Immunizing Science Against Bigotry
Beleaguered Israeli doctors now have to fend off mindless attacks from their scientific colleagues, particularly in Europe.
It's bad enough that Israeli
doctors are spending their lives in emergency rooms treating Jewish and
Arab victims of suicide bombers. What really makes them heartsick these
days, however, is that they also have to fend off mindless attacks
from their scientific colleagues, particularly in Europe.
That was the most
gut-wrenching impression I returned with after a recent trip to Israel
along with 70 other senior physicians from across America. We had gone
to bolster the spirits of our Israeli colleagues, exhausted and
bewildered
from two years of the relentless experience of treating victims of
terror.
We arrived at Hadassah
Hospital in Jerusalem, where some 2,000 victims have been treated, less
than 24 hours after a particularly horrific bus bombing in Jerusalem.
Hours earlier, teams of Jewish-Arab doctors had done what they've done
for the past two years: jumped into action to save the lives of the
critically injured.
On Israeli television the
night before, the father of the homicidal bomber bragged that he was
proud of his son who had attacked a busload of schoolchildren and senior
citizens. On the day we arrived, that same father suffered chest pains
and was brought to Hadassah. He was seen by the same doctors who were
still treating the victims of his son's madness.
The humanitarian approach to
medicine of our colleagues in Israel stands in stark contrast to
actions recently taken by our European colleagues. In Britain and
Norway, countries we Americans generally feel are kindred to our way of
life,
university professors and scientific researchers have recently refused
to share research information with Israel's academics and physicians
because they oppose Israel's policy toward the Palestinians.
The head of Hadassah's gene
therapy institute, Dr. Eitan Galun, an Israeli Jew, has been engaged in
research to cure a blood disease prevalent in the Palestinian community.
He recently requested assistance from a Norwegian scientist and
was refused.
"Due to the present
situation in the Middle East, I will not deliver any material to an
Israeli university," she responded by e-mail.
By her actions, which
confuse science with politics, the Palestinian population will
needlessly continue to suffer from a disease that could be cured through
scientific cooperation.
Also recently, two Israeli
academics were dismissed from the boards of scholarly linguistics
journals. The first, Miriam Shlesinger, a senior lecturer in translation
studies at Bar-Ilan University, was removed from the editorial board
of the Translator: Studies in Intercultural Communication.
Using Israel's political situation as a reason to withhold collaborative information is a symptom of that chronic European disease, anti-Semitism, which now hides behind anti-Israel rhetoric.
The second, Gideon Toury, a
professor at Tel Aviv University's School of Cultural Studies, was
dismissed from the international advisory board of Translation Studies
Abstracts. Mona Baker, a University of Manchester academic who has
circulated
a petition calling for a moratorium on grants and contracts with
research institutions in Israel, owns both publications.
These examples dramatically
demonstrate an unacceptable breakdown in the international norms of
intellectual freedom and collaboration.
Our colleagues in Israel do
not mix science and politics; our colleagues in Europe should know
better than to do so. Using Israel's political situation as a reason to
withhold collaborative information is a smokescreen. Moreover, it is
a symptom of that chronic European disease, anti-Semitism, which now
hides behind anti-Israel rhetoric.
Israel is criticized for
human rights violations as it tries to protect its citizens. Yet it is
the only country in the Middle East with a free press and an independent
judiciary, and all its citizens -- men and women, whether Jew, Muslim
or Christian -- have the right to vote.
It's high time for the
courageous and intellectually honest among our European colleagues to
make a stand against their region's particular brand of bigotry. It is
past time for doctors and scientists to first heal themselves and then
immunize Europe against this centuries-old scourge.
The medical community in Israel truly reflects the words of the prophet Malachi 2:10:
"Have we not one father hath not one God created us, wherefore shall we
deal treacherously with each other. Profaning the covenant of our
fathers."
It's time for our colleagues in Europe to recognize this and act accordingly.
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