The Israel Medical Association (IMA) announced on Tuesday that doctors and nurses are engaging in a “warning strike” on Wednesday against the government.
During the two-hour strike, which will take place from 8:30-10:30 a.m., medical staff will cancel any non-urgent procedures and refuse to work in hospitals and medical clinics.
Dr. Idit Matot, the Director of the Anesthesia, Pain, and Intensive Care at Ichilov Hospital at Tel Aviv, and one of the leaders of the anarchist protests told Channel 12 News: “I prefer to die because I took action rather than die slowly by having my rights trampled every day.” She continued by claiming that the judicial reform will lead to discriminatory practices in medical care but did not provide any examples or evidence of her claims.
This is not the first time that the leaders of the IMA have hijacked it for political purposes despite the fact that thousands of doctors who belong to the union are adamantly opposed to it, with some afraid to openly express their opposition.
Over 600 doctors signed a petition condemning the IMA’s strike in March, and a similar number signed a letter opposing the strike on Wednesday. Channel 12 News reported on Monday that “500 doctors signed a letter of opposition to the health system’s strike and call to the head of the union ‘to stop the madness.'”
The letter, sent to the chairman of the IMA, Prof. Tzion Hagay, states: “We, hundreds of doctors, most of us members of the Medical Association (and some of us left it when it started to adopt a political view), view with sorrow and shock the threats of the leadership of the Medical Association to shut down the health system. We apologize to the Israeli public for the irresponsible behavior of a small and vocal group of our medical colleagues who conduct themselves in a scandalous manner, threatening and pushing for a strike – based on the sowing of disinformation, baseless statements, and distorted interpretations. They invent a scenario of an erosion of the characteristics of democracy in Israel, and as a result, imaginary harm to medicine only because people with opinions different from their own were elected to the government.”
“It is mind-boggling to see doctors abandoning their medical work during demonstrations and protests, directly harming their patients. It is sad to see doctors bringing protest symbols into the treatment space, damaging the patient’s trust. The same doctors also create a false representation, as if all doctors in the State of Israel have one political opinion, and impudently blacken the name of the public health system in Israel. We call for the complete separation of any political position from professional and medical conduct and strongly protest all the false delusions and attempts at intimidation that our members are adopting in order to force their political opinion on Israeli society.”
“The Medical Association, being a workers’ organization, is supposed to represent us as such. For political issues, we choose our representatives in the Knesset. We call on you to come to your senses. Stop this madness. Don’t threaten the citizens of Israel with a strike, don’t harm patients in violation of the doctor’s oath. Occupy yourselves with medicine and its advancement – this is the only mandate you received from us.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
11 Responses
The loony left are revealing themselves each day
This is what happens when a privileged elite like the Ashkenazi secular leftists control almost all the positions of prestige and power in a country and refuse to give up any of it to the oppressed majority .JUDICIAL REFORM NOW! Then its time for the Sephardim, right wingers, religious and traditional to demand positions as judges, doctors ,air force pilots ,etc.etc.
Time to emulate President Ronald Reagan who fired all striking pilots, and fire any medical personal in Israel who are so viscous & cruel to dare strike.
More medical tyranny in Israel as if the past 3 years of not being enough
More medical tyranny in Israel as if the past 3 years have not being enough
Who ever heard of such a thing doctors leaving cause of some political damage and all the money and vacations they get this is crazy if it was psychiatrist then maybe it’s honesty but brain operations
To make every doctor in Israel strike is totally unfair especially when many Israeli doctors such as my husband are in favor of judicial reform. The nonreligious in Israel is so afraid of losing control that they are making havoc all over Israel. Israel needs more religious Jews to come on aliyah and join us in the fight to make Israel into a religious Israel. As you can see from all the carrying on, we are close.
I trust Hashem Will do what he desires. Treason
BIBI needs to go
It’s his fault, the judicial reforms should have been past months ago… and many other reforms.. he should have fired the AG a long time ago….
BIBI has no backbone, he let down his voters, he allowed the loony (Jew hating) left to control this country and convince countries abroad to be anti Israel….
BIBI is a fool he hasn’t learned anything from all the FAKE allegations against him…
A strike for two hours, for non-emergencies, is not deserving of the name “strike”, or the vitriol of some of the comments.
And, 147, Reagan did not fire any pilots.
The Israeli medical association Histadrut has no right to strike over a political agenda, all the more so because many doctors such as my husband -an anesthesiologist- IS for Judicial reform. People should be able to sue the association for forcing them to do something which is morally wrong and can hurt people.