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Health Care Data Disproves Israeli "War Against Palestinian Health"
(Los Angeles Jewish Journal) Jonah Cohen - The New Republic on May 24 branded Israel as a "settler colonial" state engaged in a "never-ending war against Palestinian health." But if that were true, wouldn't these crimes be reflected in the standard health indexes used worldwide to measure overall physical well-being? In 1967, the year Israel took over the West Bank and Gaza, the average Palestinian could expect to live only 49 years, according to the UN. Today it is 75 years, higher than the global average and higher than in Iran, Pakistan, and many Arab countries including Egypt. Palestinian infant mortality in 1967 was 152-162 per 1,000 births. Today it is 15.6 per 1000, making Palestinian babies safer than those in many other countries. When Jordan occupied the West Bank, just four out of 708 Palestinian towns and villages had modern water supply systems and running water. By 2004, 96% of the West Bank population enjoyed running water. Given the extensive media coverage, one might assume that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is among the bloodiest disputes on earth. Yet of the 5 million lives lost in the last 70 years of wars in the Middle East and North Africa, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict encompasses less than 1% of the total. The death toll in Syria's civil war over the last 10 years has been ten times worse than the entire history of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. The writer is communications director for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA.org).