Rapid Responses to:

NEWS: Owen Dyer Group of British doctors call for a boycott of the Israel Medical Association BMJ 2007; 334: 871-e [Full text]

Rapid Responses: Submit a response to this article

Rapid Responses published:

Who calls?

N L Cohen   (28 April 2007)

Boycott of the Israeli Medical Association

Roger W Gordon   (28 April 2007)

Usual Suspects?

Phillip J Harris   (28 April 2007)

The factual evidence against the Israeli Medical Association

Christopher J Burns-Cox   (29 April 2007)

Reply to R Gordon

B D Bradley   (29 April 2007)

Looking from the side

David S Halpin   (1 May 2007)

We all share the responsibility

David E Pegg   (1 May 2007)

Disturbing distortions

Rita Giacaman   (1 May 2007)

It's time for justice !!

Amin El-Hihi   (2 May 2007)

Doctors should be impartial

Hugh Mann   (4 May 2007)

It is high time the IMA took to the checkpoints and visibly protest this abuse

Andrew Rouse   (4 May 2007)

reponse to Israeli Med Assoc from signatory of letter calling for boycott

derek a summerfield   (8 May 2007)

Doctors means ethics

Mamdouh EL-Adl   (9 May 2007)

Distortions and more distortions

B D Bradley   (9 May 2007)

Do We Take Ethics Seriously?

Dani Filc, Hadas Ziv, (executive director, PHR Israel)   (11 May 2007)

Ambulances and the Geneva Convention: what is the evidence base?

derek a summerfield   (14 May 2007)

Ethical justification of a boycott

David Pegg   (14 May 2007)

The Policy of Occupation is the root cause

Hadas Ziv, Israel   (18 May 2007)

Re: Who calls?

Mark Struthers   (21 May 2007)

Re: Who calls?

susanne mccabe   (21 May 2007)

Israeli Medical Association opposes suggested British boycott

Yoram Blachar   (25 May 2007)

