Perils of criticising Israel

Some of the responses accusing the BMJ for unbalanced presentation of
regional issues have indicated lack of BMJ coverage of civil freedoms
situation in the Arab world. I don’t know the whole history of BMJ
coverage of these issues, but would like to provide excerpts of an
editorial about health in the Arab World I published in the BMJ in 2006
(Health in the Middle East, Maziak, 2006):

“Authoritarian regimes, economic incentives, and conflicts have resulted
in the migration of health professionals”; “Greater exploration of power
relationships, political representation, gender roles, and normative
values of traditional societies is needed to understand and respond to the
health needs of local communities”; “For many people in the region, health
improvement must start somewhere else—with education, equality, and
security”. “In authoritarian regimes health ministries have little
incentive to present "bad" or politically loaded data or work on such data
obtained from other sources, especially as they are not held accountable
for failing to do so by independent bodies or a free press”; “requires
broad but locally oriented research agendas backed by a vibrant civil
society that promotes evidence based health and shields scientific inquiry
from dominant social and political doctrines”; “More research is also
needed in "taboo" areas associated with major health problems—for example,
domestic violence, mental health, and the health of special groups (such
as Palestinian refugees and Kurdish minorities)”; “These conflicts are
used by national governments and outside powers alike to divert public
attention from developmental failures”.

Regards

Wasim Maziak

Reference
- Maziak W. Health in the Middle East. BMJ. 2006 Oct 21;333(7573):815-6.

Competing interests:
None declared