Protests by leaders of American medicine get suspension

In April 2024, the American Medical Student Association issued a statement that Israel’s actions in response to the October 7, 2023 murders and kidnappings in by Hamas constituted genocide, and that U.S. support for Israel abetted this alleged genocide. Furthermore, it strongly supported campus protests against Israel and stated that university leaders trying to quell such protests were using “militarized police” and were “fascistic.” AMSA is an independent organization with no ties to the American Medical Association.

The International Federation of Medical Student Associations is a worldwide organization whose members are the medical student associations of individual countries, including AMSA. In August 2024 we learned that the IFMSA suspended the Israeli Medical Student Association from membership after setting aside its own rules for such actions. IFMSA’s suspension was stated to be because of Israeli “threats against medical students, online harassment and hate speech,” although the gave no evidence of these alleged behaviors. IFMSA’s actions, instead, appeared to be a response to the events of October 7.

IFMSA’s action were bravely opposed by the medical student associations of Germany, Italy, and Luxembourg, with a particularly articulate statement issued by the German medical students. IFMSA had taken no similar actions against the Russian medical student association following the invasion of Ukraine, nor against the Syrian, Iranian, or any other associations. AMSA did not vote for or against the Israeli suspension, and issued no statements.

We and other leaders of American medicine felt it was our duty to respond. To those who wondered if the fight was worth having, we are taught in Pirkei Avot that “you are not obligated to complete the work but neither are you free to desist from it.” The behavior of AMSA and IFMSA mandated a response, and if we didn’t provide it, then who would?

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Multiple communications were sent to AMSA calling for a response to the suspension of the Israeli medical students. Letters were sent to corporate and medical school sponsors who underwrite AMSA, pointedly asking if their dollars were best spent supporting AMSA’s anti-Israel bashing.

The two of us and the president of the American Jewish Medical Association, Dr. Yael Halaas, co-authored an op-ed titled “Antisemitism and Medical Student Organizations” regarding IFMSA’s action. We argued that medical students and their organizations needed to focus on learning their profession and contributing the biomedical research and clinical care, and not to bring their views on international politics into a space where it had no place.

We introduced a resolution before the Westchester County Medical Society in New York, opposing IFMSA’s mixing of politics with medical education. The resolution moved up the chain of organized medicine to the Medical Society of New York and gathered support from other state medical societies, including Illinois, and was brought before the AMA’s House of Delegates.

The resolution asked the AMA to affirm that “organized medical societies should not discriminate against, suspend, or otherwise punish member societies for the political views or actions of their host city, state, or national governments…should not engage in harassment of other members, threats towards other members, or hate speech…[and] supports these principles on an international level among international medical organizations.” Faced with the opportunity offered by several state medical societies to take a clear stance, the AMA dodged the issue by saying it had no power to “to adjudicate membership decisions for other organizations.” No one, of course, was asking the AMA to “adjudicate” anything. It was asked to stand on principle and chose not to.

IMSA provided letters in opposition to IFMSA’s action from officials of the World Health Organization, joined with the German medical student association, made public the virulent antisemitic social media postings of some of IFMSA’s leaders, and explored options for legal action against IFMSA where it was incorporated in Denmark.

On March 18, 2025, IFMSA issued a stunning statement about the Federation of Israeli Medical Students. It read, in part, that “two independent legal assessments … concluded that the suspension of FIMS was procedurally invalid. The review identified procedural irregularities, including failure to follow due process requirements for suspension and absence of a legally valid basis for enforcement. As a result, the suspension was found legally void… As a result, FIMS’s membership has remained uninterrupted. Consequently: FIMS has not been removed from IFMSA; FIMS has retained full membership rights, including participation in IFMSA activities.”

We cannot claim that the individual actions of any of the people or organizations we have described reversed IFMSA’s actions. We can, however, proudly claim that leaders of American medicine and the Jewish community did not “stand idly by the blood of your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:16), but instead fought back against this affront to the medical students of Israel. It is an example of the lesson, to paraphrase Elie Wiesel,  that silence benefits only the oppressor, not the victim.

Edward C. Halperin MD MA of Saddle Brook is the chancellor/CEO of New York Medical College of Touro University. Alan Kadish MD of Teaneck is the president of Touro University. This essay represents their opinion and not that of the college or university.