Lancet tells the world of Israel’s health care
President Reuven Rivlin has been presented with a copy of the medical journal, The Lancet, dedicated to Israel’s healthcare system and medical innovations in Israel.
Photo: Mark Neiman/GPO
The President received the special publication from Lancet Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Richard Horton. The meeting was also attended by senior medical figures and researchers who had contributed to the publication.
“I want to thank you, and everyone here, for the important initiative of this special magazine: to show Israel’s healthcare system to the whole world, in your respected journal. I am especially pleased this is also on your website, in English, in Hebrew, and in Arabic,” said the President, and stressed, “As this special magazine shows, Israel’s medical care is among the most innovative and cutting edge in the world. Both for treating mental illness, and physical illness. Israeli doctors, and researchers, make miracles happen every day; in hospitals in towns, in cities, and yes, even on the front-line of a war.”
The President went on to note the importance of the accessibility of healthcare in Israel and said, “I am proud that you have seen – and that your readers will see – the dedication of Israeli doctors and nurses; Arabs, Jews, religious, and secular. They treat everyone together. There is no difference between blood, there is no difference between life.”
He concluded. “We should all work to be sure that medicine, and science, guide politics – and not the other way around. I want your readers to come to Israel. Come and see, all that we are doing here. Come and be our partners, in building a better future.”
Dr. Horton thanked the President for hosting the meeting, and presented key aspects of the special publication. He said, “This is a very important moment to celebrate the achievements of Israel in its short 69 year history, and your commitment to universal health coverage. Your fantastic ‘sick funds’, four of them, which are able to maximise the quality and efficiency of your health services, five world-class medical schools, internationally competitive research institutions, and a pluralistic, diverse, multi-ethnic society that so enriches your culture and prospects for the future.”
He added, “We want to see Israel as a global society, extending international engagement and development cooperation with the rest of the world. This series and I personally utterly reject the boycott against Israel. Boycotts are no way to deal with difference of opinion. Boycotts entrench prejudice and hate, they perpetuate difference and we reject utterly that approach to discussing differences of opinion between communities and peoples.”
Honest Reporting has published this week: “In 2010, the journal employed active supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel as supposedly expert commentators on the situation, which earned it a 2010 Dishonest Reporter Award. Lancet editor Richard Horton even posted a snide response aimed at HonestReporting. A further examination in 2013 revealed more anti-Israel bias.
In August 2014, in the midst of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, The Lancet’s publication of an “open letter for the people in Gaza” came as no surprise. That radical Israel hater and 9/11 conspiracy theorist Mads Gilbert was one of the signatories was enough to signal just how politicized the letter was.”
