To whom it may concern,

I am writing on behalf of the Prisoners and Detainees Department at Physicians for Human RightsIsrael (PHRI). Established in 1988 during the first Intifada by Palestinian and Jewish physicians, PHRI has dedicated itself to upholding the right to health for all individuals living under Israeli control. Our department addresses hundreds of individual cases annually, using them as a basis to advocate for comprehensive systemic reforms in the health rights of incarcerated individuals. Since the start of the current war in Gaza, our primary focus has been on addressing the escalating violations of Palestinians' rights in Israeli prison facilities, which have reached an unprecedented low.

We are reaching out to raise a complaint against the Israeli Ministry of Health and the Israel Medical Association (IMA) for their failure to fulfill their responsibilities, lack of action, and, in some cases, direct involvement in severe breaches of their duty to provide appropriate medical care. These bodies have set inadequate and unethical standards for the treatment of detained persons and have failed to take responsibility or express proactive stances to meet their obligations toward Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, military detention facilities, and civilian hospitals.

We have previously contacted the World Medical Association multiple times to highlight severe human rights and medical ethics violations linked to Israel's apartheid regime. For instance, in June 2022, we requested information on the role of National Medical Associations (NMAs) regarding these issues. This letter specifically addresses violations related to the health of Palestinians in Israeli detention settings since October 2023.

The attached letter provides further details on the involvement of the Israeli Ministry of Health and the IMA in these violations, highlighting their ongoing failure to ensure the right to health for all individuals in Israeli custody, whether in civilian hospitals or detention facilities.

Since the beginning of the war, we have sent numerous communications to the Health Ministry and the IMA, urging them to take immediate action to address the violations occurring at the field hospital in the Sde Teiman detention facility, in civilian hospitals, and within the health services provided in Israeli prisons. Regrettably, none of these e orts have led to any meaningful response or action.

The Ministry of Health and the IMA have failed in their duty to ensure equal, adequate, and ethical medical care to all incarcerated individuals. Additionally, they have neglected their responsibility to protect the physicians they represent from becoming entangled in severe violations, even when these physicians sought help and reported ethical and professional breaches. As a result, we are forced to conclude that the Israeli Ministry of Health and the IMA are complicit in policies that violate human rights in general and the right to health in particular.

We believe that health organizations worldwide, especially physician associations, must take decisive action to address these conditions and prevent their continuation. This should involve direct appeals and public statements condemning Israel's policies of torture, abuse, neglect, and the endangerment of human lives.

We urge you to help hold Israel accountable and address these grave violations by taking the following actions:

1. Advocate for the entry of international organizations, such as the Red Cross, into Israeli prison facilities to document relevant incidents and provide medical care to incarcerated individuals.

2. Contact the IMA and the Israeli Ministry of Health privately and publicly to address their involvement in the abovementioned violations. It is unacceptable for an organization implicated in such abuses to be part of the global medical community.

3. Urge the WMA to evaluate whether the IMA adheres to its principles.

4. Call on relevant professional organizations to take action to end the systematic violations of Palestinian rights in Israeli prisons, including the participation of Israeli medical institutions in these abuses.

We remain available for any questions or clarifications and would be pleased to discuss the matter in more detail.

Kind regards,

Prisoners and Detainees Department

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel

De Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit vestigt de aandacht op de oproep tot kandidaten voor de reserve van deskundigen overeenkomstig artikel 18/1 van de wet van 3 december 2017 tot oprichting van de Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit.

U vindt als bijlage het uittreksel ter zake uit het B.S. van 31 oktober 2024.

Het is de bedoeling dat de Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit aan het federale parlement een lijst van deskundigen kan voorleggen met het oog op hun benoeming. Zodra de deskundigen door het parlement zijn benoemd, kan de Autoriteit in het kader van haar wettelijke taken op vrijwillige basis een beroep doen op hun expertise. De lijst van deskundigen zal worden gepubliceerd en de expertiseopdrachten zullen worden vergoed.