BMJ  2004;329:1101-1102 (6 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7474.1101-b

Letter

Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes

"But about who's suffering worse—there's no argument"

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Few, including those responding on bmj.com, seem to dispute the mortality and morbidity statistics presented by Summerfield.¹ Many respondents, however, dispute how his data should be interpreted.

To my mind, the most eloquent and precise interpretation of the Palestinian disaster was written by Derfner, a Zionist and Jerusalem Post feature writer. In March 2004, he wrote: "We can argue with the Palestinians about who's to blame; but about who's suffering worse—there's no argument. They are a destitute nation living in an elaborate prison under the guns of the Israeli army. We are a bourgeois, well-travelled nation that spoils its kids and, while being vulnerable to violent death by terror, is most vulnerable to violent death by traffic accident."²

The elegance of Derfner's summation is that it reconciles Summerfield's statistics and the views of his antagonists. The subtext of Derfner's summary is clear. He is asking the question: "Israeli . . . [Full text of this article]

Heart of Birmingham Primary Care Trust, Birmingham B16 0PA andrew.rouse@hobtpct.nhs.uk

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Katz, D. (2005). Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes: Israeli situation is not analogous to apartheid regime. BMJ 330: 255-255 [Full text]  

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