Egyptian medical association refuses Israel ties

PalToday reports that the Egyptian Medical Syndicate refuses to have any relationship with Israeli doctors.

The issue came up last month when Egyptian authorities barred Israeli doctors from attending a breast cancer conference.

Dr. Hamdi Al-Sayyed, head of the Syndicate, said that the general assembly of Egyptian doctors refused to establish relations with Israeli doctors because "they have contributed to the implementation of serious violations against the Palestinian people."

He called to "criminalize all forms of normalization with the Israeli occupation."

The reasons he gave were because Israeli doctors participate in torture against Palestinian Arabs, and also because they help steal the organs of Palestinian Arab prisoners.

The syndicate has shown similarly progressive thinking before. Last year, it supported a proposed Egyptian law that would make ban organ donations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Egypt.

Their website also reproduces a fatwa against normalization with Israel. That page has been up since 2005.