Unpublished Rapid Responses, to Summerfield's Article “Palestine: The
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Rapid responses to “Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes” [15 October-15 November 2004] Most rapid responses to the article were published on receipt and can be found at: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/329/7471/924 This file contains responses received within a month of the article’s publication that were not published at the time, for various reasons. Identifying details have been removed from each message, which are separated by asterixes. Any additional editing is indicated by [square brackets]. ** Date submitted: 15 Oct 2004 19:25 ----------------------------------------------------------------- "The truth is shocking" ----------------------------------------------------------------- The truth is shocking and Israel, the media, and even our natural temptation is to respond in the following ways: 1. That is such a terrible ongoing tragedy I guess there will never be peace so Israel's illegal Occupation of Palestinian land is an acceptable solution. 2. The violence will never stop, these people will always fight, and so illegal Occupation is an acceptable solution. 3. Surely the Arabs are to blame so demand they do something and until then, illegal Occupation is an acceptable solution. 4. The solution to this tragedy is so elusive we will never figure it out, so illegal Occupation is an acceptable solution. 5. Any person who speaks out against this must hate Jews and/or Israel and therefore must be a bigot or racist so we should not listen to them, and illegal Occupation is an acceptable solution. Folks, the Palestinians are surrounded by Israel, its soldiers and the illegal wall they are quickly building. Their food, water, clothing, electricity, safety, humanity, freedom, and dignity are ALL completely in the hands of the Israelis. Remind me who is in control of the situation Mr. Loren. The solution is simple despite what extremists Zionists would have you believe. It is simple, really. Here I’ll show you, repeat after me: “Get out.” Israel needs to get out of the occupied territories and take its illegal “settlements” with it. They need to go back to the UN mandated 1967 boundaries. Allow the Palestinians to control their own natural resources, govern themselves, police themselves and heal! Suicide bombings are wrong. Genocide is wrong. Allowing another Nazi Germany holocaust to occur by Israel against Palestinians should shock us all into demanding it STOP! It is the greatest irony of our day that the people that were targeted and killed en masse in Nazi Germany are today committing the same types of crimes against the Arabs. That is the truth. There is no mincing it; there is no media homogenization of the facts, that is what is happening. Don't accept the canned responses that Mr. Loren and others want us to accept. It breeds the debilitating mentality that only allows the Israeli's to continue the genocide that will meet their end goal: to eliminate Palestine completely while the rest of the world debates how to respond! The truth is shocking. It is hard to believe that the solution is that simple and that we have allowed ourselves to be barraged by the Zionist cover-up for so long. Resist the urge to ignore the simple solution. Resist the urge to debate how to execute the permanent pull-out. Resist the urge to do anything but stop the genocide and demand a full a permanent pull-out NOW. Competing interests: None declared *** Date submitted: 18 Oct 2004 18:52 ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Factually incorrect" ----------------------------------------------------------------- This 'article' is not only obscenely biased but factually incorrect. "The Israeli army, with utter impunity, has killed more unarmed Palestinian civilians since September 2000 than the number of people who died on September 11, 2001." While it is true that around 3000 Palestinians have died since September 2000, it is completely untrue that they have all been 'unarmed civilians'. Indeed, the figures show that around 50-55% of Palestinian dead are 'armed combatants' and only around 45-50% are 'unarmed civilians'. (This compares to an Israeli rate of 80% of casualties being 'unarmed civilians'.) So, even if we understood half of Palestinian casualties to be 'unarmed civilians', this leaves us with a figure of around 1,500 (certainly not close to 2,000). The acknowledged number of dead from the September 11 atrocities is over 3,000. Since when has 1,500 exceeded 3,000? Competing interests: None declared ** Date submitted: 18 Oct 2004 22:20 ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Re:'Palestine: The assault on health and other war crimes.'" