600 DOCTORS SIGN PETITION DEMANDING MEDICAL JOURNAL THE LANCET RETRACT DISHONEST ANTI-ISRAEL PROPAGANDA - The signatories include NOBEL PRIZE laureates - MEDIA MALPRACTICE - For many years The Lancet has been notorious for using its influence to campaign against Israel using unprofessionally biased methods.

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Key points

• 600 doctors sign petition demanding The Lancet address unprofessional anti-Israel bias.
• The Concerned Academics petition includes several Nobel Prize winners.
• They accuse editor Richard Horton and publisher Reed Elsevier of  irresponsibly misusing The Lancet for their own anti-Israel political purposes.
• Signatories say anti-Israel articles published by The Lancet have been factually wrong and defamatory.
• The Lancet has published articles on Gaza with "vicious inflammatory falsehoods" against Israel, while ignoring terrorist aggression against civilians by Hamas.
• Authors of one article were discovered to have promoted an anti-Semitic video by white supremacist David Duke. 
• One of the authors wrote that Jews were responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing.
• Another writer for The Lancet worked in a Gaza hospital that was a hideout for Hamas terrorists.
• The Lancet has a record of many years as an openly anti-Israel medical journal. 

Richard Horton, Lancet
Editor - Photo Forbes Magazine

By Ari Yashar


Leading doctors from around the world have signed onto a petition against the British medical journal The Lancet, demanding that it address an unprofessional bias against Israel shown by the journal in numerous publications.

 

The petition by "Concerned Academics" was signed by 600 signatories, including world-famous doctors and medical professionals from all corners of the globe. It also includes no less than five Nobel laureates.

 

Medical professionals wishing to add their signature to the list can find it here.

 

In the petition letter, the doctors accused editor Richard Horton and publisher Reed Elsevier over their "grossly irresponsible and damaging editorial misuse of The Lancet for political purposes."

 

Continue reading, including article with The Lancet's editor 's apologies to Israel.

They referenced the "Open Letter for the People in Gaza" published in the paper last July. The letter accused Israel of "military onslaught on civilians in Gaza under the guise of punishing terrorists," while failing to mention Hamas's various terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians.

 

The letter particularly raised an outcry after two of the primary authors - Dr. Swee Ang Chai and Dr. Paola Manduca - were discovered to have promoted an anti-Semitic video by white supremacist David Duke.

The petition stated that the letter "consists of numerous vicious and deliberately inflammatory falsehoods, omissions and abusive dishonesty, which have no place in any responsible publication."

 

Signatories demanded that Horton and Elsevier "should comprehensively retract the article and formally apologize for their grave breach of editorial ethics."

 

"It is inconceivable that such stereotypical extremist hate propaganda, under the selective and hypocritical disguise of medical concern, should remain available on the pages of any reputable journal," the petition read.

 

The British Independent wrote of the petition: "Observers say it is the most serious threat to The Lancet and free speech in academia since the journal’s first campaigning editor, Thomas Wakley, faced a series of lawsuits after attacking the incompetence, nepotism and greed of the medical elite shortly after it was founded 192 years ago."

 

Honest Reporting responded to the claim that the petition is a threat to "free speech," commenting, "apparently, 'free speech' is only for those who want to criticize Israel, even with false statements. And those who challenge those falsehoods in an open and public statement are somehow threatening the free speech of others."

 

The Lancet's editor Horton visited Israel last October in an attempt to patch up some of the fall out caused by the letter published in his journal - however, he did not retract the publication.

 

Dr. Mads Gilbert, another primary author of the "Open Letter" who frequently appears in The Lancet, has made comments justifying the September 11, 2001 attacks. During the war last summer he was in the Shifa Hospital in Gaza used as a hideout by top Hamas terrorists.

 

In addition, The Lancet published an article by Dr. Swee Ang in February of 2009 titled "The Wounds of Gaza," replete with factual errors and defamatory accusations against Israel, such as "deliberate targeting of unarmed children." It was only taken down after 28 days.

