Ruchama Marton

Ruchama Marton (; born 1937) is an Israeli psychotherapist, psychiatrist, and feminist, and the founder of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.

Early life and work Ruchama Marton was born in Jerusalem, to Bilha and Aaron Smuelevitch who arrived from Poland in 1929. In Jerusalem she attended the Lämel School (often misspelled 'Lemel School'), a non-religious school for girls. Her family then moved to Tel Aviv, where she attended high school.

During her military service, she was a soldier in the Givati Brigade and served during the Sinai War in 1956. She saw members of her regiment killed by friendly fire when the Israeli Air Force mistakenly bombed their positions and witnessed the murder of Egyptian prisoners of war who had surrendered and were unarmed by soldiers from the battalion in which she served In the battlefields of Sinai the first seeds of her anti-militarist (but non-pacifist) attitude and her lifelong commitment to fighting for human rights began. At a time when criticism of the army was practically unheard of, she openly protested the execution of the Egyptian prisoners.

After her military service, Marton studied medicine at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and completed medical school in 1963. During this time, she gave birth to her daughter, Orna, and her son, Yuval. While a student in medical school, Marton became active in struggles for women's rights. Together with Professor Dreyfus, she organized activities to change the medical school's policy that only 10% of students could be women. a human rights organization working against the occupation of the Palestinian territories and defending the right to health. She served as the organization chairwoman for its first ten years. In 1989-1991 she was a co-founder of "Palestinians and Israelis Together for Peace," where she organized seminars and discussion groups to help advance the peace process. In 1989 she co-founded "The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel", which still exists today, and was designed to create a lobby to stop torture in Israel. She was one of the founders of the committee against the closure of Bir Zeit University and in 1989 she co-founded "Verification", an organization of mental health workers for peace.

In 1993 she co-founded One in Nine: Women for Women with Breast Cancer - a lobby and support group for women with breast cancer. In 2005 she co-founded the Committee for Political Prisoners. In 2006 she co-founded the Committee for the Rights of Residency. She was also a member of the International Committee for Palestinian NGOs.

Ruchama Marton was among the founders of the Progressive List for Peace, a bi-national party to the Knesset in 1984, which elected two representatives to the Knesset.

Physicians for Human Rights

In 1988 Marton founded the Association of Israeli-Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights, which later changed its name to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-IL). She put together a group of Israeli and Palestinian doctors, working together in full equality and solidarity. The organization works towards a common goal of fighting against the occupation and promoting human rights and health. Physicians for Human Rights sees the occupation as a sickness, creating injustice and human rights violations. The organization works to maintain and defend human rights, with a focus on the right to health. Ruchama Marton bequeathed to the association a broader understanding of the concept of health - not just as medicine, but in the spirit of the World Health Organization - as "physical, psychological and social well-being" including access to water, sanitation, education, electricity, sewage, work, and free mobility.

PHR was the first Israeli NGO run by a woman, as well as the first that introduced the concept of human rights to the Israeli public, and through its activity along the years contributed much the public discourse about human rights. PHR-IL has worked to protect human rights in general, as well as the right to equitable healthcare and to bodily integrity, dignity and mental health.

In her public work, Marton has co-worked with Palestinian and international organizations dealing with mental health and human rights. She is on the board of the Mental Health Center in Gaza. PHR's partnership with organizations in Europe and the United States led to the "Network of International Organizations for Health and Human Rights" in 1992, of which Marton is a board member. She has been invited many times for meetings with the United Nations (in Geneva, Vienna, Strasbourg, New York City and more) to discuss and analyze the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Awards 2019 Yeshayahu Leibowitz Award from the Yesh Gvul movement - award ceremony on April 2, 2019.

2010 "Right Livelihood Award", PHR-IL, Stockholm, December 6, 2010. 2009 "Distinction of Honor" by the Jenin Refugee Camp Committee. 2007 "The American Friends Service Committee", one of 40 Palestinians and Israelis selected by AFSC Middle East peace building program, Faces of Hope, to honor contribution to ending the occupation and building a just peace. Chicago, June 2007 2007 "Women that Bring About Change", one out of 40 women selected by TheMarker, Tel Aviv, January 2007 2005 "1000 Women Nobel Peace Prize 2005", one of 1000 women nominated for the prize. 2005 "Alternative Independence Torch", May 11, Jerusalem, Presented by Yes Gvul Movement. 2002 "Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights", the Gates Foundation, May 30th, Washington DC. 2000 Israeli Prime Minister Award: “Shield of the Child” was given to PHR Israel, November 26, Jerusalem 2000 "Helen Prize for Humanitarian Works, International Organization of the Helen Prize for Women", March, Montreal, Canada 1999 "Emil Grunzweig Human Rights Award", presented by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel 1998 The Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, Harvard University, United States 1997 "Palestinian Award for Human Rights" Gaza, October 1994 "Patient Friends Society" Tulkarem 1993 "Operation Smile International", Norfolk, VA. 1989 "Jewish Committee for Israeli-Palestinian Peace," Washington, DC

Selected publications

"Introduction" and a chapter in "The White Coat Passes like a Shadow: The Health Professions and Torture in Israel" in Torture: Human Rights, Medical Ethics and the Case of Israel, Neve Gordon and Dr. Ruhama Marton, eds, Zed Books, London, 1995 Personal Profile, Journal of the American Medical Women's Association, Human Rights and Women's Health. Volume 52, Number 4, fall 1997.

"The Right to Madness: From the Personal to the Political - Psychiatry and Human Right", a chapter in From the Margins of Globalization: Critical Perspective on Human Right, Neve Gordon, Editor, Lexington Books, Lanham, MD, 2004. Previous versions of this paper were presented at two conferences in 2002.

The Absolute Political Independence, the Condition of the Action, Revue Humanitaire/26, MDM, September 2010