Israel Skewered by Medical Journal

The Lancet publishes a multi-article series on Palestinian health written by Israel boycotters that goes way beyond accepted medical norms.


Honest Reporting
Media Critique
14 July '10

The history of politicization of science for political ends is long, and sadly, destructive.

As HonestReporting has previously highlighted, formerly credible medical media outlets such as the British Medical Journal have drifted away from scientific exploration to scientific exploitation, particularly when concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Lancet describes itself as "one of the world's leading medical journals" and claims an online registration of some 1.8 million users. On July 2, 2010, it published the "best peer-reviewed abstracts" from a meeting of the 2nd Lancet-Palestinian Health Alliance Conference.

A cornerstone of most peer-reviewed journals is freedom from bias. No conference or article today can be promoted or published without a clear declaration of conflict of interest by its authors or promoters. No such declarations are published in The Lancet series.

A medical background is no guarantee of objectivity or lack of bias when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After all, some of the Hamas leadership such as Mahmoud al-Zahar and the late Abdel Aziz Rantisi were medical professionals, while the Marxist Dr. Mads Gilbert pumped out propaganda from Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.

Some research into the background of a number of contributors to The Lancet's articles reveals some disturbing information and calls into question the credibility of the content, particularly as most of those below are active supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

(Read full critique)

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