A COALITION of prominent Australian Jews, including the philosopher Peter Singer, publisher Louise Adler and Robert Richter, QC, has sparked a furore in the Jewish community by announcing it will challenge what it sees as extreme pro-Israeli bias among Jews in Australia.
The group, Independent Australian Jewish Voices, has been criticised by some Jewish authorities for calling for more open debate on Israeli’s treatment of Palestinians. Full article
When a prime minister has just lost a war, is dogged by corruption allegations, and sees his popularity ratings in free fall, what can he do?
Why, he can initiate provocations.
A provocation diverts attention, generates headlines, creates the illusion of power, radiates a sense of leadership.
But a provocation is a dangerous instrument. It can cause irreversible damage.
Provocation No. 1: The Northern Frontier
Along the northern border runs a fence. But not everywhere does the fence coincide exactly with the recognized border (the so-called Blue Line). For topographical reasons, some sections of the fence run a few dozen meters south of it.
That is the theory of the situation. In the course of the years, both sides have become accustomed to regarding the fence as the actual border. On the Lebanese side, the villagers farm the fields up to the fence, fields that may well be their property.
Now Ehud Olmert has decided to exploit this situation and reveal himself as a great, invincible warrior. Some explosives recently found a few yards from the Blue Line serve as a pretext. The Israeli army claims that they were put there just days ago by Hezbollah fighters disguised as goatherds. According to Hezbollah, they are old bombs that have been there since before the recent war.
Olmert sent soldiers beyond the fence to carry out a Hissuf (“exposure”) – one of those new Hebrew words invented by the army’s “verbal laundry” to beautify ugly things. It means the wholesale uprooting of trees, in order to improve vision and facilitate shooting. The army used the trademark weapon of the State of Israel: the armored bulldozer.
The Lebanese army sent a warning that they would open fire. When this did not have any effect, they indeed fired several salvoes over the heads of the Israeli soldiers. The Israeli army responded by firing several tank shells at the Lebanese position and lo – we have our “incident.”
The whole affair is very reminiscent of Ariel Sharon’s methods in the ’60s, when he was the chief of operations of the Northern Command. Sharon became quite an expert at provoking the Syrian army in the demilitarized zones that existed on the border between the two countries at the time. Israel claimed sovereignty over these areas, while the Syrians asserted that it was a neutral zone that did not belong to either state and in which the Arab farmers, who owned the land, were allowed to tend their fields.
According to legend, the Syrians exploited their control of heights overlooking the Israeli villages in the valley below them. Again and again the evil Syrians (the Syrians were always “evil”) terrorized the helpless kibbutzim by shelling. This myth, which was believed by practically all Israelis at the time, served as a justification for the occupation of the Golan Heights and their annexation by Israel. Even now, foreign visitors are brought to an observation post on the Golan Heights and shown the defenseless kibbutzim down below.
The truth, which has been exposed since then, was a bit different: Sharon used to instruct the kibbutzniks to go to their shelters, and then he would send an armored tractor into the demilitarized zone. Predictably, the Syrians shot at it. The Israeli artillery, just waiting for its cue, then opened up a massive bombardment of the Syrian positions. There were dozens of such “incidents.”
Now the same method is being practiced by Sharon’s successor. Soldiers and bulldozers enter the area, the Lebanese shoot, the Israeli tanks shell them.
Does this provocation make any political sense? The Lebanese army answers to Fouad Siniora, the darling of the United States and the opponent of Hezbollah. In the wake of the Second Lebanon War, this army was deployed along the border, at the express demand of the Israeli government, and this was proclaimed by Olmert as a huge Israeli achievement. (Until then, the Israeli army commanders had adamantly opposed the idea of stationing Lebanese or international troops in this area, on the grounds that this would hamper their freedom of action.)
So what is the aim of this provocation? The same as with all Olmert’s recent actions: gaining popularity to survive in power, in this case by creating tension.