Who calls? 28 April 2007
N L Cohen, Lay Person London NW9 5DB Send response to journal: Re: Who calls?	It would be interesting to know the composition of the group of British doctors calling for the IMA to be boycotted. Competing interests: NLC has lived in Israel.
Boycott of the Israeli Medical Association 28 April 2007
Roger W Gordon, psychotherapist Private Send response to journal: Re: Boycott of the Israeli Medical Association	I am dismayed to read the endless ding-dong arguing, attacking and defensiveness in this argument, but am heartened that there may emerge some useful dialogue. Posturing before real dialogue is not uncommon - perhaps necessary. We see time and again that taking any attacking line with Israel produces vehement and sometimes vitriolic response, so what strategy will be effective? I expect more from out of the strong Jewish philanthropic tradition. It seems very evident to me that there is, and has been for too long, very serious damage done to the MENTAL HEALTH of both communities and it continues. This damage is far more serious in the long run, and urgently needs turning around. We must really look at (and not ignore) the degrees of serious suffering of human beings who are being traunatised and are not having their basic human needs met. The medical profession above all should be concerned with that, and be bringing healing. Competing interests: None declared
Usual Suspects? 28 April 2007
Phillip J Harris, GP Box Hill, Victoria , Australia 3128 Send response to journal: Re: Usual Suspects?	Once again I read that the very concerned section of middle east watchers is criticising the Israeli Medical Association for not bleating publically about external conditions in Palestinian territories. I am waiting (have waited for many years)for their positve suggestions that the Palistinian Medical Association pressurise their politicians to cancel their aggression, control the hot heads and agree to a regional peace plan. A lot of aid money is being wasted in armaments and in lack of infrastructure. There are precedents for peace and cooperation with Egypt and Jordan; both of whom have prospered from increased levels of tourism, investment, education and decreased standing armies. I reiterate the fact that Israel is the only democracy with free press and open debate in the region (warts and all), and has a lot to teach in many fields of medicine; we will all be stupid to cut off a vibrant and intellectual scource of medical knowlege, research and teaching. This is not a letter debating national values, and I am not prepared to join arguments re tit for tat battles, etc. Phillip Harris, GP from multicultural Australia. Competing interests: None declared
The factual evidence against the Israeli Medical Association 29 April 2007
Christopher J Burns-Cox, consultant physician Based at my home GLOS GL12 7PB Send response to journal: Re: The factual evidence against the Israeli Medical Association	The evidence of the disgraceful behaviour of the association and the refusal of the British Medical Association to act on it comes not from the personal opinions of the signatories of the letter to the Guardian. It comes from reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN Commission on Human Rights, The Red Cross, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and many other reputable organisations. Dr.Blachar and his aides have reacted histrionically but cannot deny the validity of these reports. It is sad that more members of the BMA and Israeli Medical Association refuse to speak out against the disgraceful behaviour of their associations. Are they frightened, are their principles perverted or are they merely apathetic? Competing interests: None declared
Reply to R Gordon 29 April 2007
B D Bradley, GP North London Send response to journal: Re: Reply to R Gordon	Sir, are you really surprised that 'taking an attacking line with Israel' should elicit sharp responses from those who care deeply for her? How exactly do you respond yourself if attacked? As far reference to the Jewish philanthropic tradition is concerned, two points. Firstly, why should ones charitable habits be related in any way to the way in which one responds to being attacked? Secondly, it is your implied double standard, that Israel is expected to respond differently to any other country under attack, which repeatedly infuriates and exposes subtle bias. You ask what strategy wll be effective. May I suggest cessation of all attack and instead constructive and peaceable dialogue all round? Too much to ask of certain parties of course. Competing interests: I have lived in Israel
Looking from the side 1 May 2007
David S Halpin, Retired orthopaedic surgeon TQ13 9XR Send response to journal: Re: Looking from the side	Group of British doctors call for a boycott of the Israel Medical Association Owen Dyer BMJ 30-04-07 BMJ 2007;334:871 (28 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39196.455613.DB 'Looking from the side' Dear Editor, I recently returned with six colleagues from my seventh visit to the remnants of Palestine. The suffering of the 3.7 million people has never been greater. The siege that was put in place by 29 nations, including Israel, in March 2007 was another cruel and unlawful turn of the screw. And yet the picture painted by Dr Blachar in the letter quoted by Owen Dyer is one of IMA interest and benevolence. Unlike the British press, the Israeli fourth estate is searching and pulls no punches. It is fair to assume that the members of the IMA are well informed about their neighbours in the Occupied Palestine Territories - OPT. One of those Israeli reporters who tells it as it is lives in the 'Territories' – Amira Hass. She is motivated by this seminal moment in her mother's life. Hannah Hass was being marched from a cattle train to the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen on a summer's day in 1944. "She and the other women had been 10 days in the train from Yugoslavia. They were sick and some were dying. Then my mother saw these German women looking at the prisoners, just looking. This image became very formative in my upbringing, this despicable 'looking from the side'. It's as if I was there and saw it myself." 1 As our world becomes more chaotic and cruel, not one of us should be 'looking from the side'. I urge the IMA to examine what is being done to its neighbours, and to act. Until that time I support a boycott. Other medical associations wear no haloes. As far as I know the BMA, AMA and WMA have 'looked from the side' whilst hell has been brought to earth in Iraq. The occupying forces have failed in their duties under the Fourth Geneva Convention to maintain proper medical services for civilians. (I dismiss the fig leaf of the post hoc UN resolution). And are there not doctors at Abu Ghraib, Bagram and Guantanamo? It is as if the Nuremberg Trials had never taken place. David Halpin FRCS 1 Amira Hass: Life Under Israeli Occupation – By an Israeli Published on Sunday, August 26, 2001 in the Independent. By Robert Fisk 'Jewish journalist, Amira Hass, doesn't merely report on the experiences of Palestinians on the West Bank – she shares their lives' Competing interests: I founded the Dove and Dolphin Charity which focuses on medical and general education in 'Palestine'
We all share the responsibility 1 May 2007
David E Pegg, Semi-retired medical researcher Biology Dept., University of York, YO10 5YW Send response to journal: Re: We all share the responsibility	The facts established by recognised humanitarian agencies (the UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Red Cross and so on) are indisputable: no matter what good deeds are done by individual Israeli doctors, and no doubt they are many, they cannot balance the gross suffering inflicted upon Palestinians by the Israeli State. In a democracy, which Israel claims to be, all citizens share responsibility for the actions of their Government but because of the nature of the medical profession, the IMA bears a disproportionate share of that responsibility in Israel. In the absence of other means of applying pressure to the IMA, a boycott is now imperative. Competing interests: None declared
Disturbing distortions 1 May 2007
Rita Giacaman, Professor Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University, Occupied Palestinian Territory Send response to journal: Re: Disturbing distortions	It is all too easy for the president of the Israel Medical Association’s (IMA) Yoram Blachar to denounce calls for boycotting the IMA, and to dismiss as ‘lies’ the organization’s shameful record on torture, its silence in the face of civilian deaths and injuries in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Lebanon and the destruction of the Palestinian infrastructure, economy and health system, as well as other forms acquiescence to Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian rights, including the right to health. These have been well documented by a variety of reliable sources. Indeed, we are still awaiting any form of IMA protest against the persistent Israeli violations of all the pertinent human rights conventions of the ‘civilized world’, as other Israeli groups have done, such as Physicians for Human Rights Israel, B’Tselem and various others. Instead of dwelling on Yoram Blachar’s mystification of facts - being medically neutral is a different concept from being apolitical, with the latter contradicting the very concept of medical ethics - and falling into the trap of counting destructions, dead bodies and injuries in the OPT compared to Israel (albeit at far higher proportions in the OPT than in Israel) let us address the principal issues. The IMA seems to focus its attention on treating the symptoms, i.e. the consequences rather than the causes of death, injury, destruction, distress, misery and a host of other health problems associated with the social suffering of war. And, of course, the cause of all these tragic events is Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. The IMA’s focus on symptoms seems to be a strange form of evasion for a medical association that ought to search for the root cause of ill health to provide a radical cure, instead of a palliative treatment to a recurring disease. Blachar boasts of ‘tens if not hundreds’ of Palestinian who receive medical care in Israel each year. This only adds insult to injury. According to this bizarre logic, we must thank Israel for having destroyed the Palestinian health system, infrastructure and economy, and then offering some victims treatment at Israeli hospitals? No, thank you, Palestinians do not want your charity. We want to exercise our right to freely work towards the reconstruction and development of our own society. We want justice and freedom. Yet Israel’s ongoing occupation and oppression are blocking such possibilities, and in the process, hopes for a just peace. Yoram Blachar may find some Palestinian counterparts that are willing to engage in what he calls ‘mutual cooperation’. Such ‘patting each other on the back’, or ‘I am good you are good’ initiatives, without further action to deal with the root cause of ill health, have been tried repeatedly in the past, with very little outcome, if any. Going around the fundamental issue of ‘Israeli occupation is the cause’ by ‘doing something’, will not absolve the IMA from its ethical responsibility of taking a stand, calling for an end to Israel’s military occupation and oppression. On the other hand, should the IMA decide to take this courageous and ethical path – taken by various human rights, women’s and medical groups in Israel - by clearly stating their opposition to military occupation and Israeli violations of international law and basic human rights, and calling for the end of Israeli military rule and a just peace as they complete joint humanitarian and health activities with Palestinians, then they are likely to be rather more effective and will be welcomed by Palestinian counterparts based on this platform of equality and justice. Competing interests: I declare that I have a conflict of interest: Israel is occupying my land, and threatening my society with destruction.
