MAPW has today written to the Federal President of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Danielle McMullen.
Dear Dr McMullen,
Re: Doctors detained and tortured by Israel; an appeal from Israeli colleagues for action
The Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) is a national organisation of healthcare professionals dedicated to the prevention of armed conflict and the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
This letter follows communications we had just over a year ago with your predecessor as AMA President, Professor Steve Robson, about the dire state of healthcare in Gaza and the responsibility of healthcare professionals everywhere to advocate for the protection of healthcare facilities and workers.
Since those communications, the situation has deteriorated dramatically. Israel’s relentless attacks on hospitals and other humanitarian facilities have, according to the United Nations, “pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse, with catastrophic effect on Palestinians’ access to health and medical care”. Food, clean water and medical supplies have been blocked, and over 1,000 Palestinian health professionals have been killed.
The assaults on our profession extend further however, and include the detention, abuse and torture of Palestinian medical workers, which is the immediate reason for this letter. Urgent action is required for the protection of fellow medical and other health professionals.
On 26 February, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) released a new report titled “Torture of Medical Workers in Israel – A Call for Urgent Action”. It revealed evidence of the mass arbitrary and illegal detention of Palestinian medical workers detained from Gaza. Many of them were forcibly abducted from their workplaces, held for months without charge, and subjected to torture, sexual abuse, starvation, and denial of essential medical treatment. The report states that over 250 Palestinian medical workers have been detained, with nearly 150 still held. Their detention violates the protected status granted to
medical personnel under the Geneva Conventions.
Several Palestinian doctors, and many other Palestinian prisoners, have died in detention, and some detainees witnessed the deaths of others.
The torture, medical neglect, lack of food and other inhumane conditions were recently reported separately in The Guardian (here and here), which quoted WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who has condemned the ongoing detention of medical personnel by Israel.
PHRI has previously reported on the incarceration conditions of Palestinians generally (not specifically health workers) in Israel, stating – as of January 2024 – that there were approximately 9,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Many of them are arbitrarily detained for long periods, with no charge or trial. Detainees suffer abuses including torture and the denial of adequate medical care. Visits by the Red Cross have not been permitted since the start of the current war.
PHRI has previously raised complaints against the Israeli Health Ministry and Israeli Medical Association, claiming that they have failed to meet their obligations to provide, and advocate for, appropriate medical care for Palestinian detainees, and that in some instances they have been directly involved in severe breaches of their duty of care. (I can provide further details on this.)
MAPW takes equally seriously abuses against any people, regardless of nationality, religion or any other basis for distinction. The horrendous capture and detention of innocent Israelis by Hamas is of ongoing grave concern and is the subject of much international attention. The plight of many thousands of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, and the shocking targeting of health professionals, demand our urgent action also. Any silence from our profession amounts to a betrayal of colleagues who have been targeted for carrying out their medical duties in the most extreme conditions of personal danger.
PHRI is calling for the immediate release of all detained Palestinian healthcare workers, and they ask doctors everywhere to issue the same call: “We urge everyone, but especially our fellow doctors and medical personnel, regardless of nationality, to unite in calling for the release of our colleagues.”
Other steps must be implemented also, including:
- Full transparency regarding the whereabouts of Palestinian detainees and detention
conditions; - Immediate access to medical care and legal representation for all detainees;
International pressure on Israel to halt violations against Palestinian detainees.
MAPW urges the Australian Medical Association to take urgent advocacy action on this matter. Strong public condemnation of Israel’s targeting of healthcare professionals is called for. In addition, raising serious concerns with the Israeli Medical Association about both Israel’s targeting of healthcare professionals and the treatment of Palestinian detainees generally would be valuable.
MAPW thanks you for whatever action you can take.