Letter to WMA Chair re Blachar as President
THE LETTER: DOCTORS - PLEASE SIGN THIS LETTER VIA E-MAIL ADDRESS BELOW
Dear WMA Council Chair Dr Edward Hill and the Council
We the undersigned physicians from X countries wish to publicly protest and appeal against the recent appointment of Dr Yoram Blachar, longstanding President of the Israeli Medical Association, as President of the World Medical Association. We believe that his Presidency makes a mockery of the principles on which the WMA was founded in 1947, which was as a response to egregious abuses by German and Japanese doctors in World War Two.
The WMA’s own Declaration of Tokyo (1975) specifies that “physicians shall not countenance, condone or participate in the practice of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading procedures, and in all situations, including armed conflict and civil conflict”. The WMA Annual General Assembly of 2007 made it clear that inaction was not an option, stating that “this is the first time the WMA has explicitly obliged doctors to document cases of torture of which they become aware. The absence of documenting and denouncing such acts might be considered as a form of tolerance and of non-assistance to the victims”.(1) There are still more recent calls from authoritative academic sources for the international medical community to go much further in actively allying itself with efforts to suppress mistreatment of prisoners. (2)
Amnesty International concluded as long ago as 1996 that Israeli doctors working with the security services “formed part of a system in which detainees are tortured, ill treated and humiliated in ways that place prison medical practice in conflict with medical ethics”. (3) Dr Blachar, already IMA President, took no action. Amnesty’s briefing to the UN Committee against Torture in September 2008 “focuses on Amnesty International’s (continuing) concerns about Israel’s failure to implement the Convention against Torture in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the intensification of measures amounting to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment”.(4)
A well publicised report in 2007 by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), based on the detailed testimony of 9 Palestinian men tortured between 2004 and 2006, gives a graphic demonstration of the extent to which Israeli doctors continue to form an integral and everyday part of the running of interrogation suites whose output is torture. (5) The IMA have conceded that they were aware of this report, but did nothing. More recently, at a meeting on December 10 2008 in Tel Aviv, with Dr Blachar presiding only weeks after his inauguration as WMA President, Physicians for Human Rights Israel again sought to confront the IMA about this and similar evidence in the public domain.
In its 2008 annual report to the UN Committee Against Torture, the UAT Coalition, a coalition of 14 Israeli and Palestinian human rights organisations, concluded that “since the Committee last reviewed Israel, the practice of torture and ill treatment has continued unabated. The UAT Coalition wishes to inform the Committee that in its opinion the use of torture and ill treatment by Israeli authorities against Palestinians is both widespread and systematic. The UAT Coalition has recorded evidence of acts, omissions and complicity by agents of the State at all levels….until this culture of impunity is addressed this situation is unlikely to improve”.(6)
In November 2008, PCATI filed a contempt of court motion to the High Court of Justice against the government of Israel and the General Security Service for their responsibility for a policy that grants a-priori permits to use torture in interrogations. The IMA have never challenged torture as state policy in Israel.
Dr Blachar went as far as to justify the use in Israel of “moderate physical pressure” (condemned as torture by the UN Committee Against Torture) in the fourth paragraph of a letter published in the international medical journal The Lancet in 1997 (7) This surely unprecedented action by the president of a national medical association has not been disowned, and renders him unfit for the office of WMA President. In the age of evidence-based medicine his rejection of the documentary record has been unprofessional and frequently contemptuous, as when on the British Medical Journal website he labelled as “the lies and filth he spews” and “anti-semitic” a BMJ publication which cited Amnesty, Johns Hopkins University, the International Court of Justice, a UN Rapporteur and Physicians for Human Rights Israel. (8) IMA membership of WMA appears to have been a figleaf: The IMA website pays lip service to medical ethics but Dr Blachar has overseen a studied failure to take the actions mandated by the Declaration of Tokyo.
We conclude that under Dr Blachar’s leadership the IMA made a decision on political grounds years ago to turn a blind eye to torture in Israel and the institutionalised involvement of doctors. On an issue that goes to the heart of the moral authority of the profession, Dr Blachar has offered shameful ethical leadership to doctors in Israel and worldwide.
It could scarcely be more scandalous that he now assumes the Presidency of the official international body overseeing medical ethics. This appointment will seriously damage the public reputation of the WMA and its work, and indeed risks making it a laughing stock. We call upon the WMA Council to oblige Dr Blachar to step down as a matter of priority. Since the WMA is mandated to ensure that its member associations conform to its codes, we also request an investigation into the IMA record highlighted above.
Signatories E-MAIL This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
(50 by 22.00 hrs 2 February 2009)
References
1 World Medical Association. Doctors urged to document cases of torture. Press Release 8 Oct 2007.
2 Miles S, Freedman A. Medical ethics and torture: revising the Declaration of Tokyo. Lancet 2009: 373:344-48.
3 Amnesty International. “Under constant medical supervision”, torture, ill-treatment and the health professions in Israel and the Occupied Territories. London. Amnesty International. MDE 15/37/96. 1996.
