Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes
http://www.100md.com
《英国医生杂志》
EDITOR—The personal view by Summerfield generated considerable correspondence.1 2 However, it has not addressed the concluding analogy of the Israeli situation with that which led to suspension of the Medical Association of South Africa (MASA) from the World Medical Association (WMA). Summerfield implies that since the boycott of South African medicine helped in the fall of apartheid, a boycott of Israeli medicine should be the objective.
The issues surrounding the MASA suspension are well known and have been revisited recently.3 The complicity of the medical profession was explicit, and "apartheid medicine" itself was not "in the dock." There may be errors of judgment in Israel, but surely not in the same league?
BMJ readers may not know what apartheid medicine entailed. I am South African born and benefited from medical education within apartheid, so maybe I should be embarrassed? Leave aside maldistribution of healthcare, malnutrition, neo-Nazi pseudogenetic race classification, and racially separate wards in teaching hospitals. Take Professor Ralph Hendrickse's testimony about autopsy, where "black" students could not view a "white" body. Only one pathologist refused to cooperate.4
It is easy to find demographic statistics and to observe comparative care in Israeli hospitals. It is not organised on such apartheid lines. Benjamin Pogrund, an anti-apartheid journalist, today works in Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. He counters the libellous equation of Israeli medicine with apartheid medicine by personal testimony of treatment in a mixed Israeli-Palestinian environment—patients, doctors, and paramedical staff—belying the conflict outside.5
My personal view is from April 2002, Passover, the time of Seder bombs, and of Jenin, in a Haifa hospital, caring for elderly relatives before and after a suicide bombing. The hospital became a frontline casualty centre. There was no difference. Shared wards, communal facilities, doctors, carers, visitors—a community where sick family members took priority, as they should.
This is not to deny inequalities of health in Israel and health problems created by war. If, however, you do not differentiate this from apartheid medicine, are you undermining not only the legitimacy of Israeli medicine, but also of Israel itself?
So I can live with being one of Summerfield's "morally corrupt" people who sense antisemitism. It is more difficult to live with this corruption of the columns of the BMJ.
David Katz, professor
University College London, London WC1E 6BT d.katz@ucl.ac.uk
Competing interests: DK writes in a personal capacity. He holds dual British-Israeli nationality, is a member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews; chairs the British Israel Medical Association fellowship; and has represented the Office of the Chief Rabbi on Jewish medical ethical issues. He was involved in student anti-apartheid protest and was chairman of the Association of Medical Students of South Africa in the 1960s.
References
Summerfield D. Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes. BMJ 2004;329: 924. (16 October.)
Correspondence. Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes. BMJ 2004;329: 1101-2. (6 November.)
Jenkins T, McLean GR. The Steve Biko affair. Lancet 2004;364: S36-7.
Hendrickse R. Address on receiving honorary degree of DSc (Medicine). UCT News 1998;25(1 Dec): 48.
Pogrund B. Jerusalem. Something to write about. Johannesburg: Jacana, 2004: 251.
The issues surrounding the MASA suspension are well known and have been revisited recently.3 The complicity of the medical profession was explicit, and "apartheid medicine" itself was not "in the dock." There may be errors of judgment in Israel, but surely not in the same league?
BMJ readers may not know what apartheid medicine entailed. I am South African born and benefited from medical education within apartheid, so maybe I should be embarrassed? Leave aside maldistribution of healthcare, malnutrition, neo-Nazi pseudogenetic race classification, and racially separate wards in teaching hospitals. Take Professor Ralph Hendrickse's testimony about autopsy, where "black" students could not view a "white" body. Only one pathologist refused to cooperate.4
It is easy to find demographic statistics and to observe comparative care in Israeli hospitals. It is not organised on such apartheid lines. Benjamin Pogrund, an anti-apartheid journalist, today works in Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. He counters the libellous equation of Israeli medicine with apartheid medicine by personal testimony of treatment in a mixed Israeli-Palestinian environment—patients, doctors, and paramedical staff—belying the conflict outside.5
My personal view is from April 2002, Passover, the time of Seder bombs, and of Jenin, in a Haifa hospital, caring for elderly relatives before and after a suicide bombing. The hospital became a frontline casualty centre. There was no difference. Shared wards, communal facilities, doctors, carers, visitors—a community where sick family members took priority, as they should.
This is not to deny inequalities of health in Israel and health problems created by war. If, however, you do not differentiate this from apartheid medicine, are you undermining not only the legitimacy of Israeli medicine, but also of Israel itself?
So I can live with being one of Summerfield's "morally corrupt" people who sense antisemitism. It is more difficult to live with this corruption of the columns of the BMJ.
David Katz, professor
University College London, London WC1E 6BT d.katz@ucl.ac.uk
Competing interests: DK writes in a personal capacity. He holds dual British-Israeli nationality, is a member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews; chairs the British Israel Medical Association fellowship; and has represented the Office of the Chief Rabbi on Jewish medical ethical issues. He was involved in student anti-apartheid protest and was chairman of the Association of Medical Students of South Africa in the 1960s.
References
Summerfield D. Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes. BMJ 2004;329: 924. (16 October.)
Correspondence. Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes. BMJ 2004;329: 1101-2. (6 November.)
Jenkins T, McLean GR. The Steve Biko affair. Lancet 2004;364: S36-7.
Hendrickse R. Address on receiving honorary degree of DSc (Medicine). UCT News 1998;25(1 Dec): 48.
Pogrund B. Jerusalem. Something to write about. Johannesburg: Jacana, 2004: 251.