Provocation No. 2: The Temple Mount
Islam has three holy cities: Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. In Mecca this week, the chiefs of Fatah and Hamas assembled in order to put an end to the mutual killing and set up a unity government. While the attention of the concerned Palestinian public was riveted there, Olmert struck in Jerusalem.
As pretext served the “Mugrabi Gate,” an entrance to the Haram-al-Sharif (“the Noble Sanctuary”), the wide plaza where the al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock are located. Since this gate is higher than the Western Wall area below it, one can approach it only over a rising bridge or ramp.
The old bridge collapsed some time ago and was replaced with a temporary structure. Now the “Israel Antiquities Authority” is destroying the temporary bridge and putting in its place – so it says – a permanent one. But the work looks much more extensive.
As could have been expected, riots broke out at once. In 1967, Israel formally annexed this area and claimed sovereignty over the entire Temple Mount. The Arabs (and the whole world) have never recognized the annexation. In practice, the Temple Mount is governed by the Islamic Waqf (religious endowment).
The Israeli government argues that the bridge is separate from the Temple Mount. The Muslims insist that the bridge is a part of it. Behind this tussle, there is a lurking Arab suspicion that the installation of the new bridge is just a cover for something else happening below the surface.
At the 2000 Camp David conference, the Israeli side made a weird-sounding proposal: to leave the area itself to the Muslims, but with Israeli sovereignty over everything beneath the surface. That reinforced the Muslim belief that the Israelis intended to dig beneath the Mount, in order to discover traces of the Jewish Temple that was destroyed by the Romans 1936 years ago. Some believed that the real intention was to cause the Islamic shrines to collapse, so a new Temple could be built in their place.
These suspicions are nurtured by the fact that most Israeli archaeologists have always been the loyal foot-soldiers of the official propaganda. Since the emergence of modern Zionism, they have been engaged in a desperate endeavor to “find” archaeological evidence for the historical truth of the stories of the Old Testament. Until now, they have gone empty-handed: there exists no archaeological proof for the exodus from Egypt, the conquest of Canaan, and the kingdoms of Saul, David, and Solomon. But in their eagerness to prove the unprovable (because in the opinion of the vast majority of archaeologists and historians outside Israel – and also some in Israel – the Old Testament stories are but sacred myths), the archaeologists have destroyed many strata of other periods.
But that is not the most important side of the present affair. One can argue to the end of days about the responsibility for the Mugrabi walkway or what it might be that the archaeologists are looking for. But it is impossible to doubt that this is a provocation: it was carried out like a surprise military operation, without consultation with the other side.
Nobody knew better what to expect than Olmert, who, as mayor of Jerusalem, was responsible for the killing of 85 human beings – 69 Palestinians and 16 Israelis – in a similar provocation, when he “opened” a tunnel near the Temple Mount. And everybody remembers, of course, that the Second Intifada started with the provocative “visit” to the Temple Mount by Ariel Sharon.
This is a provocation against 1.3 billion Muslims, and especially against the Arab world. It is a knife in the back of the “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas, with whom Olmert pretends to be ready to have a “dialogue” – and this at exactly the moment Abbas reached an historical agreement with Hamas for the formation of a national unity government. It is also a knife in the back of the king of Jordan, Israel’s ally, who sees himself as the traditional protector of the Temple Mount.
What for? To prove that Olmert is a strong leader, the hero of the Temple Mount, the defender of the national values, who doesn’t give a damn for world public opinion.
Provocation No. 3
After Haim Ramon was convicted of indecent conduct, the post of the minister of justice fell vacant. In a surprise blow, after laying down a smoke screen by dangling the names of acceptable candidates, Olmert appointed to the post a professor who is the open and vocal enemy of the Supreme Court and the attorney general.
The Supreme Court is almost the only governmental institution in Israel that still enjoys the confidence of the great majority. The last president of the Court, Aharon Barak, once told me: “We have no troops. Our power is based solely on the confidence of the public.” Now Olmert has appointed a minister of justice who has been engaged for a long time and with a lot of noise in destroying this confidence. Indeed, it seems that this is his main interest in life, ever since he failed to get a close friend, a female professor, elevated to the Supreme Court.