4 Amnesty International. Israel/OPT. Briefing to the Committee Against Torture. MDE 15/040/2008. 2008.
5 Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. Ticking Bombs- testimonies of torture victims in Israel. PCATI 2007.
6 Defence for Children International. Palestine Section. UAT Report: Torture and ill-treatment in Israel and the OPT. 2008.
7 Blachar Y. The truth about Israeli medical ethics. Lancet 1997;350: 1247.
8 Blachar Y. Response from the Israeli Medical Association. Rapid Responses, bmj.com, 15 December 2004
GSS - Shabac, interrogate many more patients at Erez
New data about GSS (Shabac) unorthodox methods at Erez Crossing
4 May 2009
New data and 30 new testimonies show: Rise in the number of patients interrogated; interrogation of minors; Policy conducted in full “cooperation of High Court, Legal Advisor to Government;” says PHR director Hadas Ziv
Data and new testimonies collected by Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHR-I) and presented today (Monday May 4) at the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva, indicates a rise in the number of Palestinian patients interrogated and forced to provide information as a precondition to exit Gaza for medical care. The information also exposes a series of new practical measures employed by the GSS. PHR-Israel has learned that:
- GSS has interrogated minors,
- photographed patients against their will,
- detained patients for undisclosed periods of time for interrogation,
- implemented interrogations without prior notice;
- Harassed, accused, cursed and intimidated patients during interrogations;
- Patients that did not cooperate were returned to Gaza without receiving a permit to exit for medical treatment.
Between January 2008 and March 2009, at least 438 patients have been summoned for GSS interrogations at Erez Crossing, as a precondition for the review of their applications for an exit permit for the purpose of accessing medical treatment outside the Strip. The data points to an increase in the ratio of the number of interrogations to the total number of applications submitted to the authorities at Erez Crossing: from 1.45% in January 2008 to 17% in January 2009.
About a year ago, PHR published a report which exposed the ways in which the GSS operates systematically in order to recruit patients as collaborators. Since the release of this report, the GSS has continued its policies despite international criticism that these policies negate the International Treaty Against Torture and general codes of Medical Ethics.
Collaboration as a condition for exiting for treatment:
…they asked me: “What’s your full name, where did you study, what did you study, where do you work, why do you want to go out, which area do you live in, who lives around you and who are the neighbors?” They asked me to provide information on some of the people who live in my neighborhood. I said to them: “I don’t know them and I know nothing about the people around me. I’m only concerned with myself.” Then the interrogator asked me about someone called Amer. I said: “The whole town is full of Amers, which Amer are you talking about?” Then he asked me about someone called Hisar, someone called Aladia and finally he asked me if I know Hamas people and who I know among the activists. I said:” I don’t like politics and all those things.” The interrogator said: “I understand that you don’t want to answer me and that you don’t want to work with us, so go back to Gaza.”
Taken from testimony of “R”, a patient referred for orthopedic treatment at Saint George Hospital in East Jerusalem. The testimony was taken on September 22, 2008.
Detaining patients for undisclosed periods of time:
…When he didn’t get an answer which satisfied him, he ordered the other man to take me to another room. They took me there and closed the door and I was left alone there. After 45 minutes the interrogator opened the door and said: “Do you want to answer my questions now or not? If you tell me which members of your family belong to the Hamas and which to the Islamic Jihad, I’ll let you leave Gaza for the hospital”. I said: “There aren’t any people like that in my family”. At 16.30 the interrogator said: “Enough. Take him and send him back to Gaza”. I said: “If it’s to Gaza – then to Gaza it will be."
From the testimony of W., who was interrogated on 8.12.08. The testimony was submitted to PHR-Israel on 17.12.08. The patient suffered from kidney stones and was referred for treatment to St. Joseph hospital in East Jerusalem.
Interrogating Minors
R., a 17.5 years old cancer patient who is being treated at Sheba Medical Center in Israel, arrived at the Erez Crossing after having been informed by PHR-Israel that her departure, accompanied by her mother, had been approved. When they reached the crossing point at 9 a.m they were told to sit and wait in the departure hall. At around 11.30 three GSS men in civilian dress came over and asked R. to follow them for interrogation. Despite the girl’s tears and pleading, one of the GSS men threatened that if she did not accompany him, he would send her back to Gaza. R. was separated from her mother and taken for interrogation. All this time, her mother was locked in the adjacent room and told to wait for her daughter. The interrogation lasted an hour, and in its course, the girl’s cell phone was taken, she was questioned about her uncle and her father, their place of employment etc. On conclusion of the interrogation, the girl was taken back to her mother, and at the end of the day, around 17.00 she was permitted to leave for Israel
From the testimony of R., who was interrogated on 29.1.09. Testimony submitted to PHR-Israel on the same day. The patient suffers from a malignant tumor on the leg and is being treated at Shiba Medical Center in Israel.
