We write to express our grave concern over the decision to welcome Sheba Medical Center’s ARC Accelerator to Massachusetts. At a time when the world bears witness to the devastation unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank—including the state-sanctioned murder of over 55,000 Palestinians according to the Gaza Health Ministry (although the actual death toll is projected projected to be upwards of 200,000), the wounding of tens of thousands more, the mass displacement and starvation of nearly 2 million people, and the systematic targeting of Gaza’s healthcare system—this partnership sends a chilling message about the values that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts chooses to uphold.

We write to express our deep outrage and unequivocal opposition to the upcoming Israeli tech accelerator initiative in Massachusetts, which would offer legitimacy, investment, and platform to a government currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s largest hospital system and a quasi-government institution, has taken an explicitly political stance amid the current genocide, using its global expansion—including its initiative in Boston—to promote what its leadership calls “the beautiful face of the State of Israel.” Far from being a neutral medical entity, Sheba serves as the primary training ground for Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) medical personnel and, according to its philanthropic backer in the US, "plays a critical role in Operation Iron Swords." Its own website states that “a growing number of Sheba doctors have been recruited into the IDF in order to bolster the military’s medical prowess.” These entanglements are especially disturbing in light of credible reports of physician involvement in the neglect and torture of detained Palestinians in Israeli state prisons—many of whom are held without charge.

Sheba’s ties extend further through its technology partnerships with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest military contractor, which manufactures many of the weapons used in the bombardment of Gaza, including attacks that have decimated hospitals and healthcare infrastructure. That through this partnership, Elbit Systems—deeply enmeshed in military violence—could now be connected to health care data and infrastructure in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is not only alarming, it is absolutely preposterous.

This is not healthcare diplomacy—it is reputational laundering, and it comes at the expense of Palestinian lives and dignity.

Gaza’s medical infrastructure has been decimated by Israeli airstrikes and siege tactics. As of May 2025, Israel has destroyed nearly all hospitals in northern Gaza. Israel has killed more than 1,200 healthcare workers while performing their duties. It has blocked all medical supplies. Palestinian patients are dying of preventable causes because of Israel. Meanwhile, Israel markets itself as a leader in “medical innovation” and AI, even as its military operations systematically deny Palestinians access to basic care and uses AI to surveil Palestinians and generate targets for airstrikes.

The ARC Accelerator’s stated mission to advance AI diagnostics and workforce management cannot be separated from this broader context. Globally, AI in healthcare is already known to replicate and intensify structural inequities by using adaptive learning AI models that rely on existing cultural biases in their programmed logic instead of challenging preconceived notions in medicine. In this case, the use of AI technology is also being used to whitewash a government currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Massachusetts can not be complicit in bolstering the economic and political infrastructure of a government carrying out mass atrocities. Our public institutions must not partner with entities that serve as arms of a regime that has recently admitted its plan to carry out genocide against the Palestinian people to steal their traditional homelands.

We call on your office to renounce this partnership and cut all ties with Sheba Medical Center immediately. We urge you to demonstrate that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts does not reward the perpetrators of human rights violations with prestige, resources, or legitimacy.

Sources:
https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-applications-arrest-warrants-situation-state
https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/03/20/gaza-israeli-military-war-crimes-while-occupying-hospitals
https://sheba-global.com/sheba-on-the-frontlines/
https://www.wwlp.com/news/massachusetts/israeli-hospital-system-plans-local-startup-accelerator/
https://www.972mag.com/israel-no-longer-hides-its-genocidal-aims-in-gaza/
https://www.afsmc.org/mission/supporting-the-idf/
https://www.afsmc.org/2022/08/israeli-terror-fighting-thermal-imaging-tech-being-adapted-for-medical-purposes/
https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/
https://healthcareworkerswatch.org/