Written by: Yves Engler

Israel is waging war on Palestinian healthcare and the Canadian Medical Association is complicit.

The Israeli military recently attacked and emptied the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza. They also detained and abused the staff as well as kidnapping its director Hossam Abu Safiyeh.

The World Health Organization said it was “appalled” by Israel’s attack on Kamal Adwan and its “systematic dismantling of the health system” in northern Gaza. It called for the immediate release of Abu Safiyeh whose life is at risk. Several Palestinian health workers have died in Israeli custody over the past fifteen months.

As part of its ever-worsening holocaust in Gaza, Israel has waged war on Palestinian health services and workers. On Tuesday the UN human rights office released a report showing there were at least 136 attacks on 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities between October 7, 2023, and June 30, 2024.One thousand Palestinian health workers have been killed. Medical staff have been killed at an even greater rate than the general population. Reportedly, the chance of being killed as a registered nurse or medical doctor in Gaza is 3.5 times higherthan the general population. International law explicitly protects medical personnel and hospitals. But Israel is indifferent to international humanitarian law.

Former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and rector of the University of Dundee Craig Murray posted, “I am trying to think of any other instance in the history of war where a whole series of civilian hospitals were completely destroyed and medical staff repeatedly tortured to death. I cannot. Not even the Nazis. Genghis Khan treated captured medical personnel with respect.”

Most of the Canadian medical establishment has been complicit in Israel’s attack on the Palestinian health system. The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) has remained silent in the face of Israel’s war on Palestinian healthcare even though they “unequivocally condemned” the October 7 “terrorist attacks by Hamas”. After February 24, 2022, CMA divested from Russia. On the only occasion in which the CMA and its president (indirectly) criticized Israel’s destruction of a medical facility, the October 17 attack on Al-Ahli hospital, they later reversed course under pressure from genocidal Jewish supremacists.

When a member of its board of directors was suspended from his residency at the University of Ottawa for opposing genocide, the CMA failed to defend Yipeng Ge. In response to the CMA’s failure to oppose Israel’s war on Palestinian healthcare, Geresigned from the CMA board.

Many doctors are appalled by the CMA’s complicity in Israel’s holocaust. In May the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations of Canada announced that many doctors were canceling their CMA membership over its complicity in genocide. In recent days hundreds of doctors have followed Ge in posting a picture of themselves to social media “calling for the immediate release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.”

Ontario Physician Kavita Algu posted:

“As health workers in Canada we have watched Israel:

bomb every hospital in Gaza.
turn hospitals into military bases.
kill almost 1,000 health workers
kidnap 300 health workers.
bomb medical students trying to write exams.
burn patients and displaced civilians alive.

CMA has remained silent, even actively silencing those speaking out like Yipeng Ge. [CMA head] Joss Reimer must uphold their ethical principles as doctors and speak out condemning Israel’s abduction, murder and targeting of health workers and destruction of health in Gaza.”

While many doctors demand the CMA oppose the destruction of Palestinian healthcare, there’s also a vocal pro-holocaust lobby within the health sector. In December 2024, 555 doctors at the University of Toronto signed an Open Statement to the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine (TFOM) from Jewish Physician Faculty. The statement endorsed Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

An umbrella organization that includes the Jewish Medical Association of Ontario, Jewish Medical Association of British Columbia, Jewish Physicians Association of Manitoba and L’Association des Médecins Juifs du Québec, the Canadian Federation of Jewish Medical Associations seeks to portray Jewish doctors as under assault by colleagues opposing genocide. With a mission statement saying it aims to “combat anti-Zionism” and “build solidarity with Israel”, the Jewish Medical Association of Ontario released a report last month suggesting the real victims of Israel’s holocaust are pro-genocide Jewish Canadian doctors (making $250,000 a year on average, doctors are far from an oppressed group.)

Recognizing the existence of a genocidal Jewish supremacist lobby in the health sector doesn’t get the CMA off the hook from raising its voice against Israel’s war on Palestinian health workers and facilities. Failure to condemn these crimes is complicity.

Practically, the CMA must join the World Health Organizationin demanding the immediate release of Kamal Adwan hospital director Hossam Abu Safiyeh. As 8000 have emailed it in recent days, the Canadian Medical Association must also condemn Israel’s war on Palestinian health infrastructure and workers.

Yves Engler is the author of 13 books. His latest book, available now, is "Canada's Long Fight Against Democracy”.

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