Doctors in Israeli detention facilities are complicit in torture, says report

doi:10.1136/bmj.d7200

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Anne Gulland

¹London

Doctors in Israeli prisons serve as a “stamp of approval” for the torture and ill treatment of detainees, a report by two human rights organisations concludes.

The report by Physicians for Human Rights Israel and the Public Committee against Torture in Israel is based on more than 100 cases of ill treatment of Palestinian detainees since 2007. It found that doctors were involved in torture, either directly or indirectly, “in violation of their ethical and moral obligations.”

It says that doctors lend a hand to torture by failing to properly document it in medical records; failing to report violence; returning prisoners to interrogations knowing they have been harmed; and passing on medical information to interrogators.

The study paints “a gloomy picture of the professional and ethical outlooks of doctors who interact …