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Sirs, By the use of inadequate research, sweeping statements and misuse of statistics you present an over-simplified and disgracefully biased view of this 'Palestinian' engineered tragedy. Despite years of 'Intifada' (uprising) the battle being fought is for international opinion, and not a homeland for Arabs in Israel. I share Dr Summerfield's concern for Israel's indigenous Arab population; it is tragic that by gross mismanagement of funds intended for humanitarian aid, the 'Palestinian' leadership shows such disregard for the welfare of its own people. Deaths are the symptom but the disease is terrorism. The Institute for Counter-Terrorism publishes authoritative, verified data with informed analysis and interpretation: anecdotal submissions will simply not do for the BMJ. Similarly, the BMJ should not be the forum for ill-informed bias to be peddled in the guise of medical review. Do what you set out to, BMJ, and do it well. Do otherwise and you will discard credibility and earn disgust. Competing interests: None declared ** Date submitted: 18 Oct 2004 01:38 ----------------------------------------------------------------- " WHEN SCIENCE IS BIASIED" ----------------------------------------------------------------- AS A PHYSICIAN, I KNOW THE IMPORTANCE OF EVALUATING FACTS; AND NOT PLACING MY PERSONNEL FEELING FIRST AND ADJUSTING THE FACTS TO MATCH THEM. THE ARTICLE ABOUT MEDICINE IN PALESTINE IS INACCURATE AND NOT BASED ON FACTS. EXAMPLES: 1.THE MAJORITY OF THE CAUSALITIES WERE ARMED TERRORIST AND COMBANTANT—BUT YOU LIST THEM AS ALL UNARMED 2. THE FACT THAT SOME CHILDREN SUFFERED OR DIED FROM CHEST AND HEAD WOUNDS IS A SHAME--BUT THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT SOLDIERS WERE AUTHORIZED TO DO SO. AND WERE THE CHILDREN THAT WE SEE ON THE NEWS THROWING ROCK, MOLOTOV COCKTAILS AND OTHER OBJECTS AT SOLIDIERS? 3. THERE WAS NO MENTION OF THE ISRAELI CHILDREN BLOWN TO PIECES WHILE THEY ATE PIZZA, KILLED FROM ROCKETS LANDING ON THEM OR SHOT IN THEIR BEDS. AND NO MENTION THAT THE KILLING OF ISRAELIS HAS BEEN DONE WITH IMPUNITY FROM THE PALESTIAN GOVERNMENT OR PRESS. DR. SUMMERFIELD HAS THE RIGHT TO HIS OPINION, BUT ON THE OP-ED PAGES AND NOT IN AN HONOURED MEDICAL JOURNAL. THANK YOU Competing interests: None declared ** Date submitted: 18 Oct 2004 02:02 ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Common sense?" ----------------------------------------------------------------- In the world of the blind, the one eyed man is king 1st Why is a respected medical journal publishing political nonsense? 2nd Why doesn't Derek send his personal views to people of the same intelligence as himself (who care not for fact nor balance)? 3rd If someone attacks you and your family do you stand by and wait, for the police, for example to help? Thought not. So why is Israel expected to wait for the highly effective UN (G-d help them) to stand tall? I have no political views, or care to read of any, that warrant a mention in the BMJ. Please sort this out. Competing interests: Common Sense ** Date submitted: 18 Oct 2004 03:16 ----------------------------------------------------------------- " Reality and Responsibility" ----------------------------------------------------------------- In reading the diatribe by Dr. Summerfield regarding "Palestine," I realized that for a journal of objective science this suggests that your publication is neither. The figures quoted regarding the loss of life are a gross exaggeration when compared to the loss of life on Sept 11. The lack of balance is also almost to the degree of humour if it was not truly such a horror. The fact that the terrorists specifically target the civilian population and like the cowards that they are, they then hide among their own civilian population demonstrate what they are, repugnant excuses for humans. The fact that their children are encouraged to participate in becoming suicide victims or human shields and that Dr. Summerfield seems to accept this, to me appears to support that Dr. Summerfield is himself guilty of racism in the worse manner. He clearly feels that these people are not good enough for any reasonable form of freedom and self determination and should only serve as cannon fodder for their terrorist brethren. The publication of such racism is unworthy of any publication, especially one such as yours with a formerly great international following. Competing interests: None declared ** Date submitted: 18 Oct 2004 03:29 ----------------------------------------------------------------- " Why concentrate on Middle East politics?" ----------------------------------------------------------------- The editorial body of the BMJ should call now for manuscripts of political nature from other areas of conflicts in the rest of the world. Why single out only Israel ?It stinks and the odour reminds us of the