An Israeli-American surgeon, who is a Florida-based advanced foregut and hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgeon, was disinvited from delivering a remote lecture at the Lebanese Society of General Surgery’s 27th annual Spring Conference on Surgery earlier this month, according to Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese media reports.
Dr. Sharona Ross had reportedly been invited to participate in the conference over Zoom, but that invite was allegedly canceled over the realization that she completed her mandatory two-year IDF service, according to Al-Akhbar.
The Institute for Surgical Excellence, which notes Ross’s 20 years of experience and role as one of the first surgeons in the United States to offer Laparo-Endoscopic Single Site (LESS) Surgery, noted that she spent two years completing her IDF service after finishing high school. She has delivered keynote speeches at over 150 national and international events, and was named a Patient Preferred Surgeon Representing the State of Florida for 2020.
Ross has not yet responded to The Jerusalem Post’s request for comments.
Lebanese officials reportedly opposed lecture
Lebanese Health Minister Rakan Nasser El-Din, who was nominated for the ministerial position by Hezbollah and selected by Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, reportedly demanded that the head of the society cancel her session after learning of Ross’s nationality.
A source told the Hezbollah outlet that “a Lebanese doctor residing in France named Ibrahim Dagher coordinated the conference with the Lebanese Society of General Surgery to participate in one of the conference sessions dedicated to robotic surgery. He was the one who suggested the name of Sharona Ross, based on the fact that she is a well-known doctor in this field.”
There were reportedly plans to keep her participation in the conference without advertising her speech or involvement, but these plans were said to have been abandoned after doctors objected to her participation.
Lebanese law bars contact with Israelis
Under Lebanese law, it is illegal for Lebanese individuals to communicate or have contact with Israelis under the 1955 Anti-Israel Boycott Law and the Lebanese Penal Code. This law is applicable to contact with Israelis who hold a second nationality.
The disinvitation comes as Lebanon faces a severe shortage of gastrointestinal (GI) specialists, largely driven by the mass emigration of physicians since 2019, according to research published in the Journal of Global Health in 2023. The World Health Organization estimated in 2021 that nearly 40% of Lebanon’s doctors had left the country since October 2019, and it remains unclear how many additional physicians departed following the war between Israel and Hezbollah.