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The Economist Blames Israel for the Parlous State of Gaza’s Health-Care System

Apr 22, 2020 10:00 am By Hugh Fitzgerald

Adam Levick of CAMERA has noticed that The Economist has chosen to blame Israel for the parlous state of Gaza’s health-care system. Its method is the Lie Direct:

The Economist is the latest British media outlet to mislead on the coronavirus-related healthcare crisis in Gaza. Their March 26th article (“Gaza, already under siege, imposes lockdown”), published in their print edition, included the following:

An outbreak would be catastrophic. Gaza is one of the world’s most densely populated places. The health-care system, shattered by the long blockade, would be unable to cope. Even in normal times, basic items like antibiotics are often in short supply. [emphasis added]”

However, the medicine shortage in Gaza has nothing whatsoever to do with the Israeli blockade — a fact that we proved in a previous post, which included a definitive statement from COGAT that there are NO restrictions on medicine and medical equipment and there never have been.

Why did The Economist not check with the Israelis before describing Gaza’s health-care system as being “shattered by the long blockade”? Its reporter could have asked a simple question: does Israel now, or has it ever, restricted any medicines or medical equipment from entering the Gaza Strip? As Adam Levick points out, the Israelis have never prevented either medicines or medical equipment from reaching Gaza. In 2019 800 trucks entered Gaza filled with medicines and medical equipment.

Levick again:

In fact, even The New York Times has acknowledged — after communication with CAMERA— that “the import of medicine [to Gaza] is not restricted.”

The shortage has more to do with Hamas’ decision to spend millions on terror tunnels and other military items, instead of on domestic needs such as healthcare. Another major factor is the longstanding inter-Palestinian rivalry, which resulted in Palestinian Authority measures that have significantly reduced medical funds to Gaza.

In the past the PA has upon occasion restricted transferring medicines to Gaza, claiming that Hamas has not been paying its bills to the PA for such shipments. This is part of the continuing war between the PA and Hamas; those suffering are the people of Gaza. Israel has nothing to do with it.

The Economist article also included the following claim:

Doctors in Gaza say they received only about 200 kits to test for the virus. Most have already been used. They are pleading with Israel and the WHO to send more, but it is unclear when, or if, they will.

Levick responds:

This is inaccurate. The 200 kits are only what they [the Gazans] received directly from Israel. The actual total number is around 1,200, as Gaza received an additional 1,000 from the WHO via COGAT [Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories]:

Yesterday [April 1] over 3,000 #COVID19 testing kits, donated by @WHO, and 50,000 protective masks, donated by @UNWRA, were transferred from Jordan via Allenby Bridge with the coordination of COGAT for use by medical teams in the Palestinian healthcare system in the region.

Earlier today, [April 2] 1,000 of the coronavirus testing kits that were transferred were forwarded by the @WHO into the #Gaza Strip with the coordination of the Gaza CLA.

Moreover, The Economist article obfuscates the larger story: the extraordinary cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians in response to the pandemic. Even Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, praised the coordination and cooperation established between the two parties in tackling COVID-19 — calling it “excellent.”

It’s a puzzlement: why did The Economist ‘s reporter fail to ask the most obvious questions? There is the one already mentioned above about the effect of the blockade. The reporter could have asked the Israelis whether or not they had ever prevented medicines and medical equipment from entering Gaza, and, if so, by whom? He (or she) could then have asked the PA if it had ever prevented shipments of medicine or medical equipment from reaching Gaza, in order to put pressure Hamas to pay its bills from the PA. Finally, that reporter could have checked with Nickolay Mladenov, the UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Processes, to ask him whether he had any reason to believe that Israel had ever withheld medicines or medical equipment, and what he thought about the current cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian medical personnel, in both Gaza and the West Bank?

That, of course, would require a little work: a few emails, a few telephone calls. How much easier it is simply to assume that Israel’s blockade explains what’s wrong with the health system in Gaza. That fits the general anti-Israel narrative that The Economist, the BBC, the Guardian, and all other pillars of the media’s anti-Israel establishment, feed their audiences. They are now being kept ja bit more honest, usually by CAMERA pointing out errors, and exacting a retraction or a correction which is welcome, though corrections seldom are given the prominence of the original story for which a correction is being supplied. It is a never-ending task, to note the mistakes, vulgar errors, and sheer animus in the coverage of Israel, and then to persuade the offenders to issue corrections and retractions. We should be grateful to those who, like Adam Levick, are alert to every such misstatement, and able to rapidly respond to, and demand correction of, these errors.

Let’s sum up what we know about the Gaza health care system. It’s in bad shape. There are two reasons for that. First is the effect of colossal corruption – the grand theft by Hamas leaders of billions in aid money. For more than two decades the Hamas Lords of Misrule have chosen to divert large sums to themselves. Khaled Meshaal and Mousa Abu Marzouk were two of the top Hamas leaders; each has managed to amass a fortune of at least $2.5 billion dollars, according to both Western and Arab sources. Other leaders, such as the current head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, are not In their league when it comes to stealing, but have nonetheless acquired tens of millions of dollars. There are also 600 Hamas millionaires who have built villas on the Gazan seafront. That is the first reason for the underfunding of the health-care system in Gaza.

