The protest, organized by the IMA Out! coalition, saw 81 healthcare workers remove their scrubs and hang them in a line facing the WMA assembly. Each scrub bore the name of a Palestinian healthcare worker currently held in Israeli detention.
"These scrubs should not be empty. Our colleagues belong with their patients, not in Israeli prisons. Today, we literally placed their names at the WMA's doorstep," said Mejrem Ahmetaj, a general practitioner and member of IMA Out!.
The coalition accuses the Israeli Medical Association of remaining silent while Palestinian healthcare has been systematically destroyed. According to the campaign, more than 1,700 Palestinian healthcare workers have been killed since October 2023, and nearly all hospitals and healthcare facilities in Gaza have been destroyed.
"The IMA is not a bystander. It defends these attacks and blocks international condemnation while Palestinian healthcare is being destroyed. That is not medical neutrality. That is complicity," added Ahmetaj.
A statement from Jonathan Fluxman on behalf of IMA Out! described Palestinian colleagues as being "killed and imprisoned, where they are starved and tortured." He said 30 years of WMA dialogue with the IMA had done nothing but give the IMA a sense of impunity, and called on national medical associations to break ties with the IMA.
The campaign said it delivered a petition signed by more than 6,500 health workers from around the world demanding the IMA's suspension.