It's time for justice !! 2 May 2007
Amin El-Hihi, Consultant Psychiatrist Lister Hospital - Stevenage SG1 4AB Send response to journal: Re: It's time for justice !!	Dear Sir I am grateful to place this topic for correspondence to be able to address the problem in humanistic approach. I am also very proud of international colleagues who are very committed to use their experience and skills to clarify the reality. The Palestinians in the occupied territories have been sieged in a large prison to deprive them from the basic human rights. The Isareli army have destroyed their homes, confiscted their land and made the life of ordinary people impossible. The system in Israel has an agenda for the last 60 years, that is to force the Palestinians to leave their homeland or to be killed. They have succeded at some extent, this why the violence continue, this why hopelessness is a collective phenomena seen on daily basis. There is no doubt, that doctors in the Israeli Army providing assistance to the soldiers to practice torture against young children, women and elderly in Palestine. The IMA is part of this system in which detainees are tortured and ordinary people humiliated and maltreated on checkpoints. I can't believe how a very important international organisation like BMA watching human disaster in Paelstine and not announcing strong condemnation. We need to be responsible and professional. The land of Palestine to their people, and Israel cann't continue to be extremely arrogant to violate human rights and taking a direction against the world civilisation. I fully support the call from Dr Summerfield and colleagues to boycott the Israeli Medical Association and I am asking the BMA to respond positevly to this call. Competing interests: None declared
Doctors should be impartial 4 May 2007
Hugh Mann, Physician Eagle Rock, MO 65641 USA Send response to journal: Re: Doctors should be impartial	BROTHER I'm not well, if you are sick. I'm not rich, if you are poor. I can't live, if you're not free. I depend on you, and you can depend on me. A brother is no bother. We all have the same Father. Competing interests: None declared
It is high time the IMA took to the checkpoints and visibly protest this abuse 4 May 2007
Andrew Rouse, Consultant Heart irmingham PCT Send response to journal: Re: It is high time the IMA took to the checkpoints and visibly protest this abuse	The Dyer review cites the view that the Israeli Medical Association has a duty to protest the Israel Defences Forces systematic flouting of the Geneva Convention”. I would like to suggest that the flouting of this convention is not restricted to the Israeli military but commonplace in Israeli civil authorities. For instance, I have just returned from Gaza and have copious evidence suggesting that freedom of Palestinians to travel (including that of surgeons invited to Europe for training, laboratory workers needing to collecting vital reagents or repaired equipment, or junior doctors wishing to go abroad to sit exams) is systematically prevented by the Israeli authorities. Many of these health professionals wished to travel abroad via Rafah (Egypt) and their travel would in no way imperil Israel’s security. Nevertheless when they attempt to cross at Rafah checkpoint the Israeli Border Guard (police)regularly block their passage. I believe that it is high time the IMA took to the checkpoints and visibly protest this abuse). After all, many other Israeli groups society are prominent (even if sadly ineffective) in protesting Israeli abuse. Why such inactivity from the IMA? Competing interests: None declared
reponse to Israeli Med Assoc from signatory of letter calling for boycott 8 May 2007
derek a summerfield, consultant psychiatrist/honorary senior lecturer South London & Maudsley NHS Trust/Institute of Psychiatry Send response to journal: Re: reponse to Israeli Med Assoc from signatory of letter calling for boycott	I'd like to provide some background information on the call by 130 (now nearly 140) UK doctors for a boycott of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA), published in the Guardian of 21 April and the subject of a news item by Owen Dyer in the BMJ of 29 April. Owen Dyer quotes from a recent response from the IMA to the arguments for boycott made recently by the 18 leading Palestinian organisations in the health field we alluded to in our letter. I'm afraid the IMA response is empty rhetoric written for public relations purposes. A world away from these words are the decisions the IMA has taken with its eyes open over many years: it is on this account that the Israeli Physicians for Human Rights (PHRI), a principled and committed group,labelled the IMA in the Lancet as an arm of the Israeli establishment whose role it was to obscure the health-related realities of Israeli occupation. IMA President Blachar has taken this duty with him to the World Medical Association: his presence there-as Chair of Council no less-ensures that the WMA does nothing. True to form, I note that the WMA Secretary General has declined to comment on our letter-yet this is a matter that goes to the heart of their mandate as the world's official watchdog on medical ethics. The charges against the IMA are broadly in 2 categories. (1)TORTURE Torture has been an instrument of stste policy in Israel for many years, and continues to this day. In 1996 Amnesty International concluded that Israeli doctors working with the security services "form part of a system in which detainees are tortured,ill-treated and humiliated in ways that place prison medical practice in conflict with medical ethics". Amnesty, and other organisations who approached the IMA to urge them to take a stand have been consistently rebuffed. This too has been my experience when I published articles in mainstream medical journals- notable the BMJ and the Lancet. In response to one of these, published in the Lancet, IMA President Blachar actually justified the use of “ moderate physical pressure”, the euphemism in Israel for torture: this does not happen every day in the pages of an international medical journal! The moral and strategic line taken on torture by the IMA was well captured by a remark made by Professor Eran Dolev, then IMA Head of Ethics (yes, Ethics!) in an interview in 1999 with a visiting delegation from the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, London (for whom I was principal psychiatrist for 9 years). Prof Dolev stated that that “a couple of broken fingers” during the interrogation of Palestinians was worthwhile for the information it might garner. When I published this in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, verified by those present at the interview, Dr Blachar defended Prof Dolev. 2 years earlier I had written to the IMA after a human rights conference in Gaza, when an Israeli physician had told me that a medical colleague had confessed to her that he had removed the intravenous drip from the arm of a seriously ill Palestinian prisoner, and told the man that if he wanted to live, he should co-operate with his interrogators. I asked the IMA to investigate but they never replied, even after reminders. (2) VIOLATIONS OF FOURTH GENEVA CONVENTION RELATING TO RIGHTS OF CIVILIAN POPULATIONS/HEALTH PROFESSIONALS AND SERVICES When challenged in the BMJ or Lancet, the IMA continues to maintain that there are no medical ethical concerns arising out of the conduct of the Israeli army towards the Palestinian general population? After my BMJ review of 16 Oct 2004 on the impact on health and health services, the IMA President posted up a rapid response at bmj.com on 15 December thus: “ the lies and hatred he spews are reminiscent of some of the worst forms of anti-semitism ever espoused”.I suggest that readers look at the whole text of his response. He directs open contempt towards the mass of documentation in the public domain- from distinguished international agencies like Amnesty International (500 reports since 2000 on Israel/Palestine), Human Rights Watch, the Red Cross, UN Commission on Human Rights, Medecins Sans Frontieres, and regional ones like PHRI and B’Tselem in Israel, and Health, Development, Information, and Policy Institute in the Occupied West Bank. Here too we see the smear of anti- semitism, and indeed an indirect allusion to the Nazi period, used to silence legitimate criticism based on exhaustive and authoritative documentation. Owen Dyer quotes the IMA as saying that they "were struck by the enormity of the lies and twisted assertions" we have made. An article in the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post of 2 days ago (by BMJ Israel correspondent Judy Siegel-Itzkovich) quotes President Blachar as saying that "this is another in the series of fantasies in which Mr Derek Summerfield lives". Is Amnesty International reporting fantasies? Yet the Israeli Defence force (IDF) operates in a climate of near total impunity, with disproportionate force directed implacably towards the civilian population: over 4000 shot dead in the last 6 1/2 years, including around 850 children. These are truly shocking numbers, and ever growing. The testimonies of the ‘Breaking the Silence’ group of ex- soldiers attest to shoot-to-kill policies that give the lie to official mantras about minimising the risk to civilians. A veritable mass of documentation now confirms systematic and ongoing violations of the medical ethical sections of the Fourth Geneva Convention. There have been many deaths of seriously ill Palestinians, and of newborn infants, at army checkpoints because they were denied access to hospital. Palestinian health professionals have been shot dead or wounded on duty. Ambulance drivers on duty are interrogated, searched, threatened, humiliated and assaulted. Wounded men have been taken from ambulances at checkpoints and sent directly to prison, and on other occasions Israeli soldiers have commandeered ambulances as transport. On many occasions ambulances of the Palestinian Red Crescent society have been hit by IDF gunfire. On the 1st April 2004 the IDF fired missiles at Bethlehem psychiatric hospital, which had 250 patients and 75 staff present at the time. There was extensive damage and staff were arrested. Clearly identified medical clinics, including those run by the aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres, have been hit by gunfire. The International Committee of the Red Cross and other aid agencies have at times been forced to limit their work in the West Bank because of threats to staff and attacks on vehicles by the IDF. There has been wilful hampering of the distribution of food aid, on which half a million people are now dependent. A study by Johns Hopkins and Al Quds Universities found that 20% of Palestinian children under 5 years old were anaemic and 22% malnourished. The IDF has also wilfully destroyed water supplies, electric power and other elements of the public health infrastructure. The continued building of the apartheid wall and fence has hugely damaged the coherence of the Palestinian health system. Patients died in Gaza hospitals as a direct consequence of Israeli blockade of goods (including medical supplies) and of funds to pay public sector workers. - for example, because dialysis fluids or chemotherapeutic agents had run out. The Israeli doctors of Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) published a report on Gaza in late 2006- they quoted Jan Egeland, the UN Under Secretary-General for humanitarian Affairs as saying “there is no hope” in Gaza. Women and children present with palpable malnutrition. Barely supplied hospitals have been overwhelmed by casualties, many with terrible wounds, from Israeli bombing (nearly 300 dead, including 66 children, since June 2006- and poorly reported), and their morgues fill up with charcoaled and shredded