AMA: Demand the Release of Dr. Abu Safiya!

We, the undersigned individuals against occupation, demand that the American Medical Association utilize its power in the international healthcare sector and push for the release of illegally detained Dr. Husam Abu Safiya in Gaza. It has been exactly a year since the Israeli military abducted the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, after unlawfully raiding the medical complex and shutting it down – one of the only functioning hospitals remaining in Gaza at the time. Israel has provided no concrete evidence for their harrowing arrest of Dr. Abu Safiya and has held him without charge in one of Israel’s most violent prisons, Ofer Prison. 

Not only does this completely violate international law, as Dr. Abu Safiya is a healthcare professional providing critical and limited life-saving services in times of war. It is also a setback for the rights of healthcare workers internationally. Healthcare and medical associations should stand united for their colleagues, especially those who put their lives on the line to help others. 

The American Medical Association has leverage nationally and internationally, and it should publicly recognize Israel’s continuous targeting and killing of medical professionals in Gaza. It is not just Dr. Abu Safiya, but paramedics, nurses, and other doctors who have been killed in Israel’s numerous attacks on hospitals and medical centers. 

To uphold the AMA’s mission of “representing physicians with a unified voice in courts and legislative bodies across the nation,” you must fight for every physician. It is a crime against humanity that someone who was on the frontlines of one of the world’s most gruesome genocides can be held imminently with no due process or advocacy. We demand that you use your voice and push for the release of one of your colleagues: Dr. Husam Abu Safiya. 

Sincerely,