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Algarve conquista pela 11.ª vez o título de Melhor Destino de Praia da Europa

18 October 2026 at 08:45

O Algarve acaba de ser eleito Melhor Destino de Praia da Europa 2026 nos World Travel Awards, considerados os “Óscares do Turismo”, conquistando este prestigiado galardão pela 11.ª vez – depois das distinções alcançadas em 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 e 2023.

Registando um recorde sem precedentes na categoria de Destino de Praia, a distinção foi anunciada este sábado, durante a Gala Europeia dos prémios, realizada em Kotor, no Montenegro.

Na prestigiada votação dos leitores da Condé Nast Traveller, o Algarve consolidou-se como um dos destinos mais amados da Europa tendo-se destacado entre oito destinos nomeados, superando concorrentes como Porto Santo, Maiorca, Sardenha, Marbella, Cannes e Corfu.

Segundo a Região de Turismo do Algarve, a conquista deste novo título europeu surge num momento particularmente positivo para a notoriedade internacional da região com duas praias a integrarem também o top-20 das melhores da Europa, segundo os leitores da edição britânica da Condé Nast Traveller.

A Praia da Falésia, no concelho de Albufeira, conquistou o 4.º lugar, com 94,70 pontos, enquanto a Praia de Benagil, no concelho de Lagoa, registou a 16.ª posição, com 81,67 pontos. São as duas únicas praias portuguesas a integrar esta classificação, que resulta de uma iniciativa com mais de 296 mil respostas de leitores do Reino Unido nos Readers’ Choice Awards 2026.

O presidente do Turismo do Algarve, disse que “conquistar pela 11.ª vez o título de Melhor Destino de Praia da Europa é um motivo de enorme orgulho para toda a região.” como reporta o Algarve Primeiro.

Enalteceu o “percurso de excelência que temos vindo a construir ao longo dos anos“, e “este reconhecimento ganha um significado ainda mais especial quando duas das nossas praias acabam também de ser distinguidas entre as melhores da Europa pelos leitores da Condé Nast Traveller.“

Gomes valorizou as distinções dizendo que elas “refletem a beleza e diversidade da nossa costa, a qualidade da nossa oferta turística e, sobretudo, o trabalho e a dedicação de todos os que contribuem diariamente para afirmar o Algarve como um destino de referência internacional.”

“Mais do que celebrar estas conquistas, importa encará-las como uma responsabilidade acrescida. Queremos continuar a valorizar aquilo que nos distingue, investindo na sustentabilidade, na preservação do nosso património natural e na qualificação da experiência turística. O nosso objetivo é garantir que o Algarve continua a merecer a confiança e a preferência de quem nos visita, mantendo-se na linha da frente dos grandes destinos turísticos internacionais”, destacou o presidente do Turismo do Algarve, André Gomes.

Importa destacar que a região Algarve está novamente nomeada para Melhor Destino de Praia do Mundo nos World Travel Awards 2026, arriscando-se a conquistar o quinto título na categoria.

Para Melhor Destino de Praia do Mundo 2026 a votação está a decorrer até ao dia 30 de outubro, através do site oficial dos World Travel Awards, em https://www.worldtravelawards.com/vote.

ECB Warns Bond Market Turmoil Could Deepen Europe’s Economic Slowdown

18 October 2026 at 09:22

Christine Lagarde says rising government borrowing costs are tightening financial conditions across the eurozone, complicating efforts to contain inflation without undermining economic growth.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has warned that a sharp sell-off in government bonds is tightening financial conditions across the eurozone, threatening to weaken economic growth at a time when European governments are already struggling with mounting debt and higher energy prices.

Speaking during the International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings on Saturday, 17 October, Lagarde said rising bond yields were imposing additional pressure on the European economy, potentially reducing demand and helping to bring inflation down.

Her comments came as investors demanded higher returns on government debt across major developed economies, reflecting concerns about persistent inflation, widening budget deficits and the substantial borrowing requirements associated with investment in artificial intelligence.

The development presents a complicated situation for the ECB, which has already raised its key interest rate twice this year in response to renewed inflationary pressure following the conflict in the Middle East.

