Letter to the Editor |
Response to Giacaman: Terror toll before Jenin
Having worked in joint Israeli–Palestinian projects in public health going back to the 1980's on lead poisoning,2–5 environmental determinants of asthma in Gaza children6, pesticides, and dioxins,7–8, I have to comment on the context of Giacaman et al's report on the health, psychological and socio-economic problems of children in Jenin, Tulkarm and Bethlehem following Israel's attacks on these cities in March 2002. This article ignores the decade of deaths, disabling injuries and grief from terror attacks originating mainly from these cities going back to 1994, but ignored until 2002.9
From Oslo in 1993 to September 2000, 256 Israelis were killed and 845 injured from Palestinian terror attacks targeted in all but one case at civilians. Between September 2000 and April 2003, 820 Israelis were killed. The victims included a disproportionate number of elderly, women and children in busses, shopping centers, pizza parlors, hotels and wedding halls. The death tolls from terror surged after the Palestinian Authority took over all the major Palestinian population centers, and the attacks came mainly from Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus and Bethlehem.
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Following Israel's attacks on the terror hideouts in Palestinian Cities in March 2002, the starting point for Dr Giacaman's study, death tolls fell from 452, to 214 to 107 in years 2002, 2003 and 2004. The rise in death tolls coincided with Iraq funneling of tens of millions of dollars for awards of $25,000 to the families of each suicide bomber,10 and the falls date from Israeli counterattacks and construction of the fence. There were even higher tolls among Palestinians, mainly among young males.
The joint projects in the 1980's and 1990's were funded by grants of $5000 to investigate asthma in refugee camps, token support for investigation and virtual eradication of a massive endemic of lead poisoning in traced to flour from contaminated West Bank stone grinding mills, and $200,000 from the USAID for an epidemiologic investigation (n=1600) of lead in Palestinian, Jordanian and Israeli children. The terror attacks aborted the momentum of transborder on-the-ground cooperation in public health—but the contacts remain. What would have happened had the millions of Iraqi dollars gone into expanding these cooperative pediatric public health projects, instead of awards for families of suicide bombers targeting civilians?
Dr Giacaman writes about human rights and victimization. The most fundamental human right is the right to life, without which there can be no other human rights. The Israeli children and parents killed by terror attacks targeted specifically at them have lost all their human rights, because they have lost their lives. She has to ask whether those who tolerate, condone, permit, or excuse organized terror which targets people defined by whom they are bear moral and political responsibility for the cruel price so many Israeli and even more Palestinian children and adults have paid.
Sincerely,
Elihu D Richter
References
1 Giacaman R, Husseini Gordon NH, Awartani F. Imprints on the consciousness: The Impact on Palestinian Civilians of the Israeli Army invasion of West Bank towns. European J Public Health 2004;14:286–90.
2 Hershko C, Abrahamov A, Moreb J, Hersh M, Shiffman R, Shahin A, Richter ED, et al. Lead poisoning in a west bank Arab village. Arch Internal Med 1984;144:1969–73.[Abstract]
3 Choudhri Y, Abu-Hashish M, Safi J, El-Haj S, Sansur R, Jaqhabir M, Fischbein A, Richter ED. Trans-Border Epidemiology: Lead Exposure in Children. Epidemiology 2000;11(Suppl 642), 4.
4 El Sharif N, Fischbein A, Konijn A, Gorodetsky R, El-Sharif H, Kaul B, Hershko C, Grauer F, Foner H, Al-Baba A, Dweik Z, Lihsounat M, Richter ED. Re-emergence of Lead Poisoning from Contaminated Flour in a West Bank Palestinian Village. Int Journ Occ Environ Health 2000;75:183–6.
5 Mumcuoglu K, Abed Y, Armenios B, Shaheen S, Jacobs J, Bar-Sela S, Richter ED. Asthma in Gaza Refugee camp children and its relationship with house dust mites. Ann Allergy 1994;72:163–7.[ISI][Medline]
6 Richter ED, Gasteyer S, El Haj S, Safi J, Jaqhabir M, Safi J. Agricultural Sustainability, Pesticide Exposures, and Health Risks: Israel, the Palestinian National Authority and Jordan. Ann NY Acad Sciences from Pesticide Exposure: Ann NY Acad Sci 1997;837:269–91.
7 Richter ED, Safi J. Pesticide Use. Exposure and Risk: A Joint Israeli-Palestinian Perspective. Environ Research 1997;73:211–8.[Medline]
8 Schecter A, Papke O, Ryan JJ, Furst P, Isaac J, Nader SHH, Neiroukh F, Safi J, el Nahhal Y, El Haj S, Avni A, Richter E, Chuwers P, Fischbein A. Dioxins, Dibenozofurans, and PCBs in Human Blood, Human Milk and Food From Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Organohalogen Compounds 1997;33:457–61.
9 Human Rights Watch, Erased in A Moment, Suicide Bombing Attacks Against Israeli Civilians October 2002. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/isrl-pa/.
10 Yacoub S. Saddam Defies US, Associated Press Report in Jerusalem Post March 13 2002.
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