The Brazil-led move garnered a two-thirds majority over accusations that the IDF is allegedly committing “genocide” in Gaza.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
The International Federation of Medical Student Associations (IFMSA) has suspended Israel for two years over accusations that the IDF is allegedly committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
The vote, initiated by the Brazilian members, took place last week in the group’s annual conference and garnered a two-thirds majority in favor of the motion.
The Brazilians had first tried to expel Israel outright, but this bid failed. However, if the suspension is not revoked in either of the next two years’ assemblies, it will become permanent.
According to the president of the Israeli Medical Students Association, Miri Schwimmer, the proposition was offered on behalf of Palestinian medical students, who could not vote as they are not a state.
“They proposed an immediate suspension without any investigation,” she told Ynet. “There were no arguments for the suspension, they just said that Israel is committing genocide and threw all kinds of delusional accusations.”
There was more than one irregularity about the vote, she charged.
“When you want to raise an issue for a vote, you announce it two months in advance. But … I think there was a well-planned hijacking behind the scenes,” she said.
Schwimmer was allowed to speak in Israel’s defense, although it did not sway the majority.
She said she “talked about the abductees,” about the extensive Israeli aid to the Palestinians, about how the country provides medical care “without bias,” and charged the delegates with delegitimizing the Jewish state.
Israel Medical Association (IMA) chairman Prof. Zion Hagai protested the decision to the IFMSA head in strong language.
“The decision was based on political calculations,” he wrote in a letter. “The Israeli delegation is not the Israeli government. The Israeli delegation is responsible for government actions just as the Palestinian delegation is responsible for Hamas terrorism.”
“More importantly,” he wrote, “such a move would be in direct contradiction to the goal of the federation, which is to bring together medical students from all parts of the world.”
On a technical basis alone, the vote was illegitimate, he added, as “the General Assembly may vote on suspension only after an official investigation is completed and adequate proof of the violation is presented.”
Health Minister Uriel Bosso also condemn the move, calling it “an outrageous decision” that was “a sign of disgrace to the world of medicine” and “encourages boycotts against Jews and gives support to the terrorist organizations that carried out the worst massacre of Israeli citizens since the Holocaust.”
He said he would be in immediate contact with Germany, which is the IFMSA’s main backer, to get the decision revoked.
The vote was panned outside of Israel as well.
“This terrible decision @IFMSA delegitimizes Israel by punishing medical students: the very young people needed to build a peaceful future for all. The decision is substantively prejudicial and procedurally flawed. It should be immediately reversed,” Dr. Peter A. Singer, special advisor to the director-general of the World Health Organization, wrote on X Friday.
The IFMSA is one of many organizations that have kept silent regarding the Hamas surprise invasion of Israel last October in which some 3,000 terrorists murdered 1,200 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and abducted 252 Israelis and foreign nationals into Gaza, both dead and alive.
“Although the organization is defined as non-political, they do political things,” Schwimmer noted. “After the October 7 [Hamas] massacre, I called on the organization to condemn the massacre. So far I have not received an official condemnation.”
Founded in 1951, the IFMSA represents medical student associations from 123 countries.