One can see in this an effort by Olmert, a politician who is dragging behind him a long train of corruption affairs (several of which are at present under police and state comptroller investigation), to undermine the investigators, the attorney general and the courts. It serves also as revenge against the court that dared to convict Ramon, his friend and ally. He did not, of course, consult with anyone in the judicial system: not with the attorney general (whose official title is “legal adviser of the government”) nor with the president of the Supreme Court, Dorit Beinish, whom he cannot stand.
I am not an unreserved admirer of the Supreme Court. It is a wheel in the machinery of the occupation. It cannot be relied on in matters like the targeted assassinations, the Separation Wall, the demolition of Palestinian homes, and the hundred and one other cases over which the false banner of “security” is waving. But it is the last bastion of human rights inside Israel proper.
The appointment of the new minister is an assault on Israeli democracy, and therefore no less dangerous than the other two provocations.
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What do the three have in common? First of all: their unilateral character. Forty years of occupation have created an occupation mentality that destroys all desire and all ability to solve problems by mutual understanding, dialogue, and compromise.
Both in foreign and domestic relations, Mafia methods reign: violence, sudden blows, targeted eliminations.
When these methods are applied by a politician haunted by corruption affairs, an uninhibited warmonger who is fighting for survival by all means available, this is indeed a very dangerous situation.
The findings of a controversial documentary claiming that a cave found 26 years ago in Jerusalem held the remains of Jesus Christ have been unveiled in New York.
The documentary, titled The Burial Cave of Jesus, follows years of research by world-renowned archaeologists and experts in ancient scripts, according to the film’s producers.
The 2000-year-old cave was first discovered in 1980 in Jerusalem’s Talpiyot neighbourhood.
It contained 10 coffins, six of which bore inscriptions which – translated into English – included the names “Jesus son of Joseph,” twice “Maria”, and “Judah son of Jesus.” Continue reading
Trailer | High Definition Trailer | Official Movie site
An opus in three parts, Iraq In Fragments offers a series of intimate, passionately-felt portraits: A fatherless 11-year-old is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a Baghdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shiite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at the point of a gun; a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the US presence, which has allowed them a measure of freedom previously denied.American director James Longley spent more than two years filming in Iraq to create this stunningly photographed, poetically rendered documentary of the war-torn country as seen through the eyes of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. Winner of Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Editing awards in the 2006 Sundance Film Festival documentary competition, the film was also awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.
Brace yourself. James Cameron, the man who brought you ‘The Titanic’ is back with another blockbuster. This time, the ship he’s sinking is Christianity.
In a new documentary, Producer Cameron and his director, Simcha Jacobovici, make the starting claim that Jesus wasn’t resurrected –the cornerstone of Christian faith– and that his burial cave was discovered near Jerusalem. And, get this, Jesus sired a son with Mary Magdelene.
No, it’s not a re-make of “The Da Vinci Codes’. It’s supposed to be true.
Let’s go back 27 years, when Israeli construction workers were gouging out the foundations for a new building in the industrial park in the Talpiyot, a Jerusalem suburb. of Jerusalem. The earth gave way, revealing a 2,000 year old cave with 10 stone caskets. Archologists were summoned, and the stone caskets carted away for examination. It took 20 years for experts to decipher the names on the ten tombs. They were: Jesua, son of Joseph, Mary, Mary, Mathew, Jofa and Judah, son of Jesua. More
By R. T. NAYLOR
Usama bin Laden, according to a top level “independent” task force of political hacks and self-appointed experts in “clandestine finance” set up by the Council on Foreign Relations, worked his monetary magic with the usual tools of clandestine finance–cash couriers, shell companies, coded bank accounts, and the like. He also employed the notorious hawala system, a supposedly ultra-secret method of sneaking money around the world which in fact sometimes operates openly with witnesses, provides written receipts and in some countries even has its service charges printed in local newspapers. (Doubtless for reasons of national security,) the Task Force was unable to specify a single instance of Usama’s use. And allegedly he had yet another trick up the sleeves of his loose-fitting burnoose. Continue reading
“The Koh-i-nur diamond came from the Treasury at Lahore in the Punjab and was re-cut for Queen Victoria in 1852. Traditionally the Koh-i-nur is only worn by a queen or queen consort: it is said to bring bad luck to any man who wears it.”
