Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Reviews PERSONAL VIEWS

Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes

BMJ 2004; 329 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.329.7471.924 (Published 14 October 2004) Cite this as: BMJ 2004;329:924

Rapid Response:

Israeli inhumanity and brutality

Derek Summerfield's article is important in two respects, firstly in
its honest and accurate reporting of the humanitarian suffering of the
Palestinian population and secondly because it doesn't reduce itself to a
political diatribe along the lines of the all to frequent, and highly
unhelpful, 'both sides are to blame in equal measure' thesis. As a serious
enterprise the BMJ should be expected to do nothing less than to report
the facts as they appear. It is not for nothing that the UN speaks of
chronic food shortages, impending humanitarian disaster and excessive
Israeli aggression in the West Bank and Gaza strip. As someone who has
seen, at first hand, the shocking sight of seriously ill patients being
searched at gun-point, whilst stretcher-bound in ambulances in the middle
of the West Bank countryside (not even on the border between Israel and
the Ocuppied Territories), I am deeply disturbed by the attitude of many
'professionals', journalists and academics who try to dispute the facts of
an increasing desperate and brutal occupation regime. I look forward to
seeing more comment and attention on this highly urgent matter from the
BMJ. Well done.

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

24 October 2004
Joe D Hall
MA Student
School of Oriental and African Studies