrality by treating chained detainees and covering up evidence of torture. He demanded the WMA publicly explain why an association that provides institutional cover for systemic torture is still granted full voting membership at its governing tables. For its part, the WMA issued a statement to Middle East Eye claiming “inclusion sits at the core of the WMA’s identity,” and asserting that its members, including the IMA, “regularly call out injustices and violations of medical neutrality even when their own governments are involved.” The IMA did not respond to repeated requests for comment by the time of publication.
‘Complicit’: World Medical Association criticised for rejecting calls to suspend Israel