Source
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/194583#.VT0b15tFCM8

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RELATED

 

 

Lancet editor apologises for Gaza article by scientists who circulated anti-Semitic video

 

Prof Richard Horton expresses 'deep regret' to Israeli doctors over journal's 'Open letter for the people of Gaza'

THE TELEGRAPH  -  October 3, 2014  -  The editor of The Lancet has expressed his “deep regret” to Israeli doctors after his journal published a controversial letter in the wake of the Gaza war co-authored by two scientists who had previously circulated anti-Semitic material.

 

Addressing the physicians and staff at the Rambam hospital in the northern city of Haifa, Israel on Thursday morning at the end of his three-day visit to the country, Prof Richard Horton began by saying that he intended to “set the record straight” about his views and those of his colleagues.

 

Last month, The Telegraph published an article about the extreme opinions expressed by some of the authors of the British medical journal's ‘Open letter for the people of Gaza’.

 

Two of the authors - Dr Paola Manduca and Dr Swee Ang - had previously circulated and promoted a link to a video clip featuring an anti-Semitic diatribe by David Duke, a white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard.

 

In the footage, Duke claims that “the Zionist Matrix of Power controls Media, Politics and Banking” and that “some of the Jewish elite practices racism and tribalism to advance their supremacist agenda”

 

In another email to his contacts, Dr Manduca forwarded a message suggesting that the Jews were responsible for the Boston marathon bombings.

 

“Let us hope that someone in the FBI us smart enough to look more carefully at the clues in Boston and find the real culprits behind these bombings instead of buying the Zionist spin”, the email stated.

 

“First, I deeply deeply regret the completely unnecessary polarisation that publication of the letter by Paolo Manduca did. [ ....] this outcome was definitely not my intention”, Prof Horton said.

 

“I was personally horrified at the offensive video by two of the authors of that letter. The world view expressed in that video is abhorrent and must be condemned and I condemn it”, he added, to the applause of the auditorium.

 

Prof Horton, who is editor-in-chief of The Lancet, added that he has made his views very clear “directly to those two individuals” - and said that he will publish “what I have just said in The Lancet next week”.

 

But Prof Horton made no mention of the other controversial aspect of The Lancet’s open letter, which wholly ignored Hamas’s role in the recent Gaza war - a fifty day conflict which was partly triggered by rocket fire on Israel from the coastal territory controlled by the Palestinian faction.

 

Following the publication of the letter, the staff of Rambam hospital were outraged and sent their own letter in response, which was not published by The Lancet, Prof Rafael Beyar, the Director General of the hospital told The Telegraph in an interview on Thursday morning.

 

“But we believed, and said ‘let’s invite him. It seems like he doesn’t know many facts about this region. Let’s invite the editor in chief of The Lancet to Rambam to see the reality of medical life [in Israel]”, Prof Beyar said.

 

During his three day visit, Prof Horton has met the staff of the hospital, over a quarter of whom are Israeli Arab citizens of Israel, as well as the Israeli, Palestinian and Syrian patients being treated there. Prof Horton also attended meetings with minority communities in Haifa, Acco and Tel Aviv.

 

Enthusiastically logging his visit with photos on his twitter feed, Prof Horton mentioned in his speech that he was particularly moved by a meeting with the imam and the rabbi of the city of Acco, in northern Israel.

 

“Yesterday, I had the huge privilege of visiting Acco, and meeting the imam and the rabbi of the city and seeing how they work together”, he said.

 

“At end, I asked the imam, ‘so what should I do?’ And he said to me very directly [...] you must work with Israelis, you must work with Palestinians and you must work to encourage to bring those two peoples together.” [...]

 

“I will simply say the whole of my time, from landing here to being here today has been a turning point, for me in my relationship with this region - and I thank you for it”, said Prof Horton to the medics.

 

Prof Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor - a Jerusalem-based research institute - which last month published an investigative report about The Lancet’s authors, expressed surprise at Prof Horton’s speech.

 

“I expected when Richard Horton came on Monday to hear a whitewash - to hear from someone trying to save his position, because for many years he has been the centre of a lot of demonisation of Israel through the Lancet and through false medical claims”, he told The Telegraph immediately after the lecture.

 

“What I heard was a changed man, someone who expressed regret - some would say it could have been greater, but the fact that he did this was very important.”

