Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes: More heat than light in this debate

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7474.1102

BMJ 2004;329:1102 (6 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7474.1102

Letter

Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes

More heat than light in this debate

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

EDITOR—Any mention of the Israeli-Palestinian conflictgenerates much heated debate.¹ But facts are often absent.

There is much agreement. A majority in both nations agree thatGaza and much of the West Bank are not part of Israel. A minorityin Israel claim that much of these territories are part of Israel,but this minority would not extend rights of Israeli citizenshipto their 3.8 million non-Jewish inhabitants.

Some correspondents refer to "equipoise," but this is misleading.The two countries do not have equal levels of military strengthor wealth. Both do not have equal advantages of functioningeconomies, democratic institutions, elections, free press, orinternational support from the world's superpower.

Essentially, one side is a quasi-European country with European-styleinstitutions. The other side is a failed third world state witha level of development among the lowest in the world. Grossdomestic product per head in Israel . . . [Full text of this article]

Tom Marshall, senior lecturer

University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT T.P.Marshall@bham.ac.uk