• Website: www.phr.org.il/phr
  • Founded 1988, based in Israel (PHR-I is not part of the US-based Physicians for Human Rights).
  • According to its mission statement, PHR-I is “an Alliance of Science and Conscience” and a “non-partisan, nonprofit organization, dedicated to promoting and protecting the medical human rights of all resident of Israel and the Occupied Territories.”
  • In 2006-2009, the New Israel Fund (NIF) authorized grants worth $681,719 to PHR-I (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009).
  • Funders include NDC, Sweden (via Diakonia), EU, Oxfam, Christian Aid, Ford Foundation, and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
  • In practice, PHR-I’s primary objective is strongly political, despite claims that it opposes “the subjugation of medical care to political considerations of any kind...”
  • In a report co-authored with Machsom Watch, PHR-I claims that it works to uncover Israel’s mechanisms of “bureaucratic violence” which is “hidden from the public eye.”
  • As a result of PHR-I’s radical political agenda, the Israel Medical Association halted cooperative activities.
  • In a joint NGO statement, PHR-I repeatedly referred to the IDF as the “Israeli occupation forces (IOF).”
  • Alleges that Israeli physicians do not report suspicions of torture of Palestinian prisoners. PHR-I president Dr. Ruchama Marton commented, “it seems that politics are above the actual facts. In the meantime, encouraged by the relative lull in criticism, the Israeli Medical Association continues to turn to denial.”
  • PHR-I activists provided first aid training to violent protesters at the security barrier near Bil’in. According to PHR-I member Ron Yaron, “The aim of the training is an act of solidarity with the people who fight against the occupation and the building of the wall.” PHR-I was criticized by Dr. Yoram Blachar, president of the World Medical Association, as “a radical political group disguised as a medical organization.”
  • On November 9, 2009,  PHR-I, Adalah, and Al-Mezan wrote a letter (Hebrew) to Israeli officials claiming that Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulances only enter Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem with a police escort. According to the NGOs, this “may constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law [sic].” In response, the Ministry of Health and MDA explained that the policy was instituted to protect emergency medical teams that repeatedly had been attacked in these neighborhoods.
  • PHR-I co-sponsored an exhibit of children’s drawings a year after Cast Lead, called “Childhood Under Fire.”  The drawings included images depicting Israel soldiers intentionally firing on civilians.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Essentials: