Hundreds of healthcare workers demonstrated outside the World Medical Association's General Assembly in Rotterdam on October 10, 2026, demanding the body suspend the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) over its alleged response to the destruction of Palestinian healthcare — a protest the WMA had not publicly addressed as of October 11.
The Rotterdam Protest
The WMA's General Assembly ran October 7–10, 2026 at the Postillion Convention Center WTC in Rotterdam. On Saturday, hundreds of healthcare workers gathered outside in a demonstration organized by the "IMA OUT!" campaign. In a symbolic act, 81 healthcare workers removed their scrubs and hung them on a line facing the assembly, each pair bearing the name of a detained Palestinian healthcare worker.
Organizers submitted a petition signed by more than 6,500 healthcare workers worldwide calling for the IMA's immediate suspension from the WMA. Their demands: suspend the IMA until it publicly upholds medical ethics and humanitarian law and condemns the killing and detention of Palestinian health workers; release all detained Palestinian healthcare workers; and have national medical associations cut institutional ties with the IMA.
The campaign's flagship case is Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, a pediatrician and head of Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital, which was stormed by Israeli forces in December 2024. He has been held for more than 22 months without charge under Israel's Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, and campaigners say he has faced prolonged solitary confinement, beatings and severe weight loss. A separate international petition for his release drew more than 970 medical professionals from 41 countries. "Our colleagues belong with their patients, not in Israeli prisons," said Mejrem Ahmetaj, a general practitioner and IMA OUT! member.
The Campaign's Case
The IMA OUT! coalition includes groups such as Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Doctors Against Genocide, Sanitari per Gaza and Doctors for Gaza. It alleges the IMA has "breached almost every ethical principle in the WMA's Code of Medical Ethics," and accuses the association of actively defending attacks on medical facilities and blocking international condemnation — a position campaigners describe as complicity rather than medical neutrality.
"Break your ties with the IMA and suspend the IMA from the WMA now," said Jonathan Fluxman, a retired British GP and campaign representative. The campaign points to precedent: South Africa's medical association (SAMA) suspended all bilateral relations with the IMA in October 2025, and the British Medical Association passed a motion to suspend engagement with the IMA until it affirms medical neutrality. The WMA itself adopted a resolution on the protection of healthcare in conflict in Porto in October 2025.
The Israeli Medical Association's Response
The IMA rejects the accusations. In comments reported by The Lancet, the association said the accusations against it are "at worst, lies, and at best, highly contested allegations presented as fact," arguing the campaign confuses a country's government with its medical association — "an extremely dangerous precedent." It says the petition ignores the role of Hamas, including what it describes as the deliberate use of hospitals as command centers and ammunition stores.
The IMA says it and its members "have made it clear on numerous occasions that they uphold universal medical ethics." The Lancet reports that the IMA has issued statements calling for respect for medical neutrality and international humanitarian law, the safe delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, and humane treatment of prisoners and detainees in hospitals — while noting it found no IMA statements publicly condemning Israeli attacks on Gaza's health system or calling for a ceasefire.
The takeaway: The Rotterdam protest turned a long-running ethics dispute into a direct confrontation at world medicine's top table — with one side demanding suspension and the other calling the charges false. The WMA, caught between them, has yet to say a word.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Volatile Reaction (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
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