UK doctors call on BMA to cut ties with Israeli medical association over Gaza

Members of the British Medical Association (BMA) have urged the organisation’s council to suspend engagement with the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) "until it affirms medical neutrality and condemns attacks on healthcare in Gaza".

The call came as BMA members passed a series of pro-Palestine motions during the Annual Representative Meeting (ARM) in Liverpool last week - the association's main policy-making conference.

Steve Anderson, senior media officer at the BMA, confirmed to The New Arab that once motions were passed at the conference, they would become official BMA policy, adding that the organisation's executive committee will now discuss how to implement them.

Ahmed Sewehli, a Manchester-based psychiatrist with Healthworkers for Palestine, praised the outcome.

He was one of the organisers of a fringe BMA event held near the conference centre, which drew around 100 attendees and featured first-hand accounts from medics who had been to Gaza during the ongoing war.

"People think that British doctors do not want to speak up for Palestine, every single health worker, social worker, nurse that I have spoken to are appalled by what's happening in Gaza," he said.

He added that many healthcare professionals in the UK remain silent out of fear.

"These motions that were passed at the BMA, just the fact that they were debated, is some kind of freedom for people to express their views," he continued, noting that the motions received overwhelming support.

"This is quite a victory. We are sad that it has not been reported in the mainstream British press, even though they were present," he added, highlighting that many Jewish members voted for and gave speeches in support of the motions.

"The motions now should be BMA policy. There should be very, very good reason for BMA council to say that this isn’t policy. They would then have to deal with their membership, the representatives of whom have voted overwhelmingly for it to be policy," he said.

Sewehli noted that the motion calling for cutting ties with the IMA was an "emergency motion" debated and voted on at the conference. He also pointed out that he had put forward a similar motion back in 2008, during a previous Israeli assault on Gaza.

Motions passed

A full list of the motions, seen by The New Arab, includes strong condemnation of Israel’s systematic destruction of hospitals and the killing of over 1,000 healthcare workers in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

One motion affirms that criticism of the actions of the state of Israel is not, in itself, antisemitic. It states that healthcare professionals and medical students should have the right to criticise states, governments, or institutions whose actions contravene international law.

The meeting also acknowledged that medical students advocating for Palestine have faced disciplinary action from their institutions. It called on the BMA to lobby medical schools not to penalise or censor such advocacy.

Members urged the BMA to support students and healthcare workers who face disciplinary action for raising awareness of humanitarian crises, and to call for the revocation of any such measures taken against them.

Another motion called on the BMA to issue clear guidance protecting the freedom of expression and advocacy of its members in line with human rights standards.

Further motions demanded "unrestricted and unimpeded access for medical and humanitarian relief in Gaza," the delivery of life-saving aid, and the rebuilding of Gaza’s healthcare system.

They also urged the UK government to actively support investigations and prosecutions at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), including efforts to hold accountable any medical professionals complicit in torture or mistreatment of detainees.

Condemning double standards

The motions also criticised the World Medical Association (WMA) and the Israeli Medical Association for double standards.

They noted that while both organisations condemned a strike on Israel’s Soroka Medical Centre, they issued "no comparable statement on the destruction of Gaza’s health system", and that the IMA remained silent on the deaths, detentions, and targeting of Palestinian healthcare workers.

The motions concluded by calling on the BMA to write to the WMA urging it to consistently condemn attacks on healthcare, including in Gaza.

BMA's senior media officer Steve Anderson told The New Arab that since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, the association has taken several public steps to condemn atrocities in the besieged enclave.

These include issuing public statements, writing to the Foreign Secretary multiple times, and submitting an emergency resolution to the WMA.

Anderson noted the BMA has consistently called for a ceasefire, respect for international law, resumption of aid to Gaza, independent investigations into attacks on healthcare, and an end to the siege.

Online, many praised the outcome of the ARM as a significant moment for the medical community’s stance on Gaza.

"A hugely significant move, very good to see this, though it should have come sooner," one user wrote on X.

"Fantastic news. It's incredibly shameful that this had to be voted on, but we shall focus on the positive and keep going," another said.