Israel's Appeals Tribunal on Wednesday ordered the state to allow Dr. Li Hong-Bo, a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, to return to Israel after being arrested and forced to leave in 2022 by the Population and Immigration Authority in the Interior Ministry.
Li worked along side his sister who is an oncologist, providing Chinese medicine treatment to her cancer patients before his deportation. He was given a work permit that had to be renewed annually. In a raid on the clinic in 2022, he was arrested and detained for nearly three weeks but only after he was deported, the Health Ministry declared he had practiced medicine that was not recognized by the state.
During his appeal, the court was presented by many requests from his former patients who testified that his treatments had helped them and improved their condition.
In its ruling the court said the Population and Immigration Authority failed to justify a change in circumstances that supports the decision not to renew Dr. Li's license "thus depriving a large number of patients of the opportunity to receive medical treatment, which they claim improves their condition."
Furthermore, the court ruled Dr. Li Hong-Bo would be allowed to return to Israel subject to posting a bond of NIS 50,000 and would be granted a work permit as a specialist for one year, renewable annually according to submitted requests.