Senior Israeli doctor: Boycott call published in The Lancet against Israeli Medical Association is ‘wrong on all counts’

After the British journal The Lancet published a call to boycott the Israel Medical Association and suspend it from the World Medical Association, Prof. Hagai Levine, the head of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians, tells The Times of Israel that the call “is wrong on all counts.”

The petition, initiated by organizations Global Health BDS, Health Workers for Palestine, and Doctors for Gaza, says that the IMA “failed to condemn the genocide of Palestinians and the destruction of Gaza’s health system.”

Some 1,150 health professionals and health organizations have already signed the petition, which seeks to raise the issue of suspending the Israel Medical Association at the general assembly of the World Medical Association in October.

“A boycott of any kind undermines the universal values that form the very foundation of healthcare,” says Levine.

In its published reply, the Israel Medical Association says its expulsion from the WMA “would not promote peace, healthcare, or human rights. Instead, it would establish a precedent whereby political pressure campaigns may be used to isolate healthcare professionals based on nationality.”

The WMA tells The Lancet that “it deeply values inclusion and believes engagement with its 117 constituent national medical association members is vital to the medical ethics globally.”