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May 3, 2002/Iyar 21, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 33
Israeli doctors may be expelled
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - The threat of an anti-Israel resolution looms over the convention of another world body this week.
A delegation at the World Medical Association may try to introduce a resolution to expel its member group, the Israel Medical Association, according to Hadassah: The Women's Zionist Organization of America.
Hadassah officials believe the resolution would blame Israeli doctors for not opposing Israel's recent military operation in the West Bank.
The conference, which begins May 2, comes just a week after the U.N. Commission on Human Rights wrapped up its annual six-week meeting in Geneva, April 26.
That meeting blasted Israel in harsher and more numerous resolutions than ever before, according to Jewish observers.
In an effort to preempt any action against the Israel Medical Association, Hadassah is waging a campaign to defend the Israeli doctors, and says an anti-Israel resolution at the WMA conference would only reflect anti-Semitism.
Based in a French town just outside Geneva, the WMA is a non-governmental organization that works closely with the United Nations, but operates as an independent consortium of national medical associations.
The group denies any motion to expel the IMA on their Web site, calling the subject a "hoax" that has elicited 20,000 e-mail protests. Spokesman Nigel Duncan said the story was born in a Jerusalem Post article that he called "completely untrue."
"What is being discussed," he said, is a "proposed resolution on the assurance of medical and health services during the armed conflict between Israelis and Palestinians."
The WMA may not have been informed of the resolution, but calling the issue a hoax just avoids the issue, said Amy Goldstein, director of Israel, Zionist and international affairs for Hadassah.
The American Medical Association already has pledged to help defeat such a resolution, she added.
For its part, the IMA prepared a position paper defending itself and calling on the Israeli army to balance the provision of medical services with the need for security.
Israeli physicians have "repeatedly balanced treatment of the victims with that of the perpetrators," said Bonnie Lipton, Hadassah's president.
Attacks on Israeli doctors smack of "institutional anti-Semitism, and are a continuation of the anti-Israel campaign currently being waged at the U.N. and other world bodies," Lipton said.
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