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Israel must be expelled from the international health community.

Israel must be expelled from the international health community.
Publicado ayer.

The strategy behind the WONCA (World Organization of Family/General Practitioners) case

Israel must be expelled from the international health community. The strategy behind the WONCA (World Organization of Family/General Practitioners) case
 
Juan Gérvas, retired rural general practitioner, CESCA Team, Madrid, Spain. Former professor of public health, Johns Hopkins University, United States, and Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. jjgervas@gmail.com www.equipocesca.org @JuanGrvas
Mercedes Pérez-Fernández, specialist in internal medicine, retired general practitioner, CESCA Team, Madrid, Spain. mpf1945@gmail.com
Members of Health Workers For Palestine, Spain HW4PS
 
Primum nocere
 
Israel fails to fulfill its obligations as a colonial power and causes immense harm to the indigenous population.
 
It doesn't just steal land and resources; it also murders, inflicts illness, tortures, and mutilates, causing immense suffering (much of it irreparable).
 
It particularly targets sectors such as children and women, and key professionals such as education, communications, and healthcare. It is opposed by a legitimate Resistance that lacks air defense, tanks, missiles, drones, artillery, airplanes, etc. Israel's colonial policy is based on "primum nocere" (first, harm):
 
1. Between October 2023 and September 2024, through indescribable slaughter, Israel has managed to reduce life expectancy at birth in Gaza from 76 to 41 years.
 
2. Israel has murdered with impunity some 400,000 people in Gaza (400,000, not 60,000 as is often estimated), half of them children.
 
3. Israel has "produced" 40,000 orphans in Gaza.
 
4. Israel has imposed a medieval siege on Gaza, blocking the entry of food and water, medical supplies, spare parts, and fuel, and is starving the Gazan population, with the greatest impact on children and the elderly.
 
Why the particular hatred against the healthcare sector?
 
If genocide is intended, nothing beats devastating the healthcare system and murdering, detaining, and torturing its professionals, because at the same time, it eliminates a key determinant of social health and an expression of solidarity that unites society.
 
The "justification" for the particular hatred against the healthcare sector, facilities, and personnel, has been achieved through a constant Israeli strategy of blaming the Palestinian Resistance for the "militarization" of hospitals, health centers, and professionals, including ambulances.
 
This strategy justifies their annihilation and ignoring the laws of war, since everything is justified against "terrorism."
 
Israel has never proven such a hypothesis, and in fact, the famous militarized tunnels under hospitals have always turned out to be rooms for machinery, archives, and the like, with no possible military use. The same has happened with its professionals, murdered, imprisoned, and tortured without credible judicial justification.
 
However, this theory gained international support (including the vote in favor of Spain, the current Minister of Health)vi at the 2024 Annual Assembly of the World Health Organization, when an amendment proposed by Israel was approved stating that it: “Calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held in Gaza, including children, women, and the elderly, and condemns the use by armed groups of health facilities, including hospitals and ambulances, which endangers the civilian population.”vii
 
In other words, the amendment approved by the World Health Organization accepted the Israeli hypothesis of the medical militarization of the Palestinian Resistance and therefore “justifies” its destruction and annihilation.
 
We Call for Israel's Expulsion from WONCA (World Organization of Family/General Practitioners)
 
WONCA is the World Organization of Family/General Practitioners, with 500,000 members in 111 countries.
 
Since the basic medical principle is “primum non nocere” (first, do no harm), and since Israel follows the exact opposite principle, “primum nocere” (first, do harm), an international coalition of healthcare professionals (viii) is advocating for Israel's expulsion from WONCA through an open letter to all family/general practitioners and residents in training in the specialty (ix), calling on them to:
 
1. Condemn the siege and famine in Gaza, as well as the destruction of healthcare and the murder of healthcare professionals and their families.
 
2. Demand the immediate provision of humanitarian aid and medical supplies.
 
3. Urge doctors in your countries not to prescribe drugs manufactured by TEVAx, the Israeli pharmaceutical company, unless there is no alternative.
 
4. Provide material and other support to Palestinian doctors and medical students.
 
5. Support the expulsion of the Israeli Association of Family Physicians (IAFP) from WONCA World for serious violations of medical ethics and for violating WONCA's fundamental goals and mission.
 
6. Call on national family/general practitioner organizations to sever ties with the IAFP
until it condemns the famine in Gaza, the destruction of medical care, and the murder of health professionals.
 

[Open letter to the Executive Committee and member associations of WONCA World: why are the people and family doctors of Gaza being ignored, in their hour of greatest need?
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScV91BV8LjHhypYlZVapXWsku0PJ9yTOPxJtcu3-mRvZ8VCRg/viewform?usp=header

Coordinated by Global Health BDS for Palestine; Health Workers 4 Palestine - Spain; Health Workers 4 Palestine - Sweden]
 
From WONCA to WHAPA (World Organization of Healthcare Professionals). Isolating Israel
 
The strategy behind the movement to expel Israel from WONCA is to push for Israel's expulsion from the World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA): FDI, World Dental Federation (FDI), International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), International Council of Nurses (ICN), World Physiotherapy, and World Medical Association (WMA).
 
These five WHAPA organizations represent more than 41 million health professionals worldwide and bring together essential knowledge and experience from key health professions in more than 130 countries.
[8-11 October 25, Porto, Portugal WMA General Assembly, Porto 2025]
 
Part of the strategy is also to push for Israel's expulsion from any global association of health professionals, such as the World Psychiatric Association (next congress in October, in Prague).
 
On the other hand, at the national level, the goal is to promote the example of the British Medical Association, which has severed all ties with the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) due to its complicit with the Zionist project, war crimes etc and lukewarm attitude toward the brutality in Gaza, through motions to: 
 
1. Reaffirm its commitment to the protection of healthcare in all conflicts;
 
2. Write to the WMA (World Medical Association), urging consistent condemnation of attacks on healthcare, both in general and in Gaza;
 
3. Suspend collaboration with the IMA (Israeli Medical Association) until it affirms its medical neutrality and condemns attacks on healthcare in Gaza. It also aims to encourage national associations of doctors and other health professionals to sever ties with the relevant Israeli associations.

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