bodies. There were interruptions of power supplies due to Israeli bombing and hospitals had to save their generators for operating theatres and emergency rooms only. Patients with medical problems for which there was no treatment in Gaza were “condemned to a slow death” (as the PHRI report put it) because they were blocked from seeking treatment in Egypt or Israel. Even people who were not initially critically ill died from blood loss after Israeli bombing because the movement of ambulances and medical staff required permission from the IDF- frequently denied or delayed. It has been evident for several years that Palestinian medical staff on duty could not count on the immunity afforded them by the Fourth Geneva Convention. They too are targets.11 people were killed on June 13 2006 when 2 missiles were delivered from the air at a car. This included 2 paramedics who ran from a nearly medical facility to attend to the victims of the first missile and were killed by the second, which appears to have been fired despite a clear view of the scene. The Red Cross protested at a recent instance, on November 5, when 2 paramedics wearing “clearly marked fluorescent jackets” were shot dead when they got out of an ambulance (with siren and flashing lights) to evacuate wounded civilians. Similar and persistent violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention have been widely reported following Israel’s attack and destruction of a neighbouring sovereign state, Lebanon, with over 1300 civilians murdered. Reportedly as many as one million cluster bombs, which are essentially anti-personnel devices aimed at civilians, were seeded in defiance of the Geneva Convention, as the UN has pointed out. Israel has now admitted that phosphorus containing weapons were used, also illegal against civilians, as they were in their 1982 invasion of Lebanon (the journalist Robert Fisk remembers seeing the bodies of 2 children re-igniting when taken out of the mortuary). Furthermore, the Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk states that samples taken from blast sites suggest that uranium- based bombs may have been used as well. Hospitals were hit and UK newspapers carried photographs of a wrecked ambulance, with the point of entry of the missile at the very centre of the large red cross painted on the roof. I note a letter in the Lancet of September 2 2006 in which a physician in the Family Medicine Programme, American University of Beirut, describes his attempts to recruit colleagues to help staff a hospital several kilometres away. He reports that volunteers did not want to go in an ambulance “because such vehicles were targets”. The IMA have been entirely and consistently silent about the medical ethical aspects of such events, as PHRI confirms. Indeed Hadas Ziv, current head of PHRI, tells me that the IMA no longer even replying to their letters of concern: it sounds as if the IMA is boycotting PHRI! Similar letters from PHRI to the WMA also go unanswered. What are they to infer from this? Our call for boycott focuses on the IMA specifically, but we could further note that these grave matters have attracted very little condemnation from the medical profession in Israel (PHRI apart), with their academic bases in Israeli medical schools and research institutes. Many of these doctors have international academic connections, and unlike their Palestinian counterparts their movements are unhampered, their respectability and probity unchallenged. Why is this? Indeed Israeli medical campuses have maintained a studied silence about the tremendous harm done over many years to the capacity of their Palestinian counterparts to function normally: the restrictions, the prolonged closures, the damage to property, the campus incursions by the Israeli army, the arbitrary expulsions, the harrassment and shooting of students on their way to lectures. Because of the building of the Wall (declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in July 2004), which looms over the campus of Al-Quds medical school in Jerusalem, final clinical exams were disrupted and displaced because suitable patients could not reach the medical school, and in 2005 twelve graduates from Gaza were refused permits to attend the graduation ceremony. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that with honourable exceptions most doctors and medical academics are in active or passive collusion with an aggressive colonisation, with the control and, increasingly, the frank crushing of every sector of Palestinian civil society, and with a self- justifying discourse that trades on a dehumanising contempt for Palestinian as people in a different moral universe. So what are we to do? Firstly, repeated efforts to reach out to the IMA has been unavailing, as experience bears out unambiguously. Secondly, the WMA have refused to challenge the IMA; or even to acknowledge the problem. They seem unmoved by the mountain of material by Amnesty and others- how can this be? Indeed in a telephone conversation with me 3 years ago WMA Secretary General Delon Human defended the IMA. Thirdly, British doctors might expect some action from their own association, the BMA, whose International Committee deal with ethical matters, but they have hidden behind platitudes (“we believe in education”, as if the IMA had not had a clear-cut strategy over many years). The BMA has consistently declined to challenge the IMA record at the WMA and has stressed its collegiate relationship with the IMA. We do not lightly call for an academic boycott but things have surely come to this. If not now, when? It was at a moment like this that calls went out (and there was considerable opposition then too) for the academic isolation of South Africa during the apartheid era. This rightly included a boycott of the medical profession for collusion of a very similar nature to what we see today in Israel. For instance, the Medical Association of South Africa was for a time suspended from membership of the WMA. On visits out there in recent years (I am South African born) I have heard it said more than once that the boycott played a distinct role in bringing the profession to its senses. As in South Africa, the Israeli medical profession, and the establishment generally, is sensitive to opinion in the Western world, not least from fellow doctors. A boycott of the IMA (which is an institutional, not individual boycott)in an extreme situation is a moral and ethical imperative when all else has failed, for otherwise we are in effect turning away. It is not contrary to “academic freedom”, as some assert, but in its very spirit.I appeal for colleagues to join us. Derek Summerfield derek.summerfield@googlemail.com Competing interests: None declared
Doctors means ethics 9 May 2007
Mamdouh EL-Adl, Consultant Psychiatrist Princess Marina Hospital, Northampton, NN5 6UH, UK Send response to journal: Re: Doctors means ethics	Editor The violation of Medical Ethics & human rights is a real concern. The evidence of this happening in the occupied Palestine is beyond doubt. The facts established by recognised humanitarian agencies (the UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Red Cross and so on) are indisputable[1] The siege that was put in place by 29 nations, including Israel, in March 2007 was another cruel and unlawful[2]. Barbara Swiriski (an Israeli doctor)documented the evidence of systematic discrimination against Palestinians in Israel[3] None would dispute that members of the medical profession are responsible for safegaurding medical ethics & patients' rights. None can find a reason for the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) to justify its silence in relation to the sufferings of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. Without ethics the word doctor is meaningless. Without respect to human rights, life would be meaningless. Political reasons do not justify violation of human rights and medical ethics. Medical ethics should not be limited to Academic Interest but to be the standards that members of the Medical profession adhere to. If Medical Ethics mean nothing to the Israeli Medical Association (IMA), It should mean a lot to BMA, WMA, WPA, AEP,..and all members of the medical profession. Hope I am not mistaken. References: 1. Burns-Cox, C: The Factual Evidence Against The Israeli Medical Association. www.bmj.com/cgi. accessed on 8 May 2007 2. Halpin, D S:Looking from the side. www.bmj.com/cgi. accessed on 8 May 2007 3. Swiriki,B ; kanaaneh,H & Avgar,A: Healtcare in Israel. The Israel Equality Monitor. Issue(9)November,1998 Competing interests: None declared
Distortions and more distortions 9 May 2007
B D Bradley, GP North London Send response to journal: Re: Distortions and more distortions	The previous few responses add distortion to half-truth, creating a strange parallel reality which no-one taking a balanced and contextual view of the situation would recognise. The organisations who provided the facts referred to by respondents have a solid history of one-sidedness, political agenda and bias. They are far from being the reputable, objective agencies as claimed. Examples of this are simply too numerous to start listing in this forum but, just as a start, is there any mention at all by any of these fine bodies of the atrocities currently being perpetrated within Gaza amongst Palestinians? If not, the question has to be why not. Just for the record, the use of ambulances as a means of crossing borders by suicide bombers is well documented. Any mention of this salient issue in the reports behind this scurrilous and purely political demand for boycott? Of course if one chooses to ignore all such relevant documention by the Israeli authorities then problems such as this can be happily ignored, and voila, the Israeli demon starts to emerge half baked. I would urge the BMA to ignore this tiny but vocal group, some of whom may be well-intentioned but misinformed, others of whom are simply choosing to misuse their noble profession and position as a political axe. Competing interests: I have lived in Israel and identify with its people.
Do We Take Ethics Seriously? 11 May 2007
Dani Filc, chairperson PHR Israel PHR Israel, 52 Golomb St. Tel aviv 63561 Israel, Hadas Ziv, (executive director, PHR Israel) Send response to journal: Re: Do We Take Ethics Seriously?	