Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes: Summerfield's outrage is misplaced

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7474.1102-a

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

Letter

Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes

Summerfield's outrage is misplaced

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

EDITOR—Summerfield's jump from psychiatrist to attorney,judge, and jury is a classic example of the inappropriate useof science and medicine to promote specific political views.¹Any reasonable and objective observer of the longstanding conflictbetween Arabs and Jews understands that the situation is notas prejudicially simple as Summerfield would have us believe.

His outrageous statement that Israeli soldiers are "Clearly...routinely authorised to shoot to kill children... " is particularlyegregious, baseless and something that has no place in a journalwhere science and evidence is valued. What is in fact routineis the care that Palestinians continue to receive, even todayafter years of conflict, in Israeli hospitals and from Israeliphysicians. Unlike Israeli civilians, who dare not set footin Palestinian villages for fear of being attacked and killed,Palestinian Arabs receive care in Israel that they could notreceive in any neighbouring Arab . . . [Full text of this article]

Irwin J Mansdorf, member

Task Force on Medical and Public Health Issues, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, New York and Raanana, Israel ijm321@hotmail.com

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