Higher government bond yields effectively tighten monetary conditions even without a further decision by the central bank to increase official interest rates.

Bond markets tighten financial conditions

The latest sell-off has pushed borrowing costs higher across Europe, although the pressure is particularly acute in countries with large public debts and persistent budget deficits.

When investors sell government bonds, their market prices fall and yields rise. Those higher yields eventually feed into the costs of borrowing for governments, businesses and households.

Lagarde indicated that financial conditions had become tighter than assumed in the ECB’s September economic forecasts.

According to her latest assessment of the bond market, the resulting slowdown in demand could help moderate inflation, but would also place additional pressure on an economy whose growth prospects remain limited.

The ECB’s September projections forecast eurozone economic growth of just 0.9 per cent in 2026, followed by 1.4 per cent in 2027 and 1.5 per cent in 2028.

Inflation was expected to average 3.0 per cent this year before declining to 2.5 per cent in 2027 and 2.1 per cent in 2028.

Those forecasts were based on assumptions about financial conditions and energy prices that may no longer fully reflect developments in international markets.

France faces particularly acute pressure

France has emerged as one of the most vulnerable major eurozone economies because of its high public debt, persistent deficits and political disagreements over fiscal consolidation.

French government bond yields have risen sharply as investors question whether Paris can deliver the spending reductions required to stabilise its finances.

As EU Today reported earlier this month, eurozone finance ministers have been pressing France to produce a credible budget that would restore confidence in the country’s fiscal position.

The borrowing premium demanded on French debt relative to German government bonds has also widened, reflecting investors’ concerns about the financial outlook and the political difficulties surrounding the 2027 budget.

The IMF has warned that continued increases in borrowing costs could eventually force the French government to undertake more substantial fiscal adjustments.

In its assessment of French bond yields, the Fund said the immediate pressures remained manageable, partly because France benefits from established debt markets and relatively long borrowing maturities.

Nevertheless, persistently elevated yields would increase the cost of refinancing government debt as existing bonds mature.

The wider concern is that higher borrowing costs could reduce the room available for public investment and other expenditure across several European economies simultaneously.

IMF warns governments over rising debt

Lagarde’s intervention coincided with renewed warnings from the IMF about the sustainability of European public finances.

In its latest European economic assessment, the Fund argued that governments must either accelerate economic growth or reduce borrowing to prevent debt burdens from becoming increasingly difficult to manage.

The IMF expects eurozone growth of approximately 1.1 per cent in 2026 and 1.2 per cent in 2027, with continuing pressure from energy costs, demographic changes and weak productivity.

The European Commission’s forecasts indicate that eurozone government debt could rise from 88.7 per cent of GDP in 2025 to 91.2 per cent in 2027.

The IMF has also identified structural weaknesses, including barriers within the European single market, which restrict investment and productivity growth.

These problems are becoming more difficult to address as European governments face demands for greater defence expenditure, infrastructure investment and support for industries affected by higher energy prices.

ECB faces difficult interest-rate decision

The ECB has already increased its deposit rate to 2.5 per cent following successive increases in June and September.

As EU Today reported after September’s decision, the central bank has been attempting to contain inflation generated by rising energy costs without causing a more substantial economic slowdown.

The IMF now expects at least one additional quarter-percentage-point increase before the end of 2026.

Such a decision would bring the deposit rate to 2.75 per cent, although the ECB has not committed itself to that outcome.

The challenge is that tighter monetary policy would coincide with financial restrictions already being imposed by bond markets.

At the same time, higher energy prices continue to affect household purchasing power and business operating costs.

In her statement to the International Monetary and Financial Committee, Lagarde acknowledged that the eurozone had proved more resilient than expected, while warning that risks to growth remained tilted to the downside and risks to inflation to the upside.

The duration of the Middle East conflict, developments in energy markets and changes in investor confidence will be important in determining the economic outlook.

For the ECB, a bond-market slowdown could reduce the need for further interest-rate increases by weakening demand. But if energy-driven inflation remains elevated, the central bank may still face pressure to tighten policy.

Europe’s governments, meanwhile, have considerably less control over the borrowing costs demanded by international investors.

The next ECB interest-rate decision will therefore take place against an increasingly difficult combination of sluggish growth, persistent inflation and financial markets imposing their own constraints on public and private borrowing.

Roman House Cut Into Rock Found with Its Own Ancient Pier From the Empire’s Last Centuries on Corsica

17 October 2026 at 17:10
Anyone who wants to build a house on the waterfront at Meria, at the northern tip of Corsica, has to let archaeologists look underneath first. The rule comes from the island’s regional archaeology service (the DRAC of Corsica). It has just paid off. Working on the plot, a team from Inrap, France’s national institute for […]

Chios airport suspends operation for four months

16 October 2026 at 16:33

Operations at Chios Airport runway will be temporarily suspended from mid November 2026 to mid March 2027 due to upgrade of infrastructure works. According to an announcement by the Greek Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) suspension is scheduled from Sunday night, November 15, 2026 to March 15, 2027, due to works to extend, improve and upgrade […]

The post Chios airport suspends operation for four months appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

Tishomingo Burn Ban

16 October 2026 at 12:00

Paul Rankin’s account of a father-son camping trip and an exchange with an inscrutable stranger reads like it was plucked from an anthology of Southern gothic tales. It’s a tense, slightly spooky meditation on how private faith can grow wild and unruly, how isolation breeds suspicion, and how readily we project our fears.

The more I affirmed my faith, the more suspicious the man became, as if he hadn’t come to share the good news but to catch us in a damnable lie. As the interrogation persisted, I couldn’t help thinking of how Flannery O’Connor once described the South as a Christ-haunted place. I love Jesus, but, good Lord, his ostensible followers can be irksome and even sinister at times. Clearly unconvinced by my profession of faith but out of ideas—or maybe just weary with the effort—the stranger finally walked the three steps back to his camp site.

For lack of a better idea, I relit the stove and was adjusting the flame when the man returned, holding one hand behind his back.

With a flourish he brought out a cross fashioned of two sticks and thin binding wire. This he presented to Fish, then added that he’d have a big surprise waiting in the morning. With that, he turned and walked away, into the woods and out of sight.

Hot US inflation singes Asia as higher-for-longer Fed rates loom

16 October 2026 at 10:54

TOKYO — An unwelcome blast of US inflation is blowing across Asia’s markets. September’s hotter-than-expected price data revived concerns that the Federal Reserve will keep rates higher for longer, threatening fresh pressure on currencies, capital flows and economic growth across the region.

Last month’s 3.7% year-on-year increase in consumer prices didn’t just exceed forecasts. It ensured the Fed is on an even bigger collision course with both the bond market and US President Donald Trump’s White House. It’s arguably the last thing both Trump and US Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh wanted to see less than three weeks ahead of the mid-term elections.

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The post Hot US inflation singes Asia as higher-for-longer Fed rates loom appeared first on Asia Times.

No, the world zionist movement is not an antisemitic conspiracy theory

The World Zionist Organization was founded in 1897. It has an elaborate structure, including a World Zionist Congress, a Zionist General Council, a Zionist Executive, and a Zionist Supreme Court. And this is just one of the many such entities…

What Happens When Your Abuser Kills Himself?

15 October 2026 at 16:00

Eve Livingston sensitively draws us into the worlds of two women who share a similar past: abusive partners who committed suicide. Through powerful scene‑setting, we’re there when each woman hears the news, and we feel the complex emotions these deaths provoke. This is a difficult, complicated subject—not often tackled. Livingston bravely shines a light on how, in these particular circumstances, suicide can bring both grief and relief.

Things started as they so often do: he was older, professionally successful in a similar field to Siri’s, and there was something “magnetic” about him. There was also, she came to realise, a darkness beneath the surface. A tragic bereavement in his past had left him struggling with his mental health, something which immediately evoked sympathy in Siri and made him seem a deeper and more sensitive person, qualities she was drawn to. At the beginning of their relationship, he would often turn up uninvited to her home or events she was attending, or bombard her with messages — behaviour she now views as stalking, but found flattering in those hazy early days of a new relationship.

