Prof. and Director of the Program on Conflict Management
Bar Ilan University, Israel
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Re: BMJ: Summerfield’s fictions and agenda of hatred
Editors, Derek Summerfield’s article consists of numerous fictitious claims designed to exploit medical and health norms to justify hatred and genocidal violence, while denying Israel the right to self-defense. His narrative erases decades of Palestinian and Arab violence against Israel, and the rejection of Israel’s right to exist, as embodied in UNGAR 181 (November 29 1947), UNSCR 242, etc. The absence of any reference to Palestinian terrorism that destroyed hopes for peace and killed over 1000 Israelis is clear evidence of the author’s blatant bias and abuse of data in support of his personal ideology. While citing a single and uncorroborated statement by Amnesty International, Summerfield ignores this and other organization’s numerous condemnations of Palestinian terror. Similarly, there is no credibility in the purported evidence provided by Jean Ziegler, the UN special rapporteur whose anti-Israel bias is carefully documented by UN Watch ( http://www.unwatch.org/speeches/ZieglerFocus.html), and in PHR-I’s reports that are designed to support a clearly political agenda (www.ngo- monitor.org). Summerfield’s analysis fails to mention the data demonstrating that the combination of Israeli defensive measures, including the separation barrier, have saved many lives. The cause of peace is not served by such crude propaganda, and the decision by the editors of BMJ to publish this is grossly immoral. If this diatribe had been subjected to scientific review, it would have been instantly rejected.
Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg Director, Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation Political Studies, Bar Ilan University Ramat Gan, Israel gerald.steinberg@gmail.com
Competing interests: Human being opposed to Palestintian terror