Given the reality for women and women’s health in Palestine, and especially in Gaza, over the last 15 months, Health Workers 4 Palestine (HW4P) is extremely concerned that the 2025 London Maternity and Midwifery conference have chosen to platform facilitators [1] that call for the adherence to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of Antisemitism. The reality for women in Gaza was recently described by UN Women as being “A war on women’s health” [2].
As an organisation, we are committed to a rights-based approach to health, welcoming any training that reduces discrimination for patients and health workers from all backgrounds and cultures. However, the IHRA definition of antisemitism has been criticised as incorrect and dangerous by over twenty Jewish and Israeli organisations including; B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, European Jews for a Just Peace, IfNotNow, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (UK)[3] as well as many more international human rights organisations [4], as it seeks to conflate any criticism of Israel or Zionism with antisemitism.
This means that anyone seeking to criticise the very obvious and real attacks on women’s health in Palestine can be labelled as antisemitic. It means that criticism of Israel’s intentional blockade on humanitarian aid, that has forced 5,000 Palestinian women to deliver their babies in Gaza each month in conditions where there were no medical supplies, no analgesia other than paracetamol, no anaesthesia, no clean water and barely any shelter, is labelled as antisemitic. It means that any criticism of Israel for creating such hellish conditions for pregnant women in Gaza resulting in a 300% increase in rates of miscarriage and a well-documented increase in preventable hysterectomies, would be labelled as antiemetic.
We note that the conference headline also includes a tagline “No Formula” - a nod to the fact that the organisers undoubtedly believe in the promotion of breastfeeding as being the best option for mother and baby, where possible. Did the organisers know that because Israel has deliberately used starvation as a weapon against the people of Gaza [5], that hundreds of women in Gaza were not nutritionally strong enough to produce breast milk for their babies? Gaza, prior to October 2023, enjoyed one of the highest breastfeeding rates in the region, well above 90%. Due to the forced starvation, new mothers in Gaza were forced to watch their babies starve because there was no formula or clean water to supplement their low milk supplies. According to the IHRA definition, any criticism of Israel for this would be considered antisemitic.
HW4P have been made aware that all attempts to discuss the concerns of many maternal health workers, especially those from other minority groups, have been completely ignored, and in some instances shut-down and censored by the conference organisers. It is appalling that when said health workers have tried to call for balance in the conference’s agenda, e.g. to include a session for the Muslim voice, or the Palestinian voice, this too was ignored and shut down.
Given the horrific context for maternal health in Gaza that continues, despite the very fragile ceasefire, HW4P finds the lack of response and silence unconscionable. Maternal health workers, who are concerned about the use of the IHRA definition and the health rights of Palestinian women, deserve to be listened to. The silencing of such voices is complicity in allowing the genocide in Gaza continue. The continual allowance of the dehumanisation of Palestinians, Muslims, and other minorities is extremely dangerous. The shutting-down of constructive criticism of governments and institutions that promote the slaughter of thousands of Palestinian women and children, should not be allowed in a maternal health conference, purportedly committed to health rights and justice.
[1] all4maternity.com/antisemitism-and-inclusion-towar...
[2]un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/wp-content/uploads...
[3] hrw.org/news/2023/04/04/human-rights-and-other-civ...