Chicago health workers protest American Medical Association's differing response to Gaza and Ukraine

Dozens of health care workers protested the American Medical Association’s board of trustees meeting Sunday, once again demanding the organization call for a cease-fire in Gaza.

It was the fourth protest by Chicago Healthcare Workers for Palestine at the AMA’s River North office since October 2023, held alongside weekly vigils late last year.

Speakers condemned a “double standard” in the group’s response to Gaza compared to its response to the war in Ukraine. They cited the group’s call for a cease-fire after the start of the war in Ukraine — and noted the lack of a similar statement since conflict started in Gaza — in addition to its $100,000 in aid funding to Ukraine to help with humanitarian efforts there.

Tareq Yaqub, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Lurie Children’s Hospital, said he personally supported the efforts in support of Ukraine, but he said there shouldn’t be a difference in the way the organization responds to health care workers being killed in conflict.

“The AMA was absolutely correct in releasing those statements about Ukraine,” Yaqub said. “What we’re upset about is the hypocrisy and the discrepancy of whose lives are worth defending and which health care professionals are more worthy of mourning.”

In a statement to the Sun-Times, an AMA spokesperson said the group stands by its statement released Nov. 9 in which it advocated for health care workers to be able to do their jobs inside conflict zones without fear and urged “all parties” to minimize aid worker casualties.

“The American Medical Association stands with the physicians and health care personnel who are on the front lines of this crisis and throughout the world who are risking their lives to provide crucial medical care to anyone who is injured,” the spokesperson said. “It is critical that medical neutrality is observed because physicians and health care professionals must have the ability to carry out their work and administer urgent care to those in need.”

Yaqub, who is of Palestinian descent, said Islamaphobia played a role in the discrepancy because it was easier for the general public to write off people with whom they found it more difficult to identify, in addition to other cultural and systemic biases.

“Islamophobia and the policies that stem from it … manifests here,” Yaqub said. “When you have that messaging toward a group of people, it becomes easy to become desensitized to their suffering or that their perceived backwardness invites this suffering onto them.”

He said the group didn’t want to resort to protesting, but it was left with no other options after it introduced motions to the AMA’s governing body as well as requested panels and meetings with the AMA’s trustees.

Yaqub said there was some hope in how the conversations shifted after seven World Central Kitchen workers were killed by Israeli missile strikes, but he was still disheartened that it took the deaths of foreign aid workers to refocus the world’s attention on others losing their lives in Gaza.

“We’re really not asking the AMA to take a fringe position, we’re asking them to be consistent with their morals,” Yaqub said. “This is really a chance to engage in the political process to hopefully lead to real change where all lives are valued.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated to include a statement from the American Medical Association.