Migrants skip the line for affordable housing, while Dutch people ‘can still live with their parents,’ says Dutch housing minister

14 October 2026 at 20:49

Dutch Housing Minister Elanor Boekholt-O’Sullivan drew sharp criticism this week after defending priority access to scarce social housing for recognized refugees, arguing that many young Dutch first-time home seekers “can still live with their parents.”

In an interview with De Telegraaf, the D66 minister was asked why status holders — asylum seekers granted residence permits — should receive preference for social rental homes while Dutch “starters” face long waiting lists and delayed independence. She responded that “we see that a lot of starters can still, or are allowed to, live with their parents.”

🇳🇱 Migrants get affordable housing before Dutch natives. When asked why migrants receive access to affordable housing before young Dutch people looking for a "starter" home, the Dutch housing minister said that many Dutch first-time home seekers "can still live with their parents." Mass migration contributed to 60% of the increase in housing demand in the Netherlands since 2015, yet Minister Elanor Boekholt-O’Sullivan still believes in putting migrants first. "For me, the fundamental principle is that anyone who is allowed to and wants to live in the Netherlands gets a roof over their head," she said. In the Netherlands, Dutch natives are increasingly relegated to living with their parents while migrants get to skip massive waiting lists and gain "emergency" access to cheap social housing. Follow: @RMXnews

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 14, 2026

Dutch commentator and activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek wrote on X that the policy amounted to “systemic racism.”

“And not just the ‘new’ newcomers. A 25-year-old Syrian who came here with his parents years ago jumps the queue for a home when he decides he wants to live on his own. Meaning a 25-year-old white Dutch guy can forget about getting his own place and ends up on waiting lists for 10+ years,” she wrote, adding: “Putting the interests of foreigners above the interests of the native population needs to end.”

Talking about systemic racism: Young Dutch people can barely find a place to live, because migration drove 60% of the housing demand since 2015, regular prices are insane, and migrants get PRIORITY for the affordable social housing. And not just the “new” newcomers. A 25-year-old Syrian who came here with his parents years ago jumps the queue for a home when he decides he wants to live on his own. Meaning a 25 year-old white Dutch guy can forget about getting his own place and ends up on waiting lists for 10+ years. But according to our minister of housing that’s fine because they can just continue to “live with their parents.” Putting the interests of foreigners above the interests of the native population, needs to end. That’s why with the @SaveEuropeAct, apart from demanding closed borders and Remigration, we also demand 
Removing social welfare incentives and benefits that function as pull factors for migration.

— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) October 13, 2026

Boekholt-O’Sullivan, an Irish-born former lieutenant general in the Dutch Air Force who took office earlier this year, claims that anyone who wants to live in the Netherlands should get a roof but does not address the major housing crisis brought on by mass immigration.

“For me, the fundamental principle is that anyone who is allowed to and wants to live in the Netherlands gets a roof over their head,” she said. She noted that status holders typically leave asylum reception centers and argued that alternatives such as remaining in centers, homelessness, hotels or cruise ships were unacceptable, so priority allocation should continue until other solutions exist.

The remarks landed amid fresh data underscoring migration’s outsized role in the Netherlands’ housing crunch. A report released this week by the Economic Institute for Construction (EIB) found that migration accounted for about 60 percent of additional housing demand between 2015 and 2024. Migrants who arrived in that period occupied roughly 435,000 homes by 2024, out of nearly 700,000 homes added to the stock.

In addition, data shows that migrants occupy 44 percent of the 2.2 million social housing units in the country.

The 44 percent figure of social housing units occupied by first or second-generation immigrants has doubled from 22 percent in 2000, and is forecast to rise to 51 percent by 2030.

A total of 92 percent of Syrian first-generation immigrants reside in social housing. In addition, 90 percent of those born in Somalia, Afghanistan, and Eritrea reside in social housing.

Asylum-related migration contributes disproportionately to lasting demand because status holders remain permanently at high rates, unlike many labor or student migrants who leave within a decade.

Critics said the minister’s comments minimized the burdens on young Dutch adults who have already spent years on waiting lists for social housing or who face high private rents and purchase prices that lock them out of independent living.

Social housing waiting lists in major cities often stretch many years; priority rules for status holders allow some recent arrivals to bypass ordinary queues. Dutch population growth in recent years has been driven almost entirely by net migration, amplifying pressure on an already constrained housing market marked by strict planning rules, nitrogen regulations and slow construction.

The latest debate about Dutch housing policy and mass immigration is only one aspect of the massive burden foreigners have been on Dutch society, which shows that Dutch taxpayers have spent €400 billion on migrants between 1995 and 2019.

The landmark study, entitled “Borderless Welfare State: The Consequences of Immigration on Public Finances,” shows that net costs of immigration to the Dutch public sector over the period 1995-2019 were an astounding €400 billion, averaging €17 billion a year, with a peak of €32 billion in 2016 due to the 2015 refugee crisis.

However, this is far from the total figure. Since 2019, Dutch taxpayers have paid tens of billions more, with no end in sight.

The post Migrants skip the line for affordable housing, while Dutch people ‘can still live with their parents,’ says Dutch housing minister appeared first on Remix News.

One dead as stormy weather sweeps across Greek islands

14 October 2026 at 14:16

One person has died as stormy weather with high volumes of water is sweeping across Greece, affecting mostly Greek islands. Rhodes is one of the Greek islands severely hit by the bad weather front, while Evia and the Sporades islands (Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonissos) are also at the mercy of the intense weather phenomena. RHODES […]

The post One dead as stormy weather sweeps across Greek islands appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

The Kids Who Identify as Animals

14 October 2026 at 12:00

For Boston Magazine, Kara Baskin explores a growing subculture of tweens and teens who don’t feel entirely human. Some identify as one animal, like a cat or a dog; others identify with multiple animals. One kid Baskin speaks to, Sol, says she “doesn’t summon the animals, but rather they come and go on their own schedule.” These young people call themselves therians (distinct from furries, who are fans of anthropomorphic animal characters). Baskin provides a fascinating glimpse into a world where adolescents can express themselves and explore their identities.

Bafflement is the baseline condition of raising kids right now. The adolescent quest for self-discovery is timeless—but today’s parents experimented in ways that were analog: new hairstyles, inscrutable music, beer snuck in the woods. Their own parents might not have liked it, but they could at least relate.

Now the landscape of adolescent discovery is literally foreign, thanks to social media, which has turbocharged once-obscure subcultures like the furry fandom—and, at its rarer edge, therianthropy—and redefined what “fringe” even means. Even if a kid is the only therian at school, she can find 400 more people just like her online. That’s one of the biggest challenges for parents in the algorithm age: The world your kid actually lives in is one you can’t enter. It touches the fear in every parent, therian kid or not: What happens when our kids inhabit a world we don’t understand, with idols we don’t recognize?

US Navy’s SSN(X) won’t arrive for years as China closes sub gap

14 October 2026 at 05:04

As the US Navy lays the groundwork for its next-generation SSN(X) attack submarine to replace its aging fleet, the US’s longstanding undersea supremacy faces an intensifying test against China’s rapid naval buildup, advancing acoustic stealth and superior shipyard capacity. The US Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) issued a sources-sought notice to survey domestic shipyard […]

The post US Navy’s SSN(X) won’t arrive for years as China closes sub gap appeared first on Asia Times.

IMF warns about major economic risks and a ‘disorderly’ rise in bond yields

13 October 2026 at 20:11
Rising bond yields have been a warning sign for financial markets in recent months amid the Iran war's risk to global economies, and the IMF says those risks are more of a concern.

IMF warns about major economic risks and a ‘disorderly’ rise in bond yields

13 October 2026 at 20:11
Rising bond yields have been a warning sign for financial markets in recent months amid the Iran war's risk to global economies, and the IMF says those risks are more of a concern.

La UE non è in crisi. È la crisi 

13 October 2026 at 07:55

Trump e Putin hanno siglato un accordo per il rilascio di diesel russo pari a 5 milioni di tonnellate. Gli USA hanno sospeso le sanzioni sul gasolio fino ad aprile. I prezzi, secondo Trump, “scenderanno per noi a ritmi record”.

