Astounding Facts Most People Don’t Know About Israel: 6     

The impact of Israel on the health of Palestinian Arabs has been overwhelmingly positive

The other day I happened to tune in to an earnest but dull discussion on the UK health service on BBC radio. I was about to switch off when a medical expert offered this opinion: “How can I tell if someone is committed to evidence? When they’re willing to change their minds.” I punched the air in agreement.

We should all be open to changing our minds if the evidence requires it of us. Sometimes it’s a counter-intuitive, profoundly painful process – like having to bid farewell to an old friend or lover. That’s why many people are extremely reluctant to do it. And that’s why “conventional wisdom” is so often misleading or just plain wrong. Nowhere is this more manifest than in the arguments that rage around Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians. 

It’s axiomatic that any conflict between two groups of people is a bad thing and especially for the weaker side. As the Palestinians are unarguably weaker than Israel, as we are constantly reminded, the impact of the latter on the former must inevitably be highly toxic. Take the example of health.

In 2009 Rita Giacaman, Professor of Public Health at Bir Zeit University, wrote the following in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet:

“Between 1967 and 1993, health services for Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory were neglected and starved of funds by the Israeli military administration, with shortages of staff, hospital beds, medications, and essential and specialised services, forcing Palestinians to depend on health services in Israel.”

That sounded a little harsh to me at the time but probably not a million miles (I surmised) from the truth. 

Here’s what Dr Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet had to say in the same year:

“The people of the Palestinian territory matter, most importantly, because their lives and communities are continuing to experience an occupation that has produced chronic de-development for nearly four million people over many decades.”

Sounds reasonable? I thought so too. The occupation (or “occupation” if you’re more comfortable with quotation marks), even if not Israel’s fault, is bound to have negative effects on Palestinian health. That’s surely an uncontroversial statement. Except for one problem: it’s untrue. Horton’s allegation was a complete falsehood, just as was the Giacaman pronouncement.

Hold on, that’s ridiculous. How could a military occupation be anything but damaging on the health of the people under the thumb of the occupier?  

Well, I have news. In this particular case, Israel’s presence in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem over the period 1967 to 1994 turned out to be enormously beneficial to Palestinian health. I know this because a few years ago I researched the subject at the request of Professor Alan Johnson, the editor of the online Fathom magazine. I embarked on the exercise with a genuinely open mind. After all, my professional integrity was on the line. If Israeli policy was responsible for eroding Palestinian health, I would be duty bound to acknowledge and report it. 

If you have the time and inclination to read the full article, there’s a link at the foot of this blog. Alternatively, let me save you the trouble of wading through the paper’s numerous tables and graphs. 

Here’s a summary of what I discovered.

“Rapid and largely sustained improvements in the health status of Palestinians residing in West Bank and Gaza – as measured by infant mortality rates, life expectancy, immunisation coverage and many other indicators – coincided with the period of Israeli civil responsibility of West Bank and Gaza by Israel from 1967 to 1994.”

Just digest that sentence for a moment. Israel’s presence in the West Bank and Gaza strip from 1967 onwards produced rapid and largely sustained improvements in the health status of Palestinians. That conclusion was entirely evidence-based and had nothing to do with my preconceived ideas (that, let me reiterate, tended towards accepting the notion that occupation – any occupation – is bad for your health). 

Here are a few specific examples of my discoveries: infant mortality (a widely used indicator of the state of a population’s health) tumbled by over 80% over the study period; immunisation rates for diseases such as mumps and measles rose to over 90%; running water and electricity in Palestinian homes became the norm rather than the exception; healthcare facilities, including hospitals and community clinics, were modernised and improved beyond recognition. 

My main conclusions, based on the data, were two-fold. First, the claim that Israel systematically harmed Palestinian health/care post-1967 was not supported by the epidemiological evidence. Second, the opposite was the case: Israel substantially improved Palestinian public health from 1967 onwards as a result of the implementation of a wide range of measures that involved the allocation of considerable organisational, political and financial resources. 

When the Palestinian Authority took over full responsibility for the health of these territories in 1994, many of the Israeli public health measures were sustained, at least in part. Unfortunately, both the Second Intifada that started in 2000 and the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza of 2007 were unhelpful (to put it mildly) and many of the health statistics began to go into reverse.  

The article was published in 2014. So far, not one of Israel’s numerous critics has been able to refute any of my findings. There’s a good reason: the data are unequivocal.

The editor of Fathom circulated the article to all of the major medical journals, including The Lancet. None showed the slightest interest in transmitting the findings to their readers. As for Dr Horton, he has never retracted his libellous and wholly unfounded charge of Israel’s “chronic dedevelopment” of the Palestinian territories. 

It seems that the old saying is true: when you make things absolutely clear, people become confused. Or perhaps their attention span contracts to zero whenever evidence is presented that doesn’t fit their preconceived narrative. Whatever the explanation, Horton, Giacaman and the army of medical “critics” who seize every opportunity to smear Israel with false allegations, are plain wrong. Israel has not only not damaged Palestinian health but has actually achieved the precise opposite. In the face of extraordinary obstacles, she succeeded in bringing about “measurable improvements” in Palestinian health, welfare and infrastructure.

This is a really good news story for both Israelis and Palestinians. It’s time that the international community (including the global medical profession) – that is seldom reluctant to offer an opinion on the conflict – celebrated the achievement for what it is. It’s also time for Dr Horton, Professor Giacaman and others who have, year after year, unfairly excoriated Israel for causing Palestinian ill health, suffering and death, to accept the overwhelming evidence that they were mistaken and change their minds, as I did. I’m not asking much – it’s what all who claim to adhere to an evidence-based approach should be willing to do. 

Five years after the publication of my research, it’s still not too late for Israel’s medical “critics” to do the right thing. (Health warning to readers: don’t hold your breath). 

You can read the full article here: http://fathomjournal.org/has-israel-damaged-palestinian-health/