International calls to boycott the Israeli Medical Association due to the Gaza War Health news

International health organizations called for a boycott of the Israeli Medical Association and the suspension of its membership in the World Medical Association, due to its failure to condemn the destruction of the health system in the Gaza Strip, the targeting of medical care workers, and the violations related to Palestinian prisoners during the war.

The call came in a report published by the British medical journal The Lancet, one of the most prominent medical journals in the world, as part of coverage of a campaign led by health and human rights organizations to demand that the Israeli Medical Association file be placed on the agenda of the General Assembly of the World Medical Association next October.

Many organizations stand behind the campaign, including the People’s Health Movement, Doctors Against Genocide, and the Health Advisory Council of the Jewish Voice for Peace organization, in addition to health workers and medical organizations who signed a petition whose number of supporters exceeded 1,150 signatures.

The campaign organizers say that the Israeli Medical Association has not taken a clear position on the attacks on health care facilities in Gaza, nor on the killing and arrest of health workers, nor on the accusations of mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli prisons and detention centers.

Moral failure

The campaign is based on the belief that medical societies do not have the luxury of silence when the health sector itself is a major party in the humanitarian disaster. According to the petition’s organizers, hospitals are not just service buildings, but spaces protected under international humanitarian law, and targeting or disrupting them violates the essence of the principle of medical neutrality.

The Lancet quoted Leslie London, an honorary professor of public health at the University of Cape Town and a member of the People’s Health Movement in South Africa, as saying that the Israeli Medical Association did not acknowledge evidence related to the targeting of health facilities and medical workers in Gaza, and did not take an adequate stance on the conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers.

Juliette Matthiessen, coordinator of the People’s Health Movement in Europe and a doctor in the Netherlands, said that the Israeli Medical Association does not adhere to the requirements of medical ethics in defending health workers and colleagues who are killed or arrested in the line of duty.

The campaign’s demands do not stop at suspending membership only, but rather link this to a broader question about the responsibility of medical bodies in times of war: Is it enough for professional associations to issue general statements about the need to respect medical neutrality, or should they condemn specific violations when they affect hospitals, patients, and doctors?

Demands an independent investigation

In August 2025, The Lancet published a letter from members of the international medical community to the Israeli Medical Association, in which they called for support for an independent international investigation into medical practices inside Israeli detention facilities, the protection of those reporting violations, and a clear position on attacks on health facilities and health workers in Gaza.

The letter was based on the Code of Ethics of the Israeli Medical Association itself, which stipulates that a doctor shall not participate in or assist in any way in the torture, humiliation, or harming the dignity of any person, including prisoners and detainees.

In January 2026, The Lancet published another response in the correspondence section, which considered that the main problem lies in the absence of an actual independent investigation into the accusations related to the complicity of doctors in the mistreatment of Palestinian detainees, indicating that the internal investigation conducted by the Israeli Medical Association cannot be considered independent as long as it relates to the possible practices of members within the institution itself.

In the background, this correspondence brings to mind reports by Israeli and international medical and human rights organizations about the conditions of Palestinian prisoners, and about the deterioration of their health after the release of some of them, in addition to testimonies about untreated injuries, severe weight loss, and harsh detention conditions.

The Israeli Association responded

The Israeli Medical Association rejected the accusations against it, and said in a response reported by “The Lancet” that what was stated in the petition included “false or disputed accusations that were presented as if they were facts.”

The association considered that the demand to suspend its membership confuses the policies of the Israeli government with a professional institution representing doctors, warning that this opens the door to the isolation of health institutions on the basis of nationality or due to political pressure campaigns.

The association also said that the petition ignores the role of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in harming the health system in Gaza, claiming that it used hospitals for military purposes, including command centers or ammunition storage, an accusation that Israel has repeated since the beginning of the war.

In its response, the Israeli Medical Association asserts that its exclusion from the World Medical Association will not serve peace, health care, or human rights, but rather will harm scientific cooperation and international medical dialogue, and weaken the ability of doctors to work across borders in conflict situations.

For its part, the World Medical Association expressed clear reservations about calls to suspend membership of the Israeli Medical Association. She said in a response reported by The Lancet that she adheres to the principle of dialogue and cooperation between the 117 national medical societies that are members of it.

The Association believes that excluding any association due to the actions of its government may weaken its ability to defend medical ethics globally, especially at a time when conflicts and humanitarian crises are expanding in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, Iran, Myanmar, and others.

However, the Association stressed the need to protect medical facilities, health workers and patients, ensure the arrival of aid, and investigate serious violations affecting health care, whether related to attacks on hospitals or misuse of medical facilities for military purposes.

Israeli fears of boycott

In Israel, several newspapers covered the Lancet report as a new step in the escalation of academic and medical pressures related to the war on Gaza. The newspaper “Israel Hayom” quoted Israeli doctors as warnings that the call for a boycott may not have effects limited to the Israeli Medical Association, but may extend to hospitals, universities, research, training, and scientific cooperation.

Professor Ido Wolf, Director of the Oncology Department at Ichilov Hospital, said that the boycott’s proposal gives it legitimacy, warning that harm could affect advanced medicines, research cooperation, training programs, and ultimately the patients themselves.

The Times of Israel also quoted Professor Hagai Levin, President of the Association of Public Health Physicians in Israel, as saying that the call for a boycott is “wrong in all aspects,” considering that the medical boycott undermines the universal values ​​on which health work is based.

Growing international medical positions

The campaign against the Israeli Medical Association does not appear to be isolated from a broader trend within Western medical institutions. According to what was reported by The Lancet, the British Medical Association suspended its relations with the Israeli Medical Association in June 2025 due to the Gaza crisis, demanding respect for medical neutrality and international humanitarian law, and an independent investigation into attacks on health care facilities, workers, patients and ambulances.

In October 2025, the South African Medical Association suspended its relations with the Israeli Medical Association, and called for the suspension of its membership in the World Medical Association, against the backdrop of what it described as the association’s behavior in the context of humanitarian obligations and medical ethics during the Gaza crisis.

These positions are based on a widening conviction within part of the international medical community that institutional silence in the face of the targeting of health care cannot be separated from the moral responsibility of the profession, even when the conflict is armed and politically complex.