The People’s Health Movement (PHM), a global network fighting for the right to health, has launched an international petition campaign ahead of the World Medical Association (WMA) General Assembly. The assembly will take place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on 7–10 October 2026. The campaign calls for the suspension of the Israeli Medical Association’s (IMA) from the WMA because of the association’s own failures to uphold medical ethics.
For more than a century, the Palestinian people have resisted Zionist colonisation and occupation backed by imperialism. Since 7 October 2023, the Zionist state of Israel has pursued a policy of genocide in Gaza. As part of this genocide, it has bombed hospitals, targeted ambulances, killed health workers and blocked medical aid as part of its genocide in Gaza. Paralysing Gaza’s health system and denying the Palestinian people medical treatment and the means to survive have been central parts ofto this genocidepolicy.
In the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation, healthcare is one of the main areas where colonial violence is inflicted and where resistance to it must be organised. Alongside calls for political and economic sanctions and a military embargo on Israel, we must also question the institutional ties that protect IMA from accountability for its silence and inaction.
The PHM campaign points to the IMA’s failure to clearly condemn Israel’s attacks on Palestinian healthcare and to hold its members accountable for violations of medical ethics. The petition also accuses the IMA of failing to properly investigate reports of Israeli medical professionals’ involvement in the torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners. These are failures of the association itself. The IMA has failed to clearly and consistently condemn the Israeli state for the army’s attacks that have systematically destroyed Gaza’s health system. It has not carried out an effective investigation into the torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners. A medical association that does not uphold the basic principles of medical ethics defend the universally accepted values of the medical profession or take a stand against ethical violations should no longer benefit from the international legitimacy that WMA membership provides.
Despite these failures, the IMA has retained its membership of the WMA without being held accountable. This cannot be separated from the WMA’s structure. Historically, the WMA has been shaped by the dominant role of medical associations from imperialist countries. In its responses to the Gaza genocide, the WMA has used the language of so-called “medical neutrality” while treating the oppressor and the oppressed, the occupier and the occupied, as if they bore equal responsibility. In effect, this framing obscures the genocidal assault on Palestinian civilians, presenting it as though it were simply a military conflict between opposing armies.
The Istanbul Medical Chamber Solidarity with Palestine Working Group initiated a struggle that the Turkish Medical Association (TMA) took to the international level. These efforts led to an important breakthrough at the WMA General Assembly held in Porto, Portugal, in October 2025. A resolution based on the TMA’s proposal was adopted unanimously.*
In this resolution, the WMA called on the Israeli government to stop attacks on health workers, patients and health facilities, and to allow medical and humanitarian aid to reach people in Gaza without obstruction. It to ensure that medical and humanitarian aid could reach those in need without obstruction. The resolution also called for the release of arbitrarily detained health workers and for those responsible for criminal acts to be held accountable. The resolution further called on all WMA member associations to clearly condemn attacks on health workers and health facilities. This call applies to the IMA too, although the resolution did not call for its suspension.
The People’s Health Movement’s petition campaign places the IMA’s own conduct at the centre of the demand for sanctions. It calls for suspension until the IMA upholds medical ethics, condemns the killing and torture of Palestinian health workers, and takes action against ethical violations by its members.
Israel’s aggression is sustained by imperialist support and by international ties that shield it from isolation. The IMA’s silence and inaction help sustain this protection in the medical field. Suspending its WMA membership would hold the association accountable for its own conduct and challenge the international legitimacy it helps provide to Israel.
I call on all doctors, health workers and students in health-related fields worldwide to join the PHM petition campaign. I also call on readers of the RedMed Web Network to strengthen solidarity with the Palestinian people by sharing the campaign among health workers. It is time for the WMA to hold the IMA accountable in Rotterdam.
Suspend the Israeli Medical Association’s membership of the World Medical Association! Impose a full embargo on Israel!
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
Dr Ertuğrul Oruç
Member of the Central Council of the Turkish Medical Association
* For a detailed account of the role played by the Istanbul Medical Chamber and the Turkish Medical Association in the process leading to the WMA resolution adopted in Porto, see my article in Revolutionary Marxism.
Note: This article was originally written for issue 204 of Gerçek newspaper (September 2026). It has been translated into English and revised for publication on RedMed.