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Not only are they failing to fulfill their mandate, they are also behaving in a manner contrary to what we would expect to see from a medical professional body.
Editorial text:
Israel, Gaza and moral equivalence
I have been accused of moral cowardice for rejecting two presentations that are frankly heavily biased towards Palestine and neither of which mention the events of October 7, 2023. Perhaps my accuser is right.
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I have certainly had no desire to delve into the intensely complex realm of Israel and Palestine in the pages of the SAMJ; and I emphasize that the opinions expressed here are mine alone. But perhaps it is time, as editor of South Africa's leading medical journal, to have my say.
I have no religious affiliations. In fact, I am an atheist. But I have always abhorred anti-Semitism, anti-Islamic sentiment and racism. My sources of information on the Israel-Gaza conflict are The Guardian, Al Jazeera and Haaretz, which will give an idea of my political bias. I watched the events of October 7, 2023 with complete horror. An Israeli friend, whose family was displaced from the southern Gaza border that day, let us all know that he was safe. My many Jewish friends and colleagues were in total shock.
I have to be honest and say that I didn't ask my Muslim friends how they felt, which may have been an oversight. However, reading the news, acts of anti-Semitism around the world increased massively immediately after the event, even before Israel launched its barrage of "self-defense" missiles against Gaza. That alone tells me that anti-Semitism is very close to the surface, and the feeling that there is no longer a safe homeland is completely understandable.
But now, 160 days after the war, I watch once again in utter horror as Israel goes, in my opinion, far beyond the right of self-defense. The total devastation that has been caused in Gaza is of biblical proportions and, in fact, Benjamin Netanyahu has used biblical references when sending his army to Gaza. The death toll so far exceeds that of any other recent conflict and the disproportionate killing of women and children is horrific and cannot be seen as "collateral damage." And now that we have entered the holy month of Ramadan, the images of families eating Iftar among the rubble are heartbreaking.
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The almost complete destruction of medical facilities, the use of rape as a weapon of war (evidence suggests by both sides in the conflict) and the magnitude of the destruction and displacement are worthy of condemnation. I have mixed feelings about South Africa's petition to the ICJ accusing Israel of genocide, mainly because they have remained silent about similar events in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and not because I feel the case was completely without merit.
The same person who accused me of moral cowardice for not publishing her report on the use of weapons to destroy the healthcare system also said that she, and many others, feel that the events of October 7, 2023 can be justified by 75 years of Israeli oppression. This is where I can't agree. Nothing justifies the horror that families suffered on Gaza's southern border that day. Likewise, nothing justifies Israel's continued destruction of Gaza and its people. There is no moral equivalence.
ENDS
Posted by Wendy Kahn, National Director, SAJBD, April 9, 2024
