John Dugard is a South African law professor and special rapporteur for the United Nations on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories. In October 2007 in “Bridges” he published a WHO-sponsored essay which contained serious falsehoods, distortions and omissions.

Last December the director of the WHO Jerusalem office, precirculated to an open meeting in East Jerusalem on the Health Problems of Gaza a resolution that petitioned the Israeli government to stop the siege of Gaza, permit shipments of humanitarian relief aid to Gaza and ease the barriers to Gazans seeking medical relief in Israel.

This resolution ignored

1. Hamas’ genocidal attacks on Sederot,
2. the fact that Gaza was receiving humanitarian aid–indeed several days later, a truck carrying such aid was found to be containing ammunition for Hamas,
3. Hamas’ genocidal incitement and
4. if anything, the IDF was giving ever more permits for medical aid to Israel–as WHO data itself verified.

The Dugard essay in the October issue of “Bridges,” and the resolution which was proposed at the WHO-Bridges open December meeting, along with the statement by the WHO spokeperson in Geneva, appear to have been orchestrated to serve as the basis for a UN resolution.

Please find below the letter to “Bridges” concerning Dugard’s distortions by Professors Ted Tulchinsky, Elihu D. Richter and Ronny Starkshall. Concerning the distortions on the situation in Gaza please see also Prof. Richter’s recent article on “RICHARD HORTON’S 2007 VISIT TO GAZA AND ISRAEL: A FOOL’S JOURNEY “

6 February 2008

To: Dr Hani Abdeen
Editor Bridges-WHO
Jerusalem bridges@who-health.org

Dear Prof Abdeen

We are writing to strongly object to the unbalanced and erroneous remarks of Professor John Dugard, first in the interview in the Bridges issue on Health and Human Rights (Sept.-Oct., 2007), and now, in expanded and more inflammatory form on the WHO Geneva website in the past week. Our basic concern is his ignoring the principle that the right to life and security is the most fundamental of all human rights, for all, not only for some groups.

Professor Dugard addresses Palestinian rights issues but fails to address the fundamental rights of Israelis to be free from terrorist rocket and suicide bomber attacks by the Hamas Government and terror organizations aimed at population centers, notably Sderot, with the specific intention of killing and injuring civilians. Terror attacks directed against a civilian population fall within the definition of genocide by the UN Convention on Genocide.

Further, Dugard ignores Palestinian Authority sponsored hate language and incitement, including material directed specifically to children on the official Palestinian TV as well as in official educational material, which is itself a violation of the International Criminal Code (Rome Statute), and UNESCO provisions against child abuse. Dugard expresses no concern over denial of international visitation by the Red Cross, notably for Private Gilad Shalit who has been held prisoner totally incommunicado by Hamas more than 500 days.

Prof Dugard misrepresents and wildly distorts the situation concerning medical referrals to Israel, as he did in his report to the Health and Fifty-Eighth Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights of 18 March 2002. WHO figures shows that permissions and referrals to Israeli specialty medical services, increased by 45% from 4,934 in 2006 to 7,176 in 2007, with approval rates of some 82% of all requests during 2007. Recent difficulties with approvals are being addressed by improved communication at Erez junction and by the local WHO office in good will meetings with the Israel Defence Forces Coordinators Office.

Our support for Bridges presupposes that this journal is dedicated to promotion of peace, understanding, and professional cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis in keeping with elementary norms of truth and decency. A sustainable and just peace must be based on concern for the rights of all to life, security, health and dignity. We remain committed to work to promote peace through professional and humane collaboration despite the distorted statements of Professor Dugard. We feel it our duty to underscore the principle that we are committed to spromote and protetction of human rights and health for all in our troubled region.

Sincerely

Ted Tulchinsky MD MPH
Elihu D Richter MD MPH
Ronny Starkshall PhD

Braun School of Public Health, Hebrew University-Hadassah, Ein Karem, Jerusalem
cc. Amnesty Intl, Human Rights Watch, HU Law Faculty Minerva Center for Human Rights

*****

Referrals and Permits to Enter Israel for Medical Care, Gaza, 2006-07
Month	No of patients applied for permits 2006	No of patients were given permits 2006	Proportion of patients were given permits 2006	No of patients applied for permits 2007	No of patients were given permits 2007	Proportion of patients were given permits 2007
January	741	719	97.0%	506	452	89.3%
February	769	716	93.1%	595	540	90.8%
March	562	485	86.3%	681	607	89.1%
April	274	209	76.3%	515	460	89.3%
May	453	404	89.2%	737	665	90.2%
June	474	400	84.4%	412	368	89.3%
July	185	171	92.4%	859	765	89.1%
August	293	267	91.1%	985	787	79.9%
September	438	402	91.8%	715	591	82.7%
October	380	345	90.8%	1103	850	77.1%
November	509	455	89.4%	654	422	64.5%
December	392	359	91.6%	1,041	669	64.3%
Total	5,470	4,932	90.2%	8,803	7,176	81.5%
Source: WHO, Jerusalem Office 2008