‘Keep your political opinions to yourselves’: Doctors oppose medical shutdown in Israel amid protests

Hundreds of doctors are enraged by the strike ordered by the Israeli medical association, which is against the judicial overhaul.

By World Israel News Staff

Over 600 doctors are calling on the Israeli Medical Association not to make the body political and not to use their names and the membership fees they pay for political purposes, Hebrew-language Channel 14 reported Monday.

Following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s firing of Yoav Gallant Sunday evening over the defense minister’s public opposition to his planned judicial overhaul, the country erupted in protest, with strikes ranging from pre-schools to flights abroad, among other industries. The Histadrut medical association joined in the revolt, ordering all non-emergency, life-saving services canceled until the reforms are nixed.

“The Medical Association will operate an Exceptions Committee as usual and will enable life-saving treatments and services,” the organization stated.

Hundreds of doctors signed a petition against the decision, saying “Don’t use our name.”

“We want to express our strong opposition and even our anger” over this strike, they declared.

“We would like to express our disgust at the attempts to turn the representative organization of doctors in Israel into a political body,” they stated, adding that the strike, which includes all public hospitals and community clinics, would be “crossing all red lines.”

“Keep your political opinions to yourself and do not use our name, the membership fees we pay to the organization and the many long hours that many of us contribute through the organization for the advancement of medicine in Israel. Do not drag us all down the slope,” the petition read.

“The Association is not a political body, was not elected as a political body and did not receive authority from its members to function as one,” they said.

“Israeli doctors represent a variety from the entire spectrum of society and the political spectrum and work side by side without bias and without differences of religion, race and gender…

“We will not allow our name and membership fees to be used against our will for political purposes. We will not allow the political position, principles or values ​​of any side of the map to be trampled upon, and we will not allow them to say things on behalf of an entire community of doctors, things that range from political to just controversial.”

“The common denominator for all of us is the desire to provide optimal care to all patients, regardless of their opinions, and to instill in the patients confidence in us as an independent, reliable and stable body, which is not affected by policy fluctuations and political positions,” they stated.

Prof. Zion Hagay, chairman of the assocation, countered the doctors’ objections.

“We recently reiterated that the Medical Association is a non-political organization. We represent male and female doctors who come from all over the country and from the entire political spectrum. But we are not in a political event,” he said.

“We are not discussing here either a peace agreement or the distribution of cases in the government. We are in a moment of historical and unprecedented crisis in the life of a nation, in a last attempt to put a finger in the dam…to bandage the bleeding wound before we have to turn off the monitor. That is why we will not be satisfied with stopping the legislation without more substantial content.”