Israel’s occupation versus the medical profession

A line in the Hippocratic Oath taken by medical students around the world when they graduate as doctors is explicit in its requirements that every physician must uphold specific ethical standards: “Also I will, according to my ability and judgment, prescribe a regimen for the health of the sick; but I will utterly reject harm and mischief.”

Of historic and traditional value, the oath is considered to be a rite of passage for medical practitioners in many countries. However, it would appear that some of those in Israel have chosen the country’s culture of occupation over their duties as members of the medical profession. As a medical doctor myself, I am astounded at the level of disregard for the basic principle of the commitment to life and health that some Israeli doctors have displayed in recent years. These practices have spread deeply within the Israeli healthcare system, poisoning the nobility of a profession committed to preserving life.

A stark example of the disparity and complete desecration of the principle of universal and equal healthcare has been exposed by the fact that Israeli healthcare practitioners separate Israeli Jewish and Israeli Arab women in maternity wards. According to an investigation published recently by public broadcaster Israel Radio, while in some hospitals this is an unofficial policy which is always carried out, at others the segregation occurs at the behest of patients. This phenomenon is not new; it has been reported by major media outlets for at least the past decade. A 2006 article in Haaretz, for example, highlighted the practice in two hospitals in northern Israel; one of the hospitals defended the policy at the time, citing “differences in mentality” among Jewish and Palestinian patients. Six years later, in 2012, Maariv newspaper found identical results at some of the same hospitals exposed by Israel Radio. Indeed, segregation within the healthcare system not only takes place along Jew-Arab lines; in 2012 the Israeli ministry of health ordered hospitals across the country to put African asylum seekers into isolation. Working in some of South Africa’s largest public hospitals, where many of our patients are asylum seekers and refugees, I cannot even contemplate the idea of them being isolated while in our care, or receiving less than optimal treatment based on their race or place of birth.

Arguably more seriously, some Israeli medical practitioners have also failed the profession through their increasing compliance with the military occupation of Palestine which imposes unjust treatment upon Palestinian prisoners. A growing number of Palestinians held in solitary confinement by Israel have gone on hunger strike in protest at their mistreatment.

Over the past two years, Israel has doubled its use of solitary confinement for all of its prisoners, both criminal and political, according to a new report from Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI). The organisation found that Israeli healthcare professionals give solitary confinement “a medical stamp of approval”, despite the 1975 World Medical Association Declaration of Tokyo prohibiting physicians from taking part in any way in torture or cruel punishment. “Solitary confinement is chosen for the duration of interrogations precisely because of its devastating psychological effects on individuals,” the PHRI report states. In 2011, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Méndez, argued that solitary confinement for more than 15 days constitutes torture and can result in permanent psychological damage. It was found that prison health providers in Israel will state explicitly that a prisoner is “fit for solitary confinement” or “there is nothing to prevent solitary confinement in this case.” An update to the Tokyo Declaration in 2007, of which the Israeli Medical Association approved, obliges physicians to report any instance of torture they witness, and yet too many Israeli physicians appear to be prepared to work in complete contradiction to this requirement. Again, they have not only defiled their commitment to the Hippocratic Oath but also to the medical profession.

Whether it is in Israel’s maternity wards — where the documented conduct of Israeli physicians allows one to extrapolate reliably that the segregated Arabs and African asylum seekers receive far less than optimal treatment compared to Jews — or behind bars with the healthcare rights of Palestinian political prisoners, it is clear that the fundamental commitment for doctors to “utterly reject harm and mischief” is being ignored by many Israeli physicians. When Drs Ivor Lang, Benjamin Tucker and Colin Hersch subordinated their Hippocratic Oath to the will of the Apartheid regime’s security officers in South Africa it led to the brutal death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. Similarly, Israeli doctors have set themselves on the route to disgracing their promise to the medical profession in favour of upholding the principles of Israel’s brutal military — and, yes, Apartheid — occupation of Palestine.

Dr Aayesha Soni is the Vice Chairperson of the Media Review Network, Johannesburg.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.