Doctors Protest Outside Rotterdam World Medical Assembly; 81 Surgical Gowns Bear Names of Detained Palestinian Colleagues

On the 10th, outside the venue of the World Medical Association (WMA) summit held in Rotterdam, hundreds of doctors lined up 81 surgical gowns and hung them on the railings facing the venue—each gown was labeled with the name of a Palestinian medical worker currently detained by Israel. According to Al Jazeera, the action, organized by the "IMA Out!" coalition, was aimed directly at the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) for its "silence in the face of the systematic destruction of the Palestinian medical system."

"These gowns should not be empty. Our colleagues should be with their patients, not in Israeli prisons. Today, we have placed their names right at the door of the World Medical Association," said Mejrem Ahmetai, a general practitioner and IMA Out! member, at the scene.

The protesters also submitted a petition to the assembly calling for the suspension of the Israeli Medical Association's membership. The petition was signed by more than 6,500 medical workers worldwide (the composition of their countries of origin and independent verification were not specified in the original report). In a statement, the coalition accused the Israeli Medical Association of "violating nearly every principle in the WMA's code of medical ethics" and called for holding Israeli doctors accountable for complicity in the "starvation, torture, and medical neglect" of Palestinian detainees.

"The Israeli Medical Association is not a bystander. It defends these attacks, blocks international condemnation, while Palestinian medical care is being destroyed. That is not medical neutrality, that is complicity," Ahmetai added. The original material did not present a formal response from the Israeli medical association to the specific allegations above.

According to Al Jazeera, citing the protesters and relevant humanitarian reports, the Gaza conflict since October 2023 has killed more than 1,700 Palestinian medical workers and almost destroyed all hospitals and medical institutions in the area. This figure and the statement that "almost all hospitals have been destroyed" were not independently verified in the original report, and no Israeli response was reported.

During the WMA Assembly, relevant parties organized a meeting on Thursday attended by international doctors, medical leaders, and human rights activists to discuss the systematic destruction of the Palestinian medical system and the responsibility of the international medical community. Jonathan Flachsman, an IMA Out! representative, said in a statement: "Our Palestinian colleagues are being killed, imprisoned, starved to death, and tortured in detention. Their hospitals have been destroyed, and patients have been displaced or murdered. The Israeli Medical Association has neither spoken nor acted against these war crimes committed against medical workers, patients, and hospitals."

Flachsman further stated: "Thirty years of dialogue between the WMA and the Israeli Medical Association has done nothing except give the latter a sense of impunity. It is time for national medical associations and the WMA to speak out and take action. Cut your ties with the Israeli Medical Association and suspend its membership now."

Among the detained medical workers whose release was demanded by the protesters with signs was Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital. Abu Safiya had previously been briefly held at Israel's Sde Teiman detention camp, where he was tortured and denied medical care, and his illegal detention has sparked widespread international protest. At the Rotterdam meeting, Abu Safiya's son Elias spoke on his behalf:

"My father, and all Palestinian detainees, must be treated according to medical ethics, and doctors must abide by the Hippocratic oath they once swore. Medical care should not be provided based on whose life is considered more valuable."