|
medpundit |
||
 |
 |
|
Sunday, April 28, 2002“The Israel Medical Association (IMA) is in danger of being ousted from the World Medical Association (WMA), whose members include 130 national medical associations, because of the ongoing political campaign against Israel. The WMA due to meet in Geneva next week, will discuss charges made against Israel.” We’re not talking about charges made against Israeli doctors here, we’re talking about charges made against the nation of Israel. Yet the Europeans want to exclude Israeli doctors on the basis of their nationality: “The antagonism towards Israel was clear at last week's meeting in Vienna of the European Forum of the European Medical Associations, part of the World Health Organization, which Blachar attended. Critical resolutions were introduced by the Swedish and British delegations, but they did not pass because they required unanimity, said Blachar. "Weeks ago we received calls from IMA members and affiliated specialists' societies such as the Israel Pediatrics Society and the Israel Cardiology Society, who had fielded criticism from counterparts abroad," said Blachar.” The Israel Medical Association is trying it’s best to make their position as physicians clear. They set up a committee made of both Arab and Jewish Israeli physicians to address the concerns of the International Red Cross and the World Health Organization: “The position paper denounces terrorism and the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, and attacked the misuse of ambulances, such as when explosives were hidden in a Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance near Ramallah. The IMA committee drafted a declaration affirming their allegiance to the Hippocratic Oath that posits life as a supreme value. It declared "that our obligation as doctors and as human beings to the people of both nations [Israelis and Palestinians] takes precedence over any dispute or confrontation. The declaration condemned "any restriction, constraint, or attempt to hinder the work of medical teams in the performance of their professional duties which is not necessitated by the realities of the situation." Blachar asked Dr. Ron Pundak, an architect of the Oslo Agreement who now works at the Peres Peace Center, to find a Palestinian counterpart to sign the declaration. But Pundak, said Blachar, did not get back with a name.” No doubt Palestinian doctors are too afraid to sign such a declaration. They run the risk of being executed in the streets by their fellow Palestinians for “collaborating.” The anti-semitism of Europeans must indeed run deep for them to even consider removing the Israelis from the World Medical Association just because their country is at war. To do so would be to implicitly support the Palestinians. Yet it is the Palestinians who routinely massacre civilians, who hide explosives in ambulances, who execute their own in the streets without a fair trial, and who send their teenagers on murderous suicide missions. It baffles the imagination to think of a body of physicians acting in such a way. Then again, I used to be baffled by the Holocaust, but the more I hear of stories like this one, the less baffled I am. posted by Sydney on 4/28/2002 06:23:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
|
