“I will not use my medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat. » This is a line of the Physician Pledge adopted by the World Medical Association in 1948, which guides the work of doctors around the world.
Unfortunately, while the practice of torture persists around the world, medical personnel too often risk becoming complicit. One country that has recently been in the spotlight due to medical complicity in torture is Israel.
For years, human rights organizations have denounced the “widespread and systematic” use of torture by Israeli security forces and prison authorities. The Israeli NGO Public Committee Against Torture (PCATI) has filed more than 1,400 complaints of torture against Israeli authorities since 2001.
Since October 7, allegations of ill-treatment and torture against Palestinians detained in Israel have increased sharply. According to media reports, at least 40 Palestinians have died in Israeli military custody and 16 in prison over the past eight months. These figures represent a substantial increase from the average of four deaths per year from 1967 to 2019.
Medical complicity in deaths or mistreatment of detainees would leave a dark stain on the medical profession in Israel. We therefore call on Israeli authorities, medical institutions and associations to investigate any allegations of complicity by doctors and other medical personnel in acts of torture and ill-treatment.
A story of medical complicity
Reports that Israeli medical workers may have been complicit in the mistreatment of Palestinians detained since October 7 should come as no surprise. Human rights organizations have detailed these practices in recent years.
In 2007, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) published testimony alleging that between torture sessions, victims were seen by doctors who neither documented nor reported the torture.
In 2009, an appeal was made on behalf of more than 700 doctors from 43 countries asking the World Medical Association (WMA) to take action against the Israeli Medical Association based on compiled evidence of medical complicity in torture by several renowned international human rights organizations, including PCATl. The WMA took no action and even refused to recognize the submission.
In 2011, Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI) documented prison doctors’ implicit involvement in mistreatment by returning victims to abusers after cursory treatment, sharing medical information with abusers and by failing to document and report acts of torture and ill-treatment. Despite calls for the Israeli Medical Association to investigate the accused doctors, no review of medical records or interviews with the victims have been conducted.
In 2016, the Palestinian human rights organization Addameer published a report denouncing Israel’s policy of deliberate medical neglect of Palestinians in detention. It details cases of Palestinians who were denied care in prison and doctors who failed to include physical signs of torture and mistreatment in medical records.
The same year, the United Nations Committee Against Torture also raised concerns that prison doctors were not reporting injuries indicative of abuse. He also recommended that they be placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Health.
However, this did not happen. Medical staff working in Israeli prisons are still not supervised by the Health Ministry or any other medical body and are not members of the national medical association. Since they report to the prison authority rather than a health authority, they risk compromising the health care of their patients to maintain loyalty to their superiors.
Deterioration after October 7
Human rights organizations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories have noted an increase in cases of torture, ill-treatment and deaths in custody since October 7. Some indicated that this was a deliberate policy of the Israeli authorities.
On October 11, the Israeli Minister of Health called on hospitals to refuse treatment to Palestinians in Gaza. Since then, Palestinians in Israeli prisons have reported that their medical appointments have been canceled and that they have been denied medical care.
International standards provide for a medical examination upon entry into prison. However, PHRI found that this has not been systematically implemented for Palestinians arriving in Israeli detention centers since October 7. Thus, medical teams do not identify people with medical needs nor do they document mistreatment or torture taking place during the arrest process.
Israeli authorities have opened new military detention centers in the Negev desert for people arrested in Gaza. One of them is located in the Sde Teiman military base. This site has been dubbed the “Israeli Guantanamo” with media coverage detailing the horrific conditions based on whistleblower testimonies.
Israel has suspended access to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) prisons since October 7 and no visits from lawyers or family are allowed in Sde Teiman. Thus, external monitoring of detention centers is currently non-existent.
In April, a doctor working at Sde Teiman sent a letter to Israel’s defense and health ministers as well as the attorney general stating that the facility’s operations “do not comply with a single article among those who deal with the health in the context of the incarceration of illegal persons”. Fighters Law”. According to this person, all patients are handcuffed on all four limbs and blindfolded at all times, including when receiving treatment, and therefore must use diapers.
Medical personnel who treat these patients without objecting to the conditions in which they are held risk being complicit in torture, thereby violating not only the patients’ human rights, but also their own professional ethics, which includes the fundamental duty to respect human dignity and to always act in the best interest of the patient.
Urgent action is needed
In recent months, calls for action from Israeli authorities and international institutions have increased.
In March, Palestinian rights groups issued an urgent appeal to 11 United Nations special working groups and rapporteurs, urging them to take action against the torture and mistreatment of Palestinians by Israeli forces. Among the extensive evidence of the use of torture, they also reported cases of doctors and nurses “disregarding and ignoring the needs of prisoners” and “ordering prison guards to attack and further assault a prisoner “.
In April, at the time of writing, more than 600 health workers around the world were calling for the closure of the Sde Teiman detention center. We then joined this call and continue to demand the closure of the establishment.
We urge all healthcare professionals to put patients first, do no harm, and document and report harm caused by others.
We call on professional associations to support members who fear becoming complicit in torture.
We call on the Israeli authorities to grant lawyers, civil society organizations and the ICRC unhindered access to places of detention.
We call on the international community to insist on this access, on investigations into alleged cases of torture and medical complicity, and on holding perpetrators accountable.
Israeli medical professionals are at risk of becoming, and may already be, complicit in the torture and mistreatment of detained Palestinians. This must stop. Failure to respect the doctor’s commitment is a slippery slope. This can have serious consequences for patients and leave a lasting stain on the medical profession.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