Patients from Gaza – between the devil and the deep blue sea: patients have reported to PHR-Israel that since February 2009, Hamas police – stationed at a checkpoint a kilometer and a half south of Erez Crossing - have been preventing individuals from reaching Erez Crossing for GSS interrogations. According to the testimonies, patients claim that Hamas policy is to permit patients to reach the crossing only if they are going there in order to exit for medical treatment. In some cases patients report threats leveled at them that if they attend the interrogations they will be harmed.
PHR-Israel demands an immediate halt to the GSS policy of extortion targeted at patients requiring exit permits and demands that official bodies responsible for supervising GSS policy and practices exert their authority to revoke the policy which renders departure from Gaza for medical treatment conditional on collaboration with the GSS at Erez Crossing.
Hadas Ziv, Director of PHR: “It is incredibly dangerous for any democratic nation when a secret agency known to use unorthodox methods is allowed to operate without proper supervision or criticism. The silence of the High Court of Justice, the Legal Advisor to the Government and other official bodies implicates them as partners to the Shabac’s cynical use of patients.”
For more information:
Libby Friedlander 054-245-7682
Holding Health to Ransom
4 Aug 2008
PHR-Israel published a new report on August 4, 2008 entitled: "Holding Health to Ransom: GSS Interrogation and Extortion of Palestinian Patients at Erez Crossing". Testimonies in the report reveal: GSS (Shabac) demands cooperation as a precondition for exiting Gaza for medical care In defiance of the UN Convention Against Torture, the GSS is attempting to systematically use sick patients as informers.
Since July 2007, PHR has received 32 testimonies from Gazan patients, whose exit from Gaza was prevented after refusing to cooperate with GSS interrogators at the Erez Crossing. Since October 2007, some of the Palestinian patients with referrals for medical treatment outside of Gaza are required to undergo a GSS interrogation as an integral part of the decision-making process regarding their request for an exit permit.
In a new report released on August 4th, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) has exposed that the General Security Service (GSS- Shabac), who make the final decisions regarding exit permits, are targeting sick patients as potential collaborators, making informing and cooperation with the GSS a pre-condition for exiting Gaza. This practice constitutes a violation of The Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Convention Against Torture, as well as criminal law.
For the first time in the report Holding Health to Ransom, Palestinian patients testify as to the process they undergo when attempting to exit Gaza for medical treatment. Eleven detailed first-person testimonies of patients who were subjected to interrogation and pressure are included in the report.
Apartheid Revisited: Derek Summerfield
When is the doctor a doctor? And when is he a citizen?
It's been more than a decade since British psychiatrist Derek Summerfield called for a medical academic boycott of Israel. Growing up in South Africa during apartheid, the child of a Zimbabwean Afrikana mother and British father, he knows all too well what racial discrimination and segregation means. He lived it.
Even before visiting the Palestinian territories towards the end of the first Intifada (1987-1992), where he saw for himself Israel's systematic and institutionalised torture of Palestinians, Summerfield "had always been angry at Israel".
"Watching the behaviour of young Israeli soldiers towards an elderly Palestinian man on my first day in Jerusalem at a checkpoint felt very familiar," he says. "I'd seen this in South Africa where I grew up."
Blachar Now Heads Global Ethics
5 November 2008 Derek Summerfield writes to say the long standing President of the IMA, Yoram Blachar, becomes President of the World Med Assoc. It had escaped The Medical Committee for Boycott of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) that he had been President-elect of the WMA.
For those familiar with the role Blachar has played over many years, for him to become President of the official international watchdog on medical ethics is an event beyond satire, as when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Next thing Donald Rumsfeld is going to pop up as the head of Amnesty International...
Just for openers, the1975 Declaration of Tokyo, which forbids doctors to participate or collude with torture, is a WMA document. Yet Blachar is on record in no less than the Lancet as supporting the use of “moderate physical pressure” (the Israeli euphemism for torture, and condemned as torture by the UN Committee on Torture). This is not something you see everyday in an international medical journal from the head of a national medical association (Blachar Y. The truth about Israeli medical ethics. Lancet 1997;350:1247) . He has played a consistent and trusty role over many years in batting away approaches from both Israeli organisations (PHR-I, Public Committee Against Torture) and international ones (Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, various UN agencies, aid agencies like Medecins Sans Frontieres etc) regarding the extent of documentation in the public realm about the everyday collusion by Israeli doctors with torture as state policy.
He has refused to condemn the systematic violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention being applied in the siege of Gaza- those sections that guarantee a civilian population unimpeded access to materials and services vital to life, including health services, and which guarantee immunity to health professionals as they work. A morally abhorrent track record of quite unusual clarity.
The WMA is there to address the violations of medical ethics to which I and others have been pointing for years, but it has of course long since been sewn up. That was what Blachar was there for, I am afraid. As I have written before, when the official and ‘normal’ channels do not function or will not function, we can either give up or move on to other approaches. This is where our calls for a boycott of the IMA, and indeed the whole academic boycott campaign, come in.
On the other hand he and the IMA arguably now present a bigger target.
David Halpin suggests this article is read for a picture of the torment of a whole population.
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