The second reason for the poor state of Gaza’s heath-care system is the choice Hamas has made: instead of spending on a decent health care system, Hamas leaders have chosen to spend large sums on war-making: weapons of all kinds, including expensive rockets, and hundreds of terror tunnels running from Gaza into Israel. None of this was Israel’s fault. Hamas could have chosen to spend less on war-making, and more on the health of its own citizens. It did not.

Perhaps in the future a chastened Economist will run a piece explaining the two reasons for the wretched state of the health-care system in Gaza: first, the diversion of billions of dollars in aid money into the pockets of Hamas leaders; second, the decision by Hamas to spend more on war against Israel, and less on the health of its own citizens. Let’s hope thatThe Economist will do more than simply issue a correction here and there, but make clear to its readers the full and dismaying truth about Gaza’s health-care degringolade.

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Filed Under: Featured, Gaza, Israel, journalistic bias Tagged With: The Economist


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Apr 22, 2020 at 10:18 am

    The Economist is reprehensible. The Pallies are to blame for not preparing for medical emergencies and not reacting appropriately to the crisis.

    Part of the blame should be placed upon the false prophet Mohammed who declared that Allah decided who would get sick because no disease is ‘transitive’.

    “AbuHuraira reported Allah’s Messenger as saying: There is no transitive disease, no divination, but I like good words.”

    Sahih Muslim 2223c; Book89, Hadith 154

    Mohammed liked ‘good words’ … hot, steaming piles of farm-fresh ‘good words’ … taqiyya.

    • mgoldberg says

      Apr 22, 2020 at 10:26 am

      Okay, a bit off topic but… during this Wuhan virus downtime, I got to watch the 3rd season of the Israeli produced show, on Netflix, ‘Fauda’. Now, it’s pretty dammed good from my perspective. I originally hesitated to watch it because it’s originator, creator, writer, whatever, I believe writes also for ‘Haaretz’, the worst leftist rag in Israel, so I was immediately turned off. But… someone told me to check out a few episodes, and I became a fan of the show. It is filmed in Israel, and in the arab territories, and arabs too like it. There are a few things that are meh, but mostly the show, whose title means ‘Chaos’, is a pretty good depiction of what it must be like for special forces units to have to deal with the totality of the Jihad by arab muslims. It is interesting to see the dramas they create that display what they have to do to survive. You can watch it in English or Hebrew with subtitles.

  2. mgoldberg says

    Apr 22, 2020 at 10:18 am

    Another hard dollars and cents in depth analysis, Hugh. I wonder…does the Economist ever take note of your reviews of their articles?, Do you send them a review yourself, and does it move them to even reply to you?

    • Hugh Fitzgerald says

      Apr 22, 2020 at 1:37 pm

      No, I don’t send them anything. And if I did, I am sure there would be no answer.

  3. Naram-Sin says

    Apr 22, 2020 at 11:17 am

    “The Economist Blames Israel for the Parlous State of Gaza’s Health-Care System”

    This is true Israel has been blocking shipments of medicinal camel urine for months now. It’s lucky Gaza has it’s own supply of ‘cleaning dirt,’ otherwise hospitals might not be able to clean and reuse scalpels.

  4. Rarely says

    Apr 22, 2020 at 12:59 pm

    While they’re at it they can blame Israel for the lack of freshwater fish in the ocean.

  5. Spiro says

    Apr 22, 2020 at 2:26 pm

    I’m sure Egypt could supply plenty of medicinal camel urine
    It could be smuggled in under the cover of mortar attacks against Israel
    Just a though

    • Rarely says

      Apr 22, 2020 at 3:36 pm

      islam is saving the World — from being overrun with camel urine. Boy it was close!!

  6. keith says

    Apr 22, 2020 at 5:13 pm

    The first question that came to mind was, how much was the journalist from the “economist” paid by Hamas to write the story?
    Or if the writers name was Ab drool?

  7. Istvan Vogel says

    Apr 23, 2020 at 6:32 am

    There used to be 2 borders with Gaza. One was in Israel and the other was in Egypt. So Hamas could also import medical supplies from Egypt. So I’m obviously stupid and don’t understand why the author did not check with the Egyptian authorities. Have the Egyptians banned all medical supplies entering Gaza?

    • gravenimage says

      Apr 30, 2020 at 11:01 pm

      There are still two borders. Most dhimmi tools ignore Egypt entirely, because it does not fit their narrative.

  8. gravenimage says

    Apr 30, 2020 at 11:02 pm

    The Economist Blames Israel for the Parlous State of Gaza’s Health-Care System
    …………………

    Just disgusting, considering how much Israel does for Gaza and that these Muslims want to destroy her.

    I remember with the Economist was a pretty sane and even fairly conservative magazine.

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