Information and history

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel was founded in 1988 with the goal of struggling for human rights, in particular the right to health, in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Human dignity, wellness of mind and body and the right to health are at the core of the world view of the organization and direct and instruct its activities and efforts on both the individual and general level. PHR-Israel's activities integrate advocacy and action toward changing harmful policies and direct action providing healthcare. Today Physicians for Human Rights-Israel has more than 1150 members, over half of whom are healthcare providers.

"The Association of Israeli and Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights", as the association was then called, was established during the first months of the Palestinian uprising in the Occupied Territories. Daily, people were wounded and killed. One of the association’s first activities was a visit to the hospitals in the Gaza Strip, and protest against the use of medical care as a means of controlling the local population. In addition, the organization protested against doctor participation in the torture of Palestinian detainees. The foundation's actions were based on the principles of medical ethics and on international conventions relevant to medical staff.

Since the founding of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel the association has expanded its activities and today focuses on a wider range of topics centering on health in the broadest sense, while calling for social solidarity both within and outside the borders of Israel. Today PHR-Israel runs five projects: the Occupied Territories Project, the Prisoners and Detainees Project, the Migrant Workers and Refugees Project, the Project for the Unrecognized Villages of the Negev, and the Residents of Israel Project. In addition, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel runs a mobile clinic in the Occupied Territories, and an open clinic in Tel Aviv that provides services for all within Israel who have no legal status and therefore no health insurance. The association believes that the combination of medical ethics and human rights serves as a moral touchstone for doctors who find themselves caught in conflicts between the system in which they work and the demands of their conscience. The foundation also acts in situations where medical ethics and human rights are challenged, as in the case of doctor participation in torture.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel works in co-operation and in solidarity with other organizations, Israeli, Palestinian and foreign.

At the legislative level, Israel employs the rhetoric of "justice, equality and mutual assistance." Physicians for Human Rights-Israel works to implement these values on a practical level struggling not only to aid the individual, but also to change the policies that are at the base of human rights abuses.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel is a member of the IFHHRO (the International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organizations). The foundation has won numerous prizes throughout the years, including the Prime Minister's "Defense of the Child" award and the Emil Greenzweig prize of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. The President of the association and the Field Work Director have won the Jonathan Mann award.