On July 23rd, The Lancet published an Open Letter describing the situation in Gaza — http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61044-8/fulltext.  Here is but a taste of that deeply ad hominem anti-Semitic rant:

On the basis of our ethics and practice, we are denouncing what we witness in the aggression of Gaza by Israel.

We ask our colleagues, old and young professionals, to denounce this Israeli aggression. We challenge the perversity of a propaganda that justifies the creation of an emergency to masquerade a massacre, a so-called “defensive aggression”. In reality it is a ruthless assault of unlimited duration, extent, and intensity. We wish to report the facts as we see them and their implications on the lives of the people.

We are appalled by the military onslaught on civilians in Gaza under the guise of punishing terrorists.

Rightfully, the esteemed publication caught heat:

The Lancet, a top tier scientific journal by all accounts, did a great disservice to the medical community. The publication of an extremely biased one-sided analysis of such a complex situation is outrageous and full of lies.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/dr_emranis_mystic_healing/item/when_anti_semitism_strikes_science_and_medicine – 7/28/2014.

And setting to rights, it brought also a long riposte by nearly a dozen esteemed medical professionals at the end of last week (8/15/2014).  Excerpted:

For The Lancet and its editors to avoid any further embarrassment in associating this prestigious journal with such a vituperative betrayal of its scientific mission, we recommend The Lancet retract the authors’ letter on the basis of favouritism for anti-Israeli political positions, the victimisation of Israeli academia, and the competing interests of a lead author known to be a political activist with anti-Israeli stances . . . .

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We find abhorrent that academic authors would, without evidence or data, accuse an entire academic community of crimes against humanity by association of national identity or professional affiliation, an accusation that is not only a rank dehumanisation of an entire state, but explicitly seditious in propagating virulent anti-semitic sentiments to the detriment of whole academies. Although our feelings will undoubtedly recover, the authors, through their reckless words, have inflicted a deep wound to the body and soul of global scientific and medical academia at the very moment opportunities for apolitical engagement, collaboration, and bridge-building are most needed.

http://download.thelancet.com/flatcontentassets/pdfs/S0140673614613143.pdf – 8/15/2014.  Response at length by Doctors Qanta Ahmed, Alon Y. Avidan, Aaron Ciechanover, Daniel Shechtman, Daniel Zajfman, Uriel Reichman, Roger Kornberg, Avram Hershko, Peretz Lavie.

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