This letter is written by the board of Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHR-Israel) as a response to the discussion of the role of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) regarding the occupation and Israel’s serious violations of human rights in general and of the right health in particular. Since PHR-Israel has not despaired of dialogue, we cannot support a boycott, but rather wish to use this opportunity to publicly address the World Medical Association (WMA) with a more basic question: Does the WMA and the IMA (or any other national medical association) take their role as leaders of the medical community seriously and not merely as trade unions? If so, they must also take the principles of medical ethics seriously. PHR-Israel believes that to be the inter/national medical leadership is a serious duty, and thus we have high expectations of it. This duty must be kept even in a society – like our own – who functions under extreme anxiety, in a reality of constant threat of violence and attacks on its civilians. We therefore expect any national medical association to defend the right of everyone to life and health, and thus: When receiving evidence of unethical conduct of doctors, we would expect them to speak in a clear voice and take action and not suffice in waiting for more conclusive evidence to be collected by others. When faced with 40 years of occupation where Israelis enjoy one of the best medical systems in the world, while Palestinians can hardly access their de-developed system, we would expect them to fight not for humanitarian gestures, but for equality and access to Israeli healthcare as part of Israeli responsibility as an occupier. Particularly for medical services not available in Palestine. When faced with shooting at ambulances, we would expect them to stand fast by their colleagues and not look for justifications (“ambulances carry arms”). When faced with a system of more than 500 checkpoints and barriers obstructing movement of patients and medical teams, we would expect them to rebuke the system and not fight over the access of one patient, who was lucky enough to reach the awareness of the media. When faced with denial of infrastructure and water as method of moving people from their lands, we would expect them to say: Enough, water is a right and cannot be conditioned on obedience to unlawful policy. When infrastructure is destroyed during armed conflict, we would expect them to press their governments to rehabilitate it immediately. When extreme poverty results from the deliberate destruction of the economic infrastructure, we would expect them to make their stand clear as to the dire results on Palestinians’ health and demand the end of this policy. When faced with a humanitarian crisis, we would expect them to lead a struggle for changing the policy that causes it, at least regarding the health issues. Presenting the positive actions of members of the Israeli medical community as if they (IMA) had initiated them, is unfair conduct. Presenting the granting of movement permits by the security system for patients to reach medical centers as a positive move, is to willfully misunderstand that the mere need for a permit is the problem. Even in times of conflicts, security arrangements must and can be provided to allow rapid passage of patients and medical teams. The IMA’s uncompromising position for ethical conduct in the case of a Palestinian patient under threat of eviction from hospital is a light in a dark place and a good example of what we would expect from a national medical association. In our region, as in others, conflict and violence endanger the lives of both peoples. This is a serious issue that demands a constant struggle. Silence is a luxury medical associations cannot afford. All these expectations are grounded in numerous ethical guidelines, some of which are on the WMA website. We take them seriously. Do the WMA, IMA and other national medical associations do the same? Competing interests: The authors are the board of PHR Israel, and its executive director. The board are also members of the Israeli medical community.
Ambulances and the Geneva Convention: what is the evidence base? 14 May 2007
derek a summerfield, consultant psychiatrist/honorary senior lecturer South London & Maudsley NHS Trust/Institute of Psychiatry Send response to journal: Re: Ambulances and the Geneva Convention: what is the evidence base?	For Dr Bradley to dismiss as “political agenda and bias” the mass of independent documentation supporting our charge of systematic and unchallenged violations of medical ethics in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is hardly in the spirit of evidence-based medicine. However, I will restrict my challenge to just one point, which is his claim that Palestinian suicide bombers hide in ambulances. This assertion- whether regarding suicide bombers or, more typically, armaments or explosives- is part of the mantra of arguments regularly made by correspondents at bmj.com in defence of Israeli behaviour towards medical facilities and personnel. One such group who went to the trouble to examine the evidence was the Jewish American Medical Project. In 2004 Professor Alan Meyers of that group (since re-named) sent me their findings, which were of one documented incident only – in 2002 an explosive belt was found in an ambulance transporting a Palestinian child needing care. They noted that even this was a contested incident (1). They could find no evidence for any other such Geneva Convention transgressions, and indeed cited a broadranging review in the Jerusalem Post (not a newspaper customarily friendly to the Palestinian cause) which concluded similarly. (2) Ironically, there were a number of reports in 2005 about the use by the Israeli Army of ambulances to move troops and weapons into operations against Palestine, including interviews with several reserve soldiers whose faces were blacked out to protect their identity. In one report Dr Rafi Waldman of Doctors for Human Rights was quoted as expressing his unease at this practice (3). One such account long since in the public domain (and undenied) was of the use of an ambulance to covertly transport Israeli soldiers in the operation that led to the capture of the political leader, Marwan Barghouti. In a widely publicised event in October 2004, Israeli authorities showed footage of what they alleged were Palestinian militants loading a rocket launcher onto a UN ambulance. The UN responded with robust denials, eventually obliging the authorities to concede that the ambulance had been loading stretchers. On several occasions I have challenged UK doctors who have made the same claim as Dr Bradley in the BMJ, asking them to cite their references. One or two responded, quoting the website of the Israeli Foreign Ministry – scarcely an independent source! So, BMJ readers can choose: on the one hand we have the Israeli Foreign Ministry, on the other international and regional human rights organisations. As our collective letter (with UK medical signatories now near 150) makes clear, the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) has maintained a studied silence on the regular attacks on clearly marked Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances (hundreds of cases), and the unwarranted delays at army checkpoints, regardless of the nearness to death of the patients inside or of security conditions in the area (thousands of cases of such delay). Principled protest has been left to others, like the Israeli physicians of Physicians for Human Rights- whose letters to the IMA are not even answered- or the Red Cross (4) (5). (1) JVPHealthand HumanRightsProject@googlegroups.com (2) Derfner L. Bad medicine, bad war. Jerusalem Post, 8 Nov 2002, p6 (3) The Australian News, 30 March 2005. (4) Phr.org.il (5) International Committee of Red Cross. ICRC deplores increasing number of civilian casualties and lack of respect for medical mission. Press Release 06/93. 12 August 2006. Competing interests: None declared
Ethical justification of a boycott 14 May 2007
David Pegg, semi retired medical researcher University of York Send response to journal: Re: Ethical justification of a boycott	None of the responses you have published concerning the call for a boycott of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) comes anywhere near to a rebutal of the reasons cited for that call. It might, just conceivably, be argued that all the evidence of unethical behaviour comes from biassed sources but even if that were to be so, it would not alter the truth of those facts. If there is another side to be presented then it remains unpresented in your correspondence, but crucially, even if some sort of excuse should be advanced, whatever it might be, this could not justify the failure of the IMA and the World Medical Association to accept their own ethical obligations: such responsibilities are shared by all national medical associations including the British Medical Association. Competing interests: None declared
The Policy of Occupation is the root cause 18 May 2007
Hadas Ziv, executive director PHR Israel, 52 Golomb St. Tel Aviv 66171, Israel Send response to journal: Re: The Policy of Occupation is the root cause	The root cause of most of the breaches of medical ethics and the right to health in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is the occupation. Some people think that one should struggle against the human rights violations alone, while others think that one should rather struggle against its root cause: the occupation. PHR Israel believes that it is our role to do both: struggle for the end of occupation while at the same time - and for as long as Israel is the occupying power - struggle for the fullfilment, defence and respect of human rights, and the right to health in particular. 40 years of occupation and violence, should have been more then enought for Israelis to understand that there is - and never was - an enlightened occupation; that there is and never will be a chance for true peace without justice. We invite all Israeli doctors and medical professionals to join us in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues. Competing interests: executive director, PHR-Israel
Re: Who calls? 21 May 2007
Mark Struthers, GP and prison medical officer Bedfordshire, UK. mark.struthers@which.net Send response to journal: Re: Re: Who calls?	Who calls? Who calls, calls N. L. Cohen from North-West London. Some people may consider it the height of gall … but I was one doctor who made the call. I was called by the appalling plight of the Palestinian people. The horrific oppression of the Palestinians at the hands of the freedom loving democracies of Israel, the US and the EU called me like a siren song out of the black smog of war, out of the bleak war on terror. Doctors are powerful moral and ethical representatives of their country and community. By seeking to divert world attention from the human rights abuses in the occupied territories, the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) has shamed the profession. All appeals to conscience are failing: naturally, I made the call. I am one of the original 130 doctors who called for the expulsion of the IMA from the WMA (World Medical Association). As a non-Jew, I was privileged to study as a medical student in Israel many years ago – and I write from this calling, perspective and experience. My memories are vivid still: I slept on the beach by the Sea of Galilee, floated in the Dead Sea and snorkelled in the Red Sea. I was shocked by the vitriol of some young Jewish medical students and horrified by their virulent hatred towards the Palestinian Arabs. I stayed on a kibbutz on the Lebanese border near Qiryat Shemona, I climbed Masada, visited Nazareth, Bethlehem and the holy places of Jerusalem. I took advantage of the peace with Egypt brokered by Jimmy Carter at Camp David in 1978 and travelled through Gaza and on overland via Port Said to Cairo. In 1980, I was impressed by the State of Israel and its astonishing achievements and had high hope of a peaceful future for all in the Middle East. Sadly, in the last quarter century, Israel has determinedly taken the wrong road to peace and failed at every step to act in good faith toward international law, international convention and the Palestinians. I now believe that the Zionist project has been a terrible mistake that threatens us all. In the final paragraph to his book, ‘Palestine: peace not apartheid’, Jimmy Carter wrote, “It will be a tragedy – for the Israelis, the Palestinians, and the world – if peace is rejected and a system of oppression, apartheid, and sustained violence is permitted to prevail.” I call on Israeli doctors to act: the Israeli Medical Association has an important responsibility to help avert such a tragedy. Competing interests: None declared
Re: Who calls? 21 May 2007
susanne mccabe, retired cf5 6su Send response to journal: Re: Re: Who calls?	See Web site of Jews for Justice for Palestinians for a list of some ,whether they declare their status is irreevant Competing interests: None declared
Israeli Medical Association opposes suggested British boycott 25 May 2007