 

At the conclusion of his visit, Prof Horton said he hoped to “open a new chapter” in the relationship between The Lancet and Israel, whilst emphasising the importance of closer Israeli-Palestinian ties and understandings.

 

“The people of Gaza[...] don’t represent a terrorist regime. [...] [T]hey are just people who are trying to live their lives as peacefully and as safely as possible. Just like you, there is a hope for a different future - a future of success, prosperity, safety and peace. They want it, they try to live it, and it’s our hope that we can work with them, and with you, to achieve it”.

 

Source

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11137943/Lancet-editor-apologises-for-Gaza-article-by-scientists-who-circulated-anti-Semitic-video.html

 

 

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GAZA HOSPITAL

THE MEDIA LATER ADMITTED HAMAS WAS LAUNCHING ROCKETS FROM HOSPITALS, SCHOOLS, AND PRIVATE HOMES WITH WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THEM.

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The Lancet's anti-Semitic campaign goes way back.  Here is an article from 2012

 

 

The Lancet -

A Biased and Shameful Medical Journal

 

 

ALGEMEINER - The Lancet hosted a conference on Gaza health issues in 2012 that included participants who are vociferous anti-Israel campaigners.  

 

The agenda was completely biased, ignoring any positive issues where Israel contributes to the health of Palestinians.

 

This article quotes some of The Lancet's editor Richard Horton's tweets:

 

They can be found on twitter at: @richardhorton1

• “800 000 Palestinians have been imprisoned on political grounds since 1967. Often on no charge and with no trial. And this is justice?”
• “The Palestinian cry: ‘We want our country.’ For those of us who take our nations for granted, how can we be silent when we hear this plea?”

Some of the “peers” participating in the conference included:

• Rema Afifi: Signatory to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to Choir of Clare College, Cambridge urging it to reconsider performing in Israel.
• Majdi Ashour: A supporter of the Third Annual Palestine Solidarity and Divestment Conference at Rutgers, and a signatory to a petition which spoke of the Palestinian fight “against apartheid all over historic Palestine occupied in 1948″ and “ethnic supremacy and pursuit of purity” being carried out by Israel.

Read more

http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/03/11/the-lancet-a-biased-and-shameful-medical-journal/

 

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11385#.VT0pdJtFCM8

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LATEST NGO MONITOR'S ARTICLE

April 28, 2015

The Lancet, Richard Horton, and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Political War Intensifies

A counter group, Hands off The Lancet, launched a media campaign to vilify Pepys and Horton’s other critics. This self-serving group includes two authors of the “Open Letter,” -- Sir Ian Chalmers and Dr. Mads Gilbert.  They have previously been linked to promoting antisemitic rhetoric and expressing support for the September 11 terrorist attacks, respectively.

These issues are highlighted by the close cooperation between The Lancet and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a UK-based NGO that also exploits false medical claims to demonize Israel, as documented by NGO Monitor research. Horton, Chalmers, and other allies in “Hands off The Lancet” are very active in MAP activities. 

The Lancet has published numerous “papers” authored by MAP activists, and Dr. Swee Ang Chai is MAP’s founder. (MAP has failed to respond to Swee Ang’s promotion of antisemitism and racism.)

The campaign to vilify top medical professionals seeks to silence criticism of The Lancet for exploiting its academic authority and prestige, providing a scientific veneer to politicized NGO claims, and stripping away a complex political context. This professionalism failure has repeatedly led to factual errors and legal distortions unconnected to medicine or science.
Read more and see links to previous NGO Monitor articles on the subject.
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/the_lancet_richard_horton_and_the_israeli_palestinian_conflict_the_political_war_intensifies

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ISRAELI DOCTORS TREATING THE SAME GAZANS

THAT WERE TRYING TO KILL JEWS

INJURED GAZANS BEING TREATED AT

ISRAELI HOSPITAL DURING THE 2014 GAZA WAR

Doctors and aid agencies are trying to capitalize on a truce in Gaza to evacuate more wounded Palestinians for life-saving medical treatment in Israel and Jordan.

 

More than 9,500 Palestinians were wounded during four weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.  

