BMJ: Summerfield’s fictions and agenda of hatred

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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

BMJ: Summerfield’s fictions and agenda of hatred

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AUTHOR

Gerald M. Steinberg

Prof. Gerald Steinberg is president of NGO Monitor and professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University, where he founded the Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation. His research interests include international relations, Middle East diplomacy and security, the politics of human rights and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Israeli politics and arms control.

NGO Monitor was founded following the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban South Africa, where powerful NGOs, claiming to promote human rights, hijacked the principles of morality and international law.  NGO Monitor provides information and analysis, promotes accountability, and supports discussion on the reports and activities of NGOs claiming to advance human rights and humanitarian agendas.

In 2013, Professor Steinberg accepted the prestigious Menachem Begin Prize on behalf of NGO Monitor, recognizing its “Efforts exposing the political agenda and ideological basis of humanitarian organizations that use the Discourse of human rights to discredit Israel and to undermine its position among the nations of the world.”

Steinberg is a member of Israel Council of Foreign Affairs; the Israel Higher-Education Council, Committee on Public Policy; advisory board of the Israel Law Review International, the research working group of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), and participates in the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism (ICCA). He also speaks at a variety of high-level government sessions and academic conferences worldwide.

Publications include “NGOs, Human Rights, and Political Warfare in the Arab-Israel Conflict" (Israel Studies); "The UN, the ICJ and the Separation Barrier: War by Other Means" (Israel Law Review); and Best Practices for Human Rights and Humanitarian NGO Fact-Finding (co-author), Nijhoff, Leiden, 2012.

His op-ed columns have been published in Wall St. Journal (Europe), Financial Times, Ha’aretz,International Herald Tribune, Jerusalem Post, and other publications. He has appeared as a commentator on the BBC, CBC, CNN, and NPR.


Read all stories by Gerald M. Steinberg