Yoram Blachar, Prsident, Israeli Medical Association Israeli Medical Association Send response to journal: Re: Israeli Medical Association opposes suggested British boycott	May 21, 2007 In a letter published in The Guardian in April, a group of British doctors called for a boycott of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) and its expulsion from the World Medical Association (WMA) for allegedly failing to uphold international medical ethical standards in the Palestinian territories. We, the representatives of medicine in Israel, categorically deny these accusations and wish to take a stand in support of the IMA and humane medical treatment for all in Israel. It is all too clear that Dr. Derek Summerfield is once again feeding his own personal, systematic dislike of Israel and will persist in doing so regardless of the truth. As for Dr. David Halpin, if the best he can do is quote Amira Hass: Life Under Israeli Occupation – published August 26, 2001 in The Independent, at the height of the Intifida, we suggest he undertakes a more up-to-date and thorough study of the situation, as described below. Unfortunately, the other signatories were presumably unaware of the reality of the situation. We would therefore like to clarify some facts and provide an incomplete sampling of health activity aimed at helping the Palestinian population: 2,346 Palestinian children with birth defects were treated last year in Israeli hospitals (up from 1,604 in 2005), 29, 919 Palestinian patients were granted permits to undergo medical treatments in hospitals in Israel (up from 24,076 in 2005), and 1,600 Palestinian emergency patients were transferred by ambulance from the PA to hospitals in Israel (up from 800 in 2005). We would also like to reiterate what was expressed in a recent IMA letter: The IMA is not, and has never been, the ‘executive arm of the Israeli establishment.' It is an apolitical organization that, like every other national medical organization, concerns itself with medical and health issues and not the establishment or support of any sort of political policy. The IMA has continuously called for funds to be transferred [to the PA] not in kind but in the form of food and medicine so that help could be given where it is truly needed. In addition to the above, hundreds or thousands of Palestinian patients receive medical care in Israel each year, usually at a cost absorbed by the Israeli government. As an example, in 2004, NIS 36, 645, 507 (approximately 8, 143, 446 USD at the time) of PA debts to Israeli hospitals were offset. The IMA has intervened on occasions where a patient was about to be evicted from an Israeli hospital for lack of funds. The IMA has also intervened on many occasions of Palestinian patients, physicians, and medical students who encountered difficulties at Israeli checkpoints, including petitions to the High Court of Justice on certain matters. Israeli doctors learn and work side by side with their Arab colleagues, treating both Jewish and Arab patients, Israeli and Palestinian. Sometimes these very same dedicated physicians meet their death at the hands of terrorists, leaving their Palestinian patients to wonder who will care for them. The organization has, at several points in the past, attempted to meet with its Palestinian counterparts in an effort to foster mutual cooperation and better understanding, including the release of a joint statement. Almost none of these meetings have taken place, because of refusal on the Palestinian side. In addition to the above, there are numerous collaborative health care initiatives taking place at any time. The First International Congress on Chronic Disorders in Children was attended in April by 300 Israeli and 100 Palestinian doctors and the First Middle East Symposium on Dental Medicine represented a further expression of the relationship launched between the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Al-Quds University. Under the Israeli program "Save a Child's Heart", doctors at Wolfson Hospital repair congenital heart defects for children from the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Jordan and Africa; more than 1,000 children, about half from Gaza and the occupied West Bank, have been helped so far by the program. Teams at Bethlehem University and at Tel-Aviv University have worked together to investigate the genetic causes of deafness. A new graduate program will enable Palestinian students to pursue post-graduate research in this field at Tel-Aviv University . Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital has trained Palestinian physicians and nurses in cancer treatments, and staff from this hospital and Palestinian hospitals exchange ideas and information on an ongoing basis. It saddens us greatly to see and hear of Palestinian civilians receiving inadequate health care, including in Gaza, from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2006. It saddens us that funds transferred to the Palestinian leadership are often used for guns and bombs instead of for hospitals and medicines. It saddens us that terrorists kill or maim our civilians, kidnap our soldiers, rain missiles on Israeli cities, and then hide among civilians and civilian structures such as hospitals. And it pains us that terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians (including terrorists posing as ill people in need of medical care) result in security measures that sometimes cause hardship to innocent Palestinians. We do our best to help whenever possible, despite these constraints, and have often called for a separation of political and humane issues, so that no one suffers from the current conflict. The “facts” expressed in the letter of the Palestinian organizations calling for a boycott of the IMA, are a far cry from reality. It is our hope that your readers will form unbiased opinions and recognize the steps that Israeli doctors are taking to improve the health and treatment of all peoples, regardless of race or religion. Those who have preconceived opinions will undoubtedly stick with them. But for those who want the truth, we have attempted to present it. However, unlike our accusers, who present nameless numbers of supporters, we are proud to be associated with the Israeli Medical Association and willingly supply our details. Sincerely, Dr. Yoram Blachar, President, Israeli Medical Association Prof. Shai Ashkenazi, Chairman, Scientific Council, IMA & Director Pediatrics A, Schneider Children's Medical Center, Israel Professor Shmuel C. Shapira MD MPH, Hadassah Deputy Director General Director Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health Dr. Jacob Yahav , Director, Kaplan Medical Center Prof. Zvi Zemishlany, Director - Geha Mental Health Center Meir Oren M.D., M.Sc., M.P.H Director – General, The Hillel - Yaffe Medical Center Zvi Stern m.d.Director Hadassah Medical Center- Mt. Scopus Prof. Jacob Hart, Director (CEO), Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation Center, Raanana, Israel Dr. Orna Blondheim, Director, Haemak Medical Center, Afula Dr. Raphi Pollack, Medical Director, Bikur Cholim Hospital, Jerusalem SCHARF SHIMON M.D.,M.P.H., Director of the Barzilai Med. Ctr.Ashkelon Yehuda Baruch MD MHA, Director General, Abarbanel Mental Health Center, Israel Amos Etzioni MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Immunology Director - Meyer Children's Hospital, Bat- Galim, Haifa Nicky Liebermann M.D., Head – Community Medical Division, "Clalit" Health Services, Israel Prof. Ron Dagan, Director, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Unit Soroka University Medical Center, Beer Sheva, Israel Yehezkel Caine M.D., M.Sc. Director General, Herzog Hospital Dr. Itzhak (Tzaki) Siev-Ner, Head of Orthopedic Rehabilitation, Sheba Medical Center, Israel Prof. David Branski, M.D, Chairman of Pediatrics, Hadassah University Hospitals, Jerusalem Amos Etzioni MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Immunology, Director - Meyer Children's Hospital PROF. HANOCH HOD MD, DIRECTOR ICCU SHEBA MEDICAL CENTER, ISRAEL Ehud Raanani, MD, Head of Cardiac Surgery, Sheba Medical Center, Israel Dr.Zeev Feldman, Head of pediatric Neurology, Sheba Medical Center, Israel Prof. Aaron Lerner, Head Child Nutrition Unit, Carmel Hospital Prof. Arie Lindner, Head, Dept. of Urology, Asaf Harofeh Medical Center & Vice Chairman of the Scientific Council, IMA Eliezer Shalev M.D, Associate Dean, Rappaport faculty of medicine Technion, Israel Institute of Technology Professor and Chairman, Department Of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Haemek medical Center, Afula Israel President, Israel Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology Shaul Sofer,M.D., Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, Lubner Family Chair in Child Health & Development, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Yoseph A. Mekori M.D., Professor of Medicine, Dean, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University Henry Silver MBBS, BMedSci, DPM, FRANZCP Associate Professor, Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology Deputy Director Sha'ar Menashe Mental Health Centre, Israel Prof. Bernard Belhassen, Director, Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratory, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Batya Kristal, MD, MHA, FASN, Assoc. Professor of Medicine, Head, Department of Nephrology & Hypertension, Western Galilee Hospital Kluger Yoram MD, FACS, Department of Surgery B, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel Prof. Gil Lugassy, Chairman, Israeli Hematology Association Dr. Ohad Birk, Head, Genetics Institute, Soroka Medical Center, Israel Dr. Gerald M.Fraser MD,FRCP, Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Unit, Deputy-Director Department of Gastroenterology, Rabin Medical Center Prof Alexander Battler, MD, FACC, FESC, Director of Cardiology Rabin Medical Center Francis B Mimouni, MD, FAAP, FACN Professor of Pediatrics, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv, Israel Chief of Staff, the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel President, Israeli Pediatric Association Prof. Keren Gad MD, Head Dept. Cardiology, Tel-Aviv Medical Center Incumbent –Chaim Sheba Chair of Cardiology Santiago Richter, M.D., Head, Endourology Service, Meir Medical Center, Kfar Sava, Israel Professor Ami Schattner Batia Yaffe M.D, Head Department of Hand Surgery and Microsurgery Unit, Sheba Medical Center Dr. Krimchansky Benzy. Head of the ICU for Head Trauma patients. Loewenshtein Rehabilitation Center,. Raanana, Israel Dr Modi Naftali, Poria Medical Center Dr M S Monnickendam MD, Family Physician, Hadera, Israel Yosef Uziel MD, MSc, Associate Professor of Pediatrics Head- Ambulatory Day Unit, Medical Education Unit, Pediatric Rheumatology Department of Pediatrics, Meir Medical Center, Kfar-Saba, Israel Yehuda A. Schwarz, MD, Senior Deputy Director of Pulmonary Medicine Dep., Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Ari Zimran, MD, Director, Gaucher Clinic, Shaare Zedek Medical Center Ass. Professor of Medicine, Hebrew University and Haddassah School of Medicine Yehuda L. Danon M.D., Professor of Medicine, Schneider Childrens Medical Center Prof Ami Schattner Judith Heyd MD, Head, Hematology Unit, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem Dr. Darwin Telias, Mental Health Center Beer-Sheva and "Matara" Addicitions Treatment Center, Ben Gurion University Ephraim Rimon, MD Head Geriatric Department E, F, Harzfeld Medical Center, Gedera Prof. Joel Sayfan, Head of Department of Surgery, Haemek Medical Center Pinchas Halpern, MD, Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel Dr. Meir Weisbrod, Director of the Neonatology/Prematurity Department, Laniado Hospital, Netanya, Israel Yehuda Limony MD MSc, Child Health Center-Kiriat Gat And Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva Eran Leitersdorf, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine, Chair in Molecular Genetics, Head, Department of Medicine B, Director, Center for Research, Prevention and Treatment of Atherosclerosis, Hadassah University Hospital Dean D. Ad-El MD Head, Department of Plastic Surgery & Burns Rabin Medical Center Dr. Avi Cohen, Head, Neurosurgery Dept., Soroka Medical Center Prof. Chaim Lotan, Director, Heart Institute, Chair in Cardiology, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center Hadary Amram MD, Head, Trauma Unit ,”Ziv” Hospital, Safed Pnina Green, M.D., Ph.D., The Laboratory for the Study of Fatty Acids The Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, And Department of Internal Medicine B, Rabin Medical Center Dr. Dror Soffer, Head, Trauma Unit, Tel Aviv Medical Center Prof. Gideon Uretzky, M.D., Chairman, Dept. of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center & Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel David Pauzner M.D., Deputy Head, Obgyn Wing, Sourasky Medical Center Dr. Yitzchak Halperin, Barzili Medical Center Prof. Arie Herman, Head of Ob/Gyn, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center Dr Shimoni Zvi, Head of Internal Med B Department and Infectious Disease Unit, Laniado Hospital, Netanya DR SASSON NAKAR Dr Ezra Yehiel, Family Physician, Clalit Health Services, Afula DR YAGEV YARON, OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE SPECIALIST, DIRECTOR OF MACCABI OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE CLINIC IN THE NEGEV Zalman Weintraub, MD. Neonatology Nahariya Michael SOUDRY M.D., Professor and Chairman, Division of Orthopaedics and Department of Orthopaedic Surgery A, Rambam Medical Center Professor Eugene Libson, Hadassah Univ.Hospital, Hebrew University School of Medicine Dr. Roberto Michan, Pediatrician Yaacov Jack Ashkenazi md head of adult internal medecine and hematology day care shaare zedek medical center jerusalem Dr. Ido Olsha, Head of Department of General Surgery, Yoseftal Hospital – Eilat Dr Suzy Ronen, Sharei Zedek Medical Center Morris Mosseri, Cardiology Institute, Meir Medical Center, Kfar Saba Dr. Doron Kopelman, Head, Surgery B, Haemek Medical Center Aroeh Eden MD, Director of Research, Computing and Quality assurance. Department of Anesthesia and CCM Carmel Medical Center Professor Uri Seligsohn, Sheba Medical Center Ofer Nativ MD., Prof. & Chairman Department of Urology, Bnai-Zion Medical Center Prof' Joseph Ribak, Tel Aviv University Dr Moshe Hersch, MD, MSc, Director of ICU, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem Senior Lecturer, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel Prof. Moshe Hod, Director, Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Helen Schneider Hospital for Women, Rabin Medical Center Boris Finkel, M.D. Head of Psychogeriatric Ward Head of Holocaust Residence Lev HaSharon Mental Heath Center Dr. Gal-Moscovici Anca, Nephrology and Hypertension Services Bone Research Laboratory, Hadassah University, Jerusalem Prof Avry Chagnac, MD, Rabin Medical Center- Hasharon Hospital Prof. Z.H. Rappaport, Director, Dept. of Neurosurgery, Rabin Medical Center Professor Mauro Rathaus, Meir Medical Center, Israel PROF. SHOENFELD YEHUDA, MD.FRCP, Head, Department of Medicine 'B' and Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Sheba Medical Center Vardiella Meiner, M.D.Dept of Human Genetics, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem Prof. Daniel Benharroch, Head of Hematopathology Unit, Dept. of Pathology, Soroka Medical Center, Beer-Sheva. Ofer Z. Shenfeld MD., Chairman of Urology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center Nathaniel Laor, Professor of Psychiatry, Behavioral Science and Philosophy, Tel Aviv University Dr. Charach Gideon Dr. Pesach Lichtenberg, Herzog Hospital, and the Hadassah Medical School—Hebrew University of Jerusalem Zohar Barzilay MD FCCM, Professor of Pediatrics, Sheba Medical Center Prof. N. Gadoth Chairman Adult & Pediatric Neurology - MA`AYNEI-HAYESHUA Medical Center, Israel OZ YUVAL MD Ob & Gyn specialist Chief Ultrasound Unit Safed Hospital, Israel DR ZEHAVA ALON, GENERAL PRACTITIONER, Israel Gilutz Harel M.D, Director of Intensive Coronary Care Unit. DR. VERA FRIED,- . Internal Medicine and Geriatrics Geriatric Dep. Soroka University Hospital Beer Sheba Assistant director, Cardiology Department, Ben-Gurion University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Soroka University Medical Center Michael Hoffman, MD Deputy Chief Director Department of Internal Medicine A, Tell Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel Prof. Haim Bibi MD, Head Pediatric Department, Carmel Medical Center, Haifa Shmuel Yurman MD, Head Neonatal Department & NICU Hillel Yaffe Medical Center Prof. Moshe Roffman, Head of Orthopaedic Depart., Carmel Medical Center and Medical Faculty – Technion, Haifa Amir Vardi MD, Director ECMO program Department of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine SAFRA Children's Hospital SHEBA Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer Affiliated to the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University ISRAEL Ehud Melzer M.D, Head Department of Gastroenterology & Liver Disease Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot, ISRAEL Professor Eugene Libson MD.FRCR, Hadassah Medical Center Prof. Meller, Director- National Unit of Orthopedic Oncology, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Hillel Halkin MD, Professor of Medicine, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University Prof. Shimon Meretyk, Head of Urology Dept., Rambam Medical Center, Israel Prof. Israel Potasman, Director, Infectious Dis., Bnai Zion Med. Ctr., Haifa Dr. Chanan Tauber, Former president of the Israel Orthopedic Association A. Mark Clarfield, MD, FRCPC, Head of Geriatrics, Soroka Hospital. Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University. Shai Brill M.D, Beit Rivka Geriatric Rehabilitation Hospital Lawrence M. Loewenthal, MD Medical Consultant to Ophthalmologists in Haifa, Poriyah, Israel Moshe Hadani M.D. Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurosurgery Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel Dr Ilan Treves, Head, Open Ward B, Shalvata Mental Health Center, Israel Prof Yuval Yaron, Head of Prenatal Genetic Diagnosis Unit, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Dr. Ido Olsha, Head of Department of General Surgery, Yoseftal Hospital – Eilat Dr. Moshe Kostiner m.d specialists clinic manager, Israel Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor, MD DSc,Director, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Rambam Medical Center & Director, Stem Cell Center Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine Technion - Israel Institute of Technology Haim Ring MD, MSc PMR, Professor and Chairman, Neurological Rehabilitation Dept.Loewenstein Rehabilitation Center Efraim Halperin MD, DTM&H, FACP, Director, Unit of Infectious Diseases Bikur Cholim Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel Dr. Jacob Atsmon, Head, Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Director, Clinical Research Center Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Dr. Alona Paz, Infectious diseases specialist Infectious diseases unit, Bnai Zion Medical Center, Haifa Dr Ilan Treves Prof. D. Hochner, Head of Maternity Unit, Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hadassah Mount Scopus, Jerusalem Gadi Shaked, MD, Department of Surgery, Trauma Unit, Soroka University Medical Center Prof. H. Matzkin, Head of Urology Dept., Tel Aviv Medical Center Shlomo Keidar MD, Rambam Medical Center HERSHKOVICH JACOB MD, SOROKA MEDICAL CENTER, BEER-SHEVA , ISRAEL Jacob Arad M.D, Director of Emergency Dept,.Joseftal Hospital, Eilat Israel Prof. Michael Glikson, MD, FACC, FESC, Director of Pacing and Electrophysiology Heart Institute, Sheba Medical Center Dr. Arieh Markel, Head, Internal Medicine A, Haamek Medical Center, Afula Dr. Gershon Fink, Head of Pulmonary Institute Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot, Chairman of the Israel society of Pulmonology Prof. Amos M. Cohen, Hematology Unit, Hasharon Hospital Rabin Medical Center Juza Chen, MD, Director of Sexual Dysfunction Clinic, Department of Urology, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Dr. Zvi Davidovich Prof. Ilana Ariel, MD, PhD, Head, Perinatal Pathology Unit, The Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem Dr. Shimon Rochkind, Specialist in Neurosurgery & Microsurgery, Director, Division of Peripheral Nerve Reconstruction, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Oscar H. Kracoff, MD, Cardiologist, Director of ICCU, Kaplan Medical Center Rehovot, Israel Dr. Naomi Rahimi-Levene, Head, Blood Bank, Asaf Harofeh Medical Center Eran Segal, MD, Director, General ICU, Sheba Medical Center Michael Giladi, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Acting Director, the Infectious Disease Unit, Director, The Bernard Pridan Laboratory for Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases Tel Aviv Medical Center DR MICHAEL BENNETT, MB BS FRCP FRCPath CONSULTANT HAEMATOLOGIST Yehuda Ullmann, Acting Head, Plastic Surgery Dept, .Rambam.Medical Center Eli M Eisenstein, M.D., Department of Pediatrics, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center Prof. Simcha Yagel, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Centers Professor Tamir Ben-Hur, M.D., Ph.D., Head, Department of Neurology, Hadassah - Hebrew University Medical Center Dr Spector Gregory, MD. PhD, Head of Urology Unit Joseftal Hospital Eilat, Israel Yaron Lang, MD, Head, Dept. of Ophthalmology Ha'Emek Medical Center, Afula, Israel Prof Zvi Zadik, Director, Pediatric Endocrine Unit, Kaplan Medical Center Chairman Israeli Pediatric Endocrine Associatiion Fred M Konikoff, MD, MSc., Professor of Medicine, Head, Dept of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Meir Medical Center Dov Inbar, MD, Schneider Children's Medical Center Dr. Itzhak Rosner, Director of Rheumatology, Bnai Zion Medical Center Raphael Catane MD, Professor & Chairman, Department of Oncology, Sheba Medical Center David Jonathan van Dijk, MD, Specialist in Internal Medicine and Nephrology Director of the Diabetic Nephropathy Clinic, Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Rabin Medical Center Eli Konen M.D., Head of Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Sheba Medical Center Professor Elihu D richter MD MPH Hebrew Univ-Hadassah SChool of Public Health Jerusalem Prof. Alex Simon, Director of IVF Center, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem Dr. Haim Shtarker, Head, Orthopedic Unit, Nahariya Medical Center Dr Kleinman Yosef, Head of Internal Medicine, Bikur Cholim Hospital, Jerusalem Davidovitch Michael MD, Chairman of the Israeli Organization for Child Development and Rehabilitation Dr. Simon M. Schlanger,M.D.; Oncologist, Israel T. Tichler, M.D., Chief, Oncology Inpatient Ward, Davidoff Cancer Center, Beilinson Hospital Treasurer of the Israeli Oncology and Radiotherapy Association Dr Michael Gdalevich, Barzilai Medical Center, Ashkelon Prof. Uri Kramer. Director, Pediatric Epilepsy Service, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Dr. Yona Yaniv The Israel Society for surgery of the hand Chairperson Hand surgeon - the hand surgery department Sheba hospital Orthopedic surgeon member - Physicians for human rights Prof. Zvi Ram, Chairman, Department of Neurosurgery, Tel Aviv Medical Center Dr Alon Reshef, Head of psychiatric outpatient clinic, Afula. Israel Dr. Nissim Razon, Neurosurgeon, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Haim Gutman, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Surgery Tel Aviv University, Sackler School of Medicine. Head, Surgical Oncology Service, Rabin Medical Center Dr. Yosef MANOR, Head of Hematology, Meir Medical Center and Tel Aviv University Dr Mariana Steiner, Head of Oncology Service, Carmel Hospital, Haifa David Huminer M.D., Rabin Medical Center Ernst Voss MD, Gynaecologist , Hadassah University Hospital , Jerusalem Prof. Moshe Garty MD MSC.FACP(MON) Head of Recanati Center for Medicin - Research Beilinson campus Rabin Medicial Center, Israel Dr. Yacov Fogelman, "Leumit" HMO Sergey Preisman, M.D., Director of Cardiothoracic Anesthesia Unit, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer Dr. Haim Bitterman, President of the Israel Association of Internal Medicine Dr. Menahem Fisher, Deputy Chairman, Israeli Gynecology Association Dr Igal Hekselman