Gli accordi tra russi e americani non finirebbero però qui. Secondo Reuters, l’inviato e genero di Trump, Kushner, avrebbe discusso con il consigliere di Putin, Dmitriev, dell’ingresso di un investitore americano addirittura dentro Nord Stream, l’azienda che controlla i gasdotti sabotati. Precondizione di questo accordo è ovviamente la sospensione delle sanzioni USA, per cui la decisione di ieri sembra perfettamente coerente.

All’UE, mancherà invece il 7% del gas per coprire i consumi invernali. Parliamo di 14 miliardi di metri cubi. Oltre al blocco di Hormuz che ha fermato il GNL dal Qatar, da gennaio partirà il blocco totale autoimposto delle fornitire russe. È poi pronta “la più lunga lista di sanzioni europee mai presentata contro Mosca”: 1600 aziende e personalità. La Commissione ha però versato 1,24 miliardi per droni e missili all’Ucraina e restano da pagare a breve 15,4 miliardi. Ne mancano comunque almeno il triplo per tenere in piedi l’esercito per la prima parte del ’27.

L’UE non è però intenzionata a rivedere le sue regole di austerità. Secondo il vicepresidente della Commisisone Dombrovskis, “non possiamo continuare a introdurre nuove forme di flessibilità” perchè la sostenibilità fiscale “rappresenta una risorsa fondamentale”. Il ministro all’economia olandese dice che bisogna ridurre a tutti i costi il debito, “fuggire dai problemi non è la soluzione”, e che si sente “piuttosto stanco di questa discussione”. Tesi espressa anche dai ministri belga e tedesco. Non importa che, secondo proprio il commissario all’energia, Jorgensen, soltanto per la guerra nel Golfo, l’UE pagherà 90 miliardi di extracosti per l’energia. Saremo in guerra, senza energia, ma il deficit sarà sotto al 3%.

Continua intanto la deindustrializzazione dell’Europa, che procede pari passo alla sua militarizzazione. Avanza l’ipotesi di una reindustrializzazione del sito Beko di elettrodomestici di Siena a opera della Leonardo. Non si produranno più frigoriferi in Europa ma missili per distruggere la nostra economia. Una grandiosa strategia.

Ma c’è qualcuno che seriamente può pensare che questa politica possa farci uscire dalla crisi in cui ci ha portato? Che queste élite abbiano la lucidità e la buona fede per ammettere gli errori madornali e autocorreggersi?

L’UE non è in crisi. È la crisi.

Rappresenta oggi l’ostacolo interno principale all’organizzazione dei popoli europei in vista dei loro interessi e della pace.

Dobbiamo svegliarci, prima che siano le condizioni storiche a farlo per noi.

di Gabriele Guzzi

Fonte: https://www.facebook.com/gabri.guzzi/posts/pfbid0Re6qUswQjZMPQMrrbQD8zbK4h2T9eetAgnDu44vrBAsJ5oY5maUACFHgBJVdT36Nl?rdid=TkMailVJ4unvyYyp#

L'articolo La UE non è in crisi. È la crisi  proviene da Blondet & Friends.

Doctors mobilize to hold Israeli Medical Association accountable

12 October 2026 at 21:45

Doctors and healthcare workers gathered in parallel to the World Medical Association (WMA) General Assembly in Rotterdam on October 8-10, demanding the suspension of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) over its breaches of medical ethics throughout the Gaza genocide. 

Activists held mobilizations warning against the IMA’s attempts to obscure attacks on Palestinian health workers and infrastructure. These actions included a petition demanding the organization’s suspension from the WMA signed by nearly 6,850 health professionals.

Read more: On Nakba anniversary, health workers call for boycott of Israeli Medical Association

“The petition demands that the IMA is suspended by the WMA for its gross violations of medical ethics over decades, concerning Palestinian patients and healthcare services and the complicity of Israeli doctors in the starvation, torture and medical neglect of Palestinian prisoners,” the IMA Out! coalition stated.

