The Islamic Medical Association of South Africa (IMASA) joined by healthcare professionals and activists staged a protest at the Sandton Convention Centre yesterday objecting to the invitation of Professor Fabian Didi, director of Sheba Medical Centre Israel, as a speaker at the Ophthalmological Conference.
THE invitation to Israeli Professor Didi Fabian to speak at the Ophthalmological Congress this week has sparked fury among activists who had appealed to the organisers to withdraw the invite citing Israel’s human rights violations among other reasons.
The Islamic Medical Association of South Africa (Imasa) joined by healthcare professionals and activists protested outside the Sandton Convention Centre on Thursday, objecting to the invitation of an Israeli paediatric ophthalmologist Fabian, based at the Sheba Medical Centre Israel, as a speaker at the congress.
This comes after the Ophthalmological Society of South Africa (OSSA) chose to include Fabian in the OSSA 2025 Congress in Sandton which kicked off this week, despite Imasa’s objections.
On January 9, Imasa had written to head of the local organising committee, Dr Barry Payne to withdraw the invitation to Fabian.
“It is common cause that every adult Israeli citizen has served in one capacity or the other in the greater Israeli defence force, similar to all adult white males serving in the South African defence force during the apartheid regime. It is also an undisputed fact, captured live, and confirmed by the International Court of Justice and Amnesty International, that Israel has committed, and continues to commit genocide against the people of Gaza and with impunity gross human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied territories and within Israel itself. As a medical fraternity, we cannot choose to be silent on this. How can we choose to say we are apolitical or a religious when it comes to matters of human rights? The genocide is against the people, yes human beings, in Gaza: not Arabs, not Muslims, not Christians, not Palestinians nor any other framing that enables disconnect and rationalizing of their erasure from earth,” Imasa president, Dr Faisal Suliman wrote.
Imasa also called all healthcare professionals, specifically ophthalmologists and optometrists, to boycott attending the OSSA congress.
The OSSA then conducted a poll among its members, to vote for or against Fabian’s attendance, prompting the reinstatement of his invitation.
South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) spokesperson Rolene Marks said: “The Islamic Medical Association’s campaign was nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt at discrimination and racism, targeting a respected medical professional purely due to his nationality and religion.”
“Professor Fabian’s unwavering dedication to saving lives transcends politics and prejudice. Medicine is not just his profession but his calling, to heal both physical ailments and the divisions created by hate. Those seeking to impose their ideological biases on the medical community should take note: the world is far richer with Professor Fabian’s contributions.”
Speaking to the Cape Times on Thursday, Suliman said: “They misrepresented the IMA position. They inferred to members of OSSA that we had threatened violence. If you look at our letters absolutely nowhere is there a threat of violence or any intimidation. They made this an issue of antisemitism which is now common cause for zionists to deflect from the genocide. The most overused trope is to accuse us of antisemitism and sort of deflection. Therefore having done that they went on a campaign to get members of OSSA disingenuously to revote. Not all OSSA members were at the vote and decided to re-invite Professor Fabian even though originally he was disinvited.
“Ironically Fabian being present has highlighted this issue. There's been a very successful picket outside where the congress is being held. It led to more awareness about the need for boycott divestment and sanctions against Israeli, just like we had against South African during apartheid. It highlights the need for consciousness on behalf of anyone organising a congress, to support the BDS and to extend the academic boycott of Israel is not to invite Israeli speakers to South Africa.
“The BDS call and movement is decades old, we have seen for the last 70 years Palestinians lose their human rights, lose their freedom, lose their land, their crops and it's just been increasing.”
The OSSA did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.
Cape Times
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