MD MHA-Medical Director, Health insurance system & Clalit Mushlam Miriam Zalish MD, Head, Glaucoma Unit, Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot Prof. Yehuda G. Wolf, M.D., Head, Dept. of Vascular Surgery, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Alexander Kantarovsky MD, Vascular Surgery, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center Dr. Michael Stein, Head, Trauma Unit, Rabin Medical Center & Chairman, Israeli Trauma Association Marc Brezins, Cardiologist, Head of Cath. Lab. Western Galilee Hospital Nahariya USA Professor David Greenberg, Herzog Hospital, Jerusalem Prof Amos Katz, M.D., Director, Department of Cardiology, Barzilai Medical Center, Ashkelon, & Associate Dean for student Affairs, Faculty of Health Sciences Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel Nachum Soroker, M.D., Chairperson, Israel Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine Head, Department of Neurological Rehabilitation, Loewenstein Rehabilitation Hospital, Raanana Shmuel Reis MD, MHPE, Head, Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine The Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa Professor Alain Berrebi, Head, Hematology Institute, Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot, Israel. Zemach Eisenstein M.D., Endocrine consultant, "Maccabi" Health services, Israel Head of Pediatrics, Medical Division in the Community, Clalit Medical Services, Israel Ronni Wolf, MD, Assoc. Clin. Prof. of Dermatology, Head, Dermatology Unit Kaplan Medical Center, Rechovot Prof. Benjamin Brenner, Director, Thrombosis and Hemostasis Unit, Dept. of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa Prof. Raanan Shamir, Head, Pediatric gastroenterology and Nutrition, Meyer Children's hospital of Haifa, Rith and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Institute of Technology, Israel Prof. Ron Maymon, Department OB/GYN, Assaf Harofe Medical Center & Tel Aviv university Prof. Shmuel Kivity, Israel Dr. Shlomo Moshe – Maccabi Health Services Dr. Michal Tavor - Maccabi Health Services Dr. Yair Barak - Maccabi Health Services Dr. Michal Shilo - Maccabi Health Services Professor Esther Paran, Head, Hypertension Unit, Soroka University Hospital, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheba, Israel Prof. Patrick Sorkine, Head of Intensive Care Unit, Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv Prof. Eliezer Kitai, Head, Dept Family Medicine, Leumit HMO, Dept. Family Medicine , Tel-Aviv University Mario Sztern M.D, Head of the Emergency Medicine Department, Meir Medical Center Kfar Saba Dr. Meira Berger, Head of the department of family medicine A, Maccabi Health Services Israel Gerry Leisman, MD, PhD, Director & Professor The F. R. Carrick Institute for Clinical Ergonomics, Rehabilitation & Applied Neuroscience of Leeds Metropolitan University & Professor, University of Haifa Ian Miskin MD, Specialist in Family Medicine, Infectious Disease Consultant, Jerusalem Dr. STOLIN MARINA, Clalit Health Services, Israel Boris Yoffe MD FACS, Head Department, General and Vascular Surgery, Barzilai Medical Center, Ashkelon, Israel Prof. Rephael Zeltser, Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem Dr Leon Joseph, IDF medical Corps, Israel Prof. Jochanan E. Naschitz, Technion, Haifa Baruch Brenner, MD, Gastrointestinal Oncology Unit, Head, Davidoff Cancer Center Rabin Medical Center Dror Ovadia, MD, Orthopaedic surgeon, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Ron Arnon, M.D, Institute of Gastroenterology, Hadassah Medical Center Jerusalem, Israel Prof. Gilad Ben-Baruch, Director Department of Gynecologic-Oncology, Sheba Medical Center Tel-Hashomer, Israel Dan M. Fliss MD, President of the Israeli Society of Otorhinolaryngology / Head & Neck Surgery, Professor and Chairman Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Tel Aviv 64239, ISRAEL Dr. Eli Shahak MD Soroka MEDICAL CENTER, Israel A. Mark Clarfield, MD, FRCPC, Head of Geriatrics, Soroka Hospital. Sidonie Hecht Professor of Geriatrics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University. Dr. Michael Koffler, Director, The Diabetes Unit, Tel-Aviv Medical Center, Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv Dr Suzy Ronen, Sharei Zedek Medical Center Prof Raphael Breuer, MD, Head, Inst of Pulmonary Medicine & Lung Biology Laboratory Hadassah - Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel ASA LEV-EL M.D ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON, DIRECTOR OF ORTHOPEDIC SURGERY DEPT, R.SIEFF HOSPITAL, SAFED Nathan I Cherny MBBS FRACP FRCP Medical Oncologist and Director of Palliative Care Dept Oncology Shaare Zedek Medical Centre Jerusalem ISRAEL Jacob Pe'er, M.D. Professor and Chairman Department of Ophthalmology Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center Jerusalem, Israel Avigdor Mandelberg, MD. Director, Pediatric Pulmonary Unit The Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Pediatrics The Edith Wolfson Medical Center, Affiliate with the Sackler school of medicine, Tel-Aviv University Israel.Holon 58100, ISRAEL Prof. Lior Rosenberg, MD. Chairman of the Department of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery Soroka University Medical Center, The Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva and Chairman of The Unit for Cleft Lip, Palate & Craniofacial Deformities Meir Hospital, Kfar Saba, Israel Dr. Z. Davidovich, Clalit Health Services, Israel Joseph Faber, MD, Former (retired) Head, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Department of Pediatrics, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem Prof. Josef Elidan, Chairman, Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem Dr Beloosesky Yichayaou, Head Geriatric Department, Rabin Medical Ceter Petach Tikva, Israel Shay Pintov M.D – Israel Paul Sagiv MD, MSc, Head, Hand Surgery Unit, Meir Medical Center Kfar Saba, Israel Segal Karl, M.D.Deputy Head Dept. of Otolaryngology @ Head and Neck Surgery, RABIN MEDICAL CENTER, Israel Meyer Lifschitz M.D. , Adult Nephrologist, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem and Professor Emeritus, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas USA Daniel Landau, MD, Director, Pediatrics Department A, Head, Pediatric Nephrology Unit, Soroka university Medical Center, Beer Sheva, 84101, Israel Prof. Gershon Holcberg, Soroka University Medical Center, Israel Dr Ellenbogen Adrian, Director, IVF Unit, Hillel Yaffe Medical Centre, Hadera ISRAEL Dr. Zeev Goldik, Head of Post Anaesthesia Care Unit Lady Davis Carmel Medical Centre, Haifa- Israel Galia Barkai MD, Pediatric Dept., Soroka University Medical Center, Beer- Sheva Dr. Juza Chen, Urology Dept, Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv Dr Anthony S. Luder MB BS., MRCP(UK), Director Paediatrics and Genetics, Ziv Medical Centre, Safed Zvi Borochowitz, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Genetics Director, The Simon Winter Institute for Human Genetics, Bnai-Zion Medical Center, Technion-Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Haifa Dr B Rapoport , Maccabi HMO and Dept of Family Medicine , Tel-Aviv University Edgar Pick, M.D.,Ph.D, Professor Director, the Julius Friedrich Cohnheim - Minerva Center for Phagocyte Research Head, the Ela Kodesz Institute of Host Defense against Infectious Diseases Incumbent, the Roberts-Guthman Chair in Immunopharmacology Sackler School of Medicine Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv 69978, Israel Ze'ev Shenkman, MD Pediatric Anesthesiologist Department of Anesthesiology C Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Ramat Gan, Israel Dr M Wisnovitz, Specialist Family Physician, Maccabi Health Services, Eilat Avraham Rivkind , M.D., Head, Dept. of General Surgery & Shock Trauma Unit Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel Isac Bloch M.D., HaEmek Medical Center, Head and Neck Surgery, Afula, Israel Noam Goldstein, M.D., Head, Pulmonary Disease Unit And Regional Tuberculosis Center,Naharia Hospital, Naharia, Israel Dr. Miriam A. Hahn, Israel Batia Weiss, MD, Pediatric Gastroenterology, Safra Children's Hospital, Tel Hashomer, and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel- Aviv Dr. Shmuel Anderman, Director, Division of Gynecological Surgery & Endoscopy, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Israel Francis Salamon M.D.Vice-chief Department of Medicine D'Beilinson Campus Rabin Medical Center, Israel Ron Rabinowitz,MD, Director ultrasound unit, OBGYN, Shaare Zedek Med Center, Jerusalem abraham greenberg, md, faap, developmental pediatrics, Israel Dr. Joseph Berger, Kiryat Bialik Israel Prof. Rafael Bruck, Dept. of Gastroenterology, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center Marion Sztern M.D, Emergency Medicine Dept Head, Meir Medical Center Kfar Saba Israel Dr. Wanda Reichstein Gonda, Vice President of the Brazilian IMA Chapter Dr. Simon Nadel, Consultant in Paediatric Intensive Care, St Mary's Hospital, London, UK Danuta Wasserman Professor MD PhD Jerzy Wasserman Professor MD. PhD. Ralph Rosenberg MAssistant, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Connecticut, USA Professor Michael Baum ChM, FRCS, MD, FRCR Hon. Professor emeritus of Surgery and visiting professor of medical humanities University College London, The Portland Hospital, London, UK David Reifler, MD, Clinical Professor of Surgery/Ophthalmology, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA Ronny Meier, M.D., FACOG, Teaneck New Jersey, USA, (OB_GYN) Efrat Meier-Ginsberg, FACOG, Bergenfield, New Jersey, USA, (OB GYN) Howard Goodman, M.D., New-York, N.Y. USA, (Orthopedist) Karen Goodman, M.D., New-York, N.Y., USA, (Pediatrician) Michael C. Lewis MD, Associate Professor, Clinical Anesthesiology Program Director, Anesthesiology Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, USA Dr. A van der Spek, Radiologist NP, Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis, Amsterdam Julian Jacobs, MD,FACP Emeritus Professor of Medicine,Emory University School of Medicine,Atlanta,Ga., USA Bernd Wollschlaeger,MD,FAAFP-Family Physician&Addiction Specialist, President of the Florida Society of Addiction Medicine& President- Elect of the Dade County Medical Association, Miami,Florida,USA Michael Willen, MD, FACP, New York Oncology Hematology, Latham, NY, USA Dr Daniel Mann-Segal, Family Physician, Melbourne Australia Dr. Cleve Ziegler, MD, FRCS(C), CSPQ, Obstetrics & Gynecology The Sir Mortimer B. Davis - Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada Dr. Stuart L. Fischman, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Health Sciences State University of NY at Buffalo, USA Dr. Alan D. Shroot, Immediate Past President of the Australasian Jewish Medical Federation Steven Kirshblum MD, Medical Director, Director of Spinal Cord Injury Program Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, 1199 Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, NJ, USA Rachel Falk, MB.MS. FRANZCP. Consultant psychiatrist, Fellow of the Royal Australian and NZ College of Psychiatrists; Member, International Psychoanalytical Association, Australia Franklin D. Friedman, MD, MS, FACEP, Director of Emergency Clinical Operations Tufts-New England Medical Center, Boston MA, USA Dr Brent Rubin, Coastal Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, Bradenton Florida USA Yale Shulman, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Urology, New York University School of Medicine, USA Professor Aviad Haramati, Departments of Physiology & Biophysics and Medicine Georgetown University School of Medicine Washington, DC, USA Michael Aschner, PhD, Gray E. B. Stahlman Chair of Neuroscience, Department of Pediatrics Medical Center North Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232-2495, USA Sam Schulman, MD, Professor of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton ON, Canada David H. Shmerling, emer. Professor of Paediatric Gastroenterology, University of Zürich, Switzerland Julinho Aisen, M