Its 750-year history is peppered with tales of murder and treachery. Now, secret papers released yesterday have added another twist to the 186-carat gem’s colourful history.
Some 155 years ago, a nine-year-old boy carrying a silk cushion was brought before Queen Victoria. His job was simple: to present Britain with the most glittering and symbolic spoil of its war to subjugate the Indian sub-continent.
The boy was Duleep Singh, the last Sikh ruler of the Punjab, and the prize his new imperial masters had made him travel 4,200 miles to deliver was the Koh-i-Noor diamond – the mysterious and terrible stone of emperors. Continue reading
Must a Native-American recognize the right of the United States of America to exist?
Interesting question. The USA was established by Europeans who invaded a continent that did not belong to them, eradicated most of the indigenous population (the “Red Indians”) in a prolonged campaign of genocide, and exploited the labor of millions of slaves who had been brutally torn from their lives in Africa. Not to mention what is going on today. Must a Native-American–or indeed anybody at all–recognize the right of such a state to exist?
But nobody raises the question. The United States does not give a damn if anybody recognizes its right to exist or not. It does not demand this from the countries with which it maintains relations.
Why? Because this is a ridiculous demand to start with.
OK, the United States is older than the State of Israel, as well as bigger and more powerful. But countries that are not super-powers do not demand this either. India, for example, is not expected to recognize Pakistan’s “right to exist”, in spite of the fact that Pakistan was established at the same time as Israel, and–like Israel–on an ethnic/religious basis.
SO WHY is Hamas required to “recognize Israel’s right to exist”?
When a state “recognizes” another state, it is a formal recognition, the acknowledgement of an existing fact. It does not imply approval. The Soviet Union was not required to recognize the existence of the USA as a capitalist state. On the contrary, Nikita Khrushchev promised in 1956 to “bury” it. The US certainly did not dream of recognizing at any time the right of the Soviet Union to exist as a communist state.
So why is this weird demand addressed to the Palestinians? Why must they recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish State?
I am an Israeli patriot, and I do not feel that I need anybody’s recognition of the right of my state to exist. If somebody is ready to make peace with me, within borders and on conditions agreed upon in negotiations, that is quite enough for me. I am prepared to leave the history, ideology and theology of the matter to the theologians, ideologues and historians.
Perhaps after 60 years of the existence of Israel, and after we have become a regional power, we are still so unsure of ourselves that we crave for constant assurance of our right to exist–and of all people, from those that we have been oppressing for the last 40 years. Perhaps it is the mentality of the Ghetto that is still so deeply ingrained in us.
But the demand addressed now to the Palestinian Unity Government is far from sincere. It has an ulterior political aim, indeed two: (a) to convince the international community not to recognize the Palestinian government that is about to be set up, and (b) to justify the refusal of the Israeli government to enter into peace negotiations with it.
The British call this a “red herring”–a smelly fish that a fugitive drags across the path in order to put the pursuing dogs off the trail.
WHEN I was young, Jewish people in Palestine used to talk about our secret weapon: the Arab refusal. Every time somebody proposed some peace plan, we relied on the Arab side to say “no”. True, the Zionist leadership was against any compromise that would have frozen the existing situation and halted the momentum of the Zionist enterprise of expansion and settlement. But the Zionist leaders used to say “yes” and “we extend our hand for peace”–and rely on the Arabs to scuttle the proposal.