The coalition also called upon medical associations to follow the example of the South African Medical Association, the British Medical Association, and the Turkish Medical Association in severing ties with the IMA.

81 empty scrubs at the WMA assembly

On Saturday, October 10, 81 health workers simultaneously removed their scrubs and hung them in a line facing the WMA assembly. Each was marked with the name of a Palestinian healthcare worker currently held in illegal Israeli detention.

“These scrubs should not be empty,” said general practitioner Mejrem Ahmetaj from Artsen voor Gaza (Doctors for Gaza) in the Netherlands. “Our colleagues belong with their patients, not in Israeli prisons.”

Activists during protest actions near the WMA General Assembly in Rotterdam, October 2026. Source: Aziz Rhali/Facebook
Activists during protest actions near the WMA General Assembly in Rotterdam, October 2026. Source: Aziz Rhali/Facebook

The campaign to suspend the IMA over its breaches of medical ethics has been developing for months. In June this year, a report in The Lancet reported that a petition launched by the People’s Health Movement (PHM) to hold the IMA accountable collected over 1,100 signatures. Working together with other organizations and networks, including chapters of Healthcare Workers For Palestine and Teva boycott groups, the initiative was able to expand.

The IMA: more than a bystander

Since October 2023, at least 1,700 Palestinian health workers have been killed, and many more remain imprisoned in horrifying conditions in Israeli detention centers. Among them is Kamal Adwan Hospital Director Hussam Abu Safiya, whose mistreatment and imprisonment have caused international outcry.

These crimes have been extensively documented by UN experts and human rights associations, yet the IMA – which represents over 90% of Israeli physicians – took no action. Instead, some of its leading figures backed unfounded claims that Gaza’s hospitals are used for military purposes.

Read more: New PHM global coordinator: “Palestine is a symbol of resistance for a new world”

“The IMA has said and done nothing about these war crimes against health workers, patients and hospitals,” said Jonathan Fluxman from IMA Out!. 

Ahmetaj added that the IMA is not a bystander. “It defends these attacks and blocks international condemnation while Palestinian healthcare is being destroyed,” the physician said. “That is not medical neutrality. That is complicity.”

Hind Rajab Foundation: IMA involved “in the death, torture, and ill treatment of Palestinian detainees”

The protest coincided with a legal action initiated by the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF). On October 7, the foundation announced it had called upon the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the involvement of the IMA, the Israeli Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defense, and medical professionals “in the death, torture, and ill treatment of Palestinian detainees held at the Sde Teiman detention facility since October 7, 2023.”

The legal submission addressed the participation of Israeli medics in crimes perpetrated at Sde Teiman’s field hospital. There, health workers and detainees documented abuses spurring from directives issued by the Israeli Ministry of Health in December 2023.

According to the Hind Rajab Foundation, the Ministry of Health guidance instructed medical staff to treat prisoners while blindfolded and handcuffed and required them to sign medical documentation using only their professional titles. It also directed them to restrict transfers to civilian hospitals and authorized forced medical treatment without protections.

PHM Global Coordinator Aziz Rhali during protest actions near the WMA General Assembly in Rotterdam, October 2026. Source: Aziz Rhali/Facebook

“By November 2025, at least 29 detainees had died at Sde Teiman as a result of physical violence, medical neglect, or both,” the organization wrote. The IMA did not initiate any disciplinary proceedings against members involved in these practices – and even used international journals as platforms to obscure them.

“The evidence shows that medical participation in torture and abuse at Sde Teiman was structural,” Natacha Bracq of the Hind Rajab Foundation said. “The Israeli Ministry of Health built the field hospital, dictated the terms of medical treatment; doctors served under Military Police authority rather than the Medical Corps; and a professional association provided ethical cover.”

Read more: Israeli destruction of Gaza’s healthcare is a blueprint for future imperialist wars

“Israeli physicians abandoned their neutrality when they agreed to treat patients in chains and erase what was done to them,” Dyab Abou Jahjah from the same organization added. “The WMA must answer why an association that provided institutional cover for torture is still welcome at its table.”

People’s Health Dispatch is a monthly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and subscription to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.

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