American Medical Association must support cease-fire in Gaza
By a vote of 136-458, the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association shut down a call to debate a resolution to support a cease-fire in Gaza, with the reasoning that it did not meet criteria of advocacy, urgency or ethical consideration.
They claimed geopolitical issues are beyond their purview. However, the AMA is the largest coalition of physicians in the U.S. and has long engaged in international health policy and advocacy.
In spring 2022, the AMA rightfully issued a strongly worded statement in response to the Russian military targeting health care facilities, stating it “violates every standard of decency. We join physicians everywhere — and especially in Ukraine — who are calling for an end to this war so we can work on healing the terrible damage already inflicted.”
As a physician and a person of conscience, I see a glaring double standard and undoubted hypocrisy in the AMA refraining from making a similar statement about Palestinians in Gaza, where the WHO has recorded at least 137 Israeli attacks on health care facilities.
Our colleagues are heroes facing death inside hospitals amid insurmountable danger from Israeli airstrikes, tanks and snipers in and around them. The medical director of Al-Shifa Hospital, Dr. Nidal Hardous, wrote, “We might not survive until morning. We don’t want to be killed here. … I am calling for help urgently.”
Soon after this plea, telecommunications from Gaza were cut off. We must respond to our colleagues’ pleas for help and advocate for their safety. Legal experts from the Center for Constitutional Rights have described what is happening in Gaza right now as an “unfolding genocide against the Palestinian people.”
It does not get more urgent than this. We cannot fail at this moment to equitably commit to advocating for the protection of patients and medical staff. An open letter was sent to the AMA this past week on behalf of thousands of concerned members, urging them to reconsider their stance.
We urge the AMA to support a cease-fire, as well as the entry of unrestricted aid into Gaza, and the safe passage of humanitarian and medical staff in sync with the pleas of physicians on the ground and many human rights organizations. I ask members of the AMA House of Delegates, “If it was you in those hospitals, what would you hope your international physician community would do to protect you?”
Dana Elborno, M.D.,
Chicago area physician