That was successful for a hundred years, until Yasser Arafat changed the rules, recognized Israel and signed the Oslo Accords, which stipulated that the negotiations for the final borders between Israel and Palestine must be concluded not later than 1999. To this very day, those negotiations have not even started. Successive Israeli governments have prevented it because they were not ready under any circumstances to fix final borders. (The 2000 Camp David meeting was not a real negotiation–Ehud Barak convened it without any preparation, dictated his terms to the Palestinians and broke the dialogue off when they were refused.)
After the death of Arafat, the refusal became more and more difficult. Arafat was always described as a terrorist, cheat and liar. But Mahmoud Abbas was accepted by everybody as an honest person, who truly wanted to achieve peace. Yet Ariel Sharon succeeded in avoiding any negotiations with him. The “Unilateral Separation” served this end. President Bush supported him with both hands.
Well, Sharon suffered his stroke, and Ehud Olmert took his place. And then something happened that caused great joy in Jerusalem: the Palestinians elected Hamas.
How wonderful! After all, both the US and Europe have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization! Hamas is a part of the Shiite Axis of Evil! (They are not Shiites, but who cares!) Hamas does not recognize Israel! Hamas is trying to eliminate Mahmoud Abbas, the noble man of peace! It is clear that with such a gang there is no need, nor would it make any sense, to conduct negotiations about peace and borders.
And indeed, the US and their European satellites are boycotting the Palestinian government and starving the Palestinian population. They have set three conditions for lifting the blockade:
(a) that the Palestinian government and Hamas must recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist,
(b) they must stop “terrorism”, and
(c) they must undertake to fulfill the agreements signed by the PLO.
On the face of it, that makes sense. In reality, none at all. Because all these conditions are completely one-sided:
a) the Palestinians must recognize the right of Israel to exist (without defining its borders, of course), but the Israeli government is not required to recognize the right of a Palestinian state to exist at all.
(b) The Palestinians must put an end to “terrorism”, but the Israeli government is not required to stop its military operations in the Palestinian territories and stop the building of settlements. The “roadmap” does indeed say so, but that has been completely ignored by everybody, including the Americans.
(c) The Palestinians must undertake to fulfill the agreements, but no such undertaking is required from the Israeli government, which has broken almost all provision of the Oslo agreement. Among others: the opening of the “safe passages” between Gaza and the West Bank, the carrying out of the third “redeployment” (withdrawal from Palestinian territories), the treatment of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as one single territory, etc. etc.
Since Hamas came to power, its leaders have understood the need to become more flexible. They are very sensitive to the mood of their people. The Palestinian population is longing for an end to the occupation and for a life of peace. Therefore, step by step, Hamas has come nearer to recognition of Israel. Their religious doctrine does not allow them to declare this publicly (Jewish fundamentalists too cling to the word of God “To your seed I have given this land”) but it has been doing so indirectly. Little steps, but a big revolution.
Hamas has announced its support for the establishment of a Palestinian state bounded by the June 1967 borders–meaning: next to Israel and not in place of Israel. (This week, ex-minister Kadura Fares repeated that Hamas leader Khaled Mashal has confirmed this.) Hamas has given Mahmoud Abbas a power of attorney to conduct the negotiations with Israel and has undertaken in advance to accept any agreement ratified in a referendum. Abbas, of course, clearly advocates the setting up of a Palestinian state next to Israel, across the Green Line. There is no doubt whatsoever that if such an agreement is achieved, the huge majority of the Palestinian population will vote for it.
In Jerusalem, worry has set in. If this goes on, the world might even get the impression that Hamas has changed, and then–God forbid–lift the economic blockade on the Palestinian people.
Now the King of Saudi Arabia comes and disturbs Olmert’s plans even more.
In an impressive event, facing the holiest site of Islam, the king put an end to the bloody strife between the Palestinian security organs and prepared the ground for a Palestinian government of national unity. Hamas undertook to respect the agreements signed by the PLO, including the Oslo agreement, which is based on the mutual recognition of the State of Israel and the PLO as representative