 

Ninety of some of the most serious cases have been evacuated through the Erez border crossing since the conflict began, according to Guy Inbar, spokesman for COGAT which is part of the Israeli defence ministry.

 

He said the wounded had been sent to Israel and Jordan from an Israeli field hospital at Erez.  

 

Medics and the Red Crescent told AFP that two patients were sent to the Arab Israeli town of Nazareth and dozens of others to three hospitals in Jerusalem.

Read more
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183819#.VT0uG5tFCM8

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The Lancet published study that blamed Palestinian violence against women - on Israel

Here is the abstract:

Background

Intimate-partner violence might increase during and after exposure to collective violence. We assessed whether political violence was associated with male-to-female intimate-partner violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Methods

A nationally representative, cross-sectional survey was done between Dec 18, 2005, and Jan 18, 2006, by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. 4156 households were randomly selected with a multistage random cluster design, from which 3815 ever-married women aged 15—64 years were identified. We restricted our analysis to presently married women (n=3510, 92% participation rate), who completed a short version of the revised conflict tactics scales and exposure to political violence inventory. Exposure to political violence was characterised as the husband's direct exposure, his indirect exposure via his family's experiences, and economic effects of exposure on the household. We used adjusted multinomial logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios (ORs) for association between political violence and intimate-partner violence.

Findings

Political violence was significantly related to higher odds of intimate-partner violence. ORs were 1·89 (95% CI 1·29—2·76) for physical and 2·23 (1·49—3·35) for sexual intimate-partner violence in respondents whose husbands were directly exposed to political violence compared with those whose husbands were not directly exposed. For women whose husbands were indirectly exposed, ORs were 1·61 (1·25—2·07) for physical and 1·97 (1·49—2—60) for sexual violence, compared with those whose husbands were not indirectly exposed. Economic effects of exposure were associated with increased odds of intimate-partner violence in the Gaza Strip only.

Interpretation

Because exposure to political violence is associated with increased odds of intimate-partner violence, and exposure to many traumas is associated with poor health, a range of violent exposures should be assessed when establishing the need for psychosocial interventions in conflict settings.

Funding

Palestinian National Authority, Core Funding Group, Program in Health Disparities Research at the University of Minnesota.

So the study, meant to demonize Israel, was partially funded by the Palestinian National Authority - and the samples were chosen by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, which is paid by the same Palestinian National Authority.
Anyone see a problem here?
 
The two footnotes that supposedly talk about how frequently Arabs are humiliated are a bit suspect. Footnote 32 refers to this book that has no chapters on humilation. Footnote 34 refers to a study of 10th and 11th grade students in Ramallah by Bir Zeit University that may mention the frequency of "humilation" among that sample but whose purpose was not to measure that number.

There is a more fundamental problem with the very way that the study was framed. It looks at "exposure to political violence" as a purely passive phenomenon. The Palestinian Arab men are judged, a priori, as being innocent victims of Israeli violence, who had done nothing on their own.

The 1% of the sample who were "made a fugitive" or the 2% who were "detained" are assumed to be exactly the same psychological makeup as those who are more indirectly affected by Israeli policies.

In fact, those who are directly exposed to such "political violence" are the ones who are much more likely to be the ones who cause political violence, i.e., members of terror groups.

It is not surprising that people who are more violent towards Israelis would also be more likely to be violent towards their wives. Yet the study didn't even consider this very obvious observation!

In other words, this study is worse than worthless. It obscures more than it reveals and it unintentionally shows how a pre-existing bias can, and does, skew science and statistics.

