A submission was made in January this year by 71 UK doctors to the
WMA, attaching a comprehensive report from the Israeli organisation
Physicians for Human Rights (PHRI), with detailed case studies showing
the complicity of Israeli doctors working in security units in which
torture of Palestinian detainees was routine. The BMJ has previously
reported on this. We also submitted a study published last November
which showed that sexual torture too was endemic. Why are the doctors
posted to these units not protecting the detainees and protesting, and
why has the IMA never acted on such reports, as required to do by the
WMA Declaration of Tokyo?
The new WMA President is the UK medical academic Sir Michael Marmot,
and we looked to him to bring his international reputation to bear on
a case that has been a standing reproach to the idea that global regulation
of the ethical behaviour of doctors is even-handed and effective. His
response is superficial and issued without examing the evidence provided.
A response ot the dismissal of these concerns has been published in
the British Medical Journal.
Read the BMJ article
Backed
by the System: Abuse and Torture at the Shikma Interrogation Facility
– B’Tselem