Recently, we blogged about a spurious campaign against Dr. Yoram Blachar, longstanding President of the Israeli Medical Association, being named President of the World Medical Association.
It looks like many heeded the call to support Dr. Blachar, according to this recent article from Haaretz:
Haaretz 19:55 01/07/2009
Thousands support Israeli doctor accused of complicity in torture
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Thousands of people this week signed a petition in support of the Israeli president of the World Medical Association, following a campaign to impeach him from the world ethical body for alleged complicity in torturing Palestinians.
The impeachment campaign began shortly after Blachar assumed the presidency in November, but has picked up following last month’s publication of a report by Israeli human rights groups on alleged complicity by Israeli doctors in tortures.
In June, 725 physicians from 43 countries signed a petition for Blachar’s removal, claiming that the Israel Medical Association which he heads has ignored evidence that doctors working in detention facilities are allowing torture. Blachar denies this.
“We are fighting to immunize science from politics,” said Nancy Falchuk, who organized the petition to support Blachar as president of Hadassah A Zionist body heavily invested in medicine and the largest volunteer organization in the U.S.
Though it does occasionally lend its power to countering anti-Israel initiatives, Hadassah is not a major player in this field. “We remain above politics,” Falchuk said, but added that after 97 years of involvement in Israeli medicine, “we know the accusation is not true.”
She added: “Hadassah will mount an army to defend Israel and its medical institutions, just as we have done in 2003 when the World Medical Association wanted to ban the Israel branch.”
The campaign to impeach Blachar – a 68-year-old pediatrician from Rehovot with 40 years of medical experience – is spearheaded by Derek Summerfield, a psychiatrist and member of the U.K. Medical Committee for Palestine. Blachar said he intended to sue Summerfield for libel.
Furthermore, Blachar says that 60 percent of the doctors who signed the petition for his removal as president are Arab or Muslim.
Hadas Ziv, director of Physicians for Human Rights – an Israel-based group that coauthored the report which fueled the petition against Blachar – says she finds the ethnicity of the cosignatories “irrelevant” and calls the argument “Very problematic.”
Ziv says that while her organization believes the Israel Medical Association is not doing enough to prevent torture, her group nonetheless opposes the boycott motion. She noted the organization did not sign the petition against Blachar.
However, Blachar says that Physicians for Human Rights are “actively creating an atmosphere which generates boycott and anti-Israeli motions.” He noted that the 725-doctor letter includes the signature of Ruchama Marton, the PHR founder and president.
Speaking from Liverpool where he is attending the annual conference of the British Medical Association, Blachar said: “PHR are perceived by non-Israeli doctors as the ultimate authority on Israel. They don’t know it’s a politically-motivated entity.”
He added he will be mounting a concentrated effort to illustrate this in the coming weeks. PHR describes itself as human rights-oriented and apolitical.
According to Ziv, the fact that Blachar called on Hadassah and other Jewish organizations to defend him is in itself a form of introducing politics into medicine. “Why did he go to Jewish groups?” she said. “If he’s being persecuted, why not go to everyone and anyone and ask them to oppose this?”
In countering this, Blachar said: “Israeli doctors are already the subject of a hostile and political campaign, so I will do what it takes to defend their name from reckless and unfounded accusations, and I will also seek the help of our friends.”
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