It is a case study in poor research techniques. It proves that social scientists can easily find the answer that they are predisposed to find, rather than seek the truth.
Source
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.ca/2010/01/stupid-science-by-lancet.html#.VT91gMpFCM9

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Increased Palestinian violence against women.  The facts:

PALESTINIAN VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IS RAMPANT AND RISING - IT IS PART OF OUR CULTURE says Palestinian expert - 
Palestinian men regard women as property, and most Palestinian women say domestic violence is justified - 
QUOTES FROM THE KORAN and the Hadith sanctioning violence against women - The lives of Palestinian women

Key points:

• Palestinian culture gives men ownership over their wives
• Most Palestinian women agree with the notion that men have a right to use violence against women.
• Gaza leads in the severity and frequency of male violence against women.
• There has been a 100% rise in honor killings in the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, according to their own statistics.
• Many of those "honor killings" are perpetrated for financial reasons. (See extended report further on this page.)
• Mahmoud Abbas, chief of the PA, has failed to amend the law that authorizes men to kill their women if it's done in a state of "great anger".
• Some Palestinian women and men activists are vocal in their denunciation of this violence and the law that sanctions it. 
• But Palestinian criticism of violence against women may have more to do with concern with the Palestinians' image abroad than with genuine opposition to the practice. 
• Much of the push for statehood is based on a carefully crafted public relations campaign portraying Palestinians as close to sainthood and deserving an independent state.
• There have been attempts to blame the Israeli "occupation" for such violence, but the practice of honor killings is widespread all over the Muslim world, and it even happens among Muslims living in the West.
• What is not always mentioned is that violence against women is sanctioned and encouraged by Islam's sacred texts such as the Koran and the Hadith. (See quotes below.)  Men who beat up or kill women think they are being good Muslims.
• The rise in violence against women among Palestinians reflect a general shift towards increased orthodoxy among Muslims all over the world.
• Rape coverup - A whistleblower exposed how pro-Palestinian peace organizations cover up cases of rape of pro-Palestinian Western activists by Palestinian men. (See article on this page.)
• UPDATE April 7 - Palestinians' image problem:  mothers happy when their children die in acts of terror.  (Read article further below.)

Read entire article, including quotes from the Koran about the treatment of women: 
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2015/04/palestinian-violence-against-women-is.html

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MEDIA MALPRACTICE IN THE COVERAGE OF ISRAEL as exposed by former AP correspondent Matti Friedman

• The international press in Israel had become less an observer of the conflict than a player in it. It had moved away from careful explanation and toward a kind of political character assassination
• Israel’s flaws were dissected and magnified, while the flaws of its enemies were purposely erased
• Something toxic is driving this –  ” Jews are troublemakers, a negative force in world events, and that if these people, as a collective, could somehow be made to vanish, we would all be better off”.
• People observing this conflict from afar have been led to believe that Israel faces a simple choice between occupation and peace. That choice is fiction.
• The Palestinian choice, it is said, is between Israeli occupation and an independent democracy. That choice, too, is fiction.

 Read more:
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2015/01/media-malpractice-in-coverage-of-israel.html

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More Media Malpractice

 

 August 2014:FORMER AP CORRESPONDENT IN ISRAEL DENOUNCES THE MEDIA FOR DELIBERATELY HIDING FACTS AND TURNING COVERAGE INTO A WEAPON against Israel and the Jews - The politically-motivated mainstream media is engaged in propaganda and incitement that borders on the criminal - Media malpractice in Gaza
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/08/former-ap-correspondent-in-israel.html


THE MEDIA INTIFADA
How the media not only fails to inform the truth about Gaza and Israel, but takes sides and inflames anti-Israel sentiment - FORBES MAGAZINE denounces the New York Times
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/08/the-media-intifada-how-media-not-only.html


GAZA TERRORISTS' GUIDELINES FOR MANIPULATION OF MEDIA REPORTING - What words to use to make Hamas look good - Always call Gaza casualties "innocent civilians," even when they are jihadis
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/07/gaza-terrorists-guidelines-for.html


TERRORIST HAMAS THREATENING JOURNALISTS WHO EXPOSE ABUSE OF CIVILIANS IN GAZA - Reporters have capitulated to Hamas harassment
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/07/terrorist-hamas-threatening-journalists.html


PALESTINIAN OFFICIAL ADMITS HAMAS INTIMIDATES JOURNALISTS INTO REPORTING ONLY THE HAMAS MESSAGE - Foreign Press Association issues strong condemnation of Hamas tactics of intimidation and interference
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/08/palestinian-official-admits-hamas.html

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The pro-Palestinian terror and anti-Semitic agenda of Western progressives

 

Photo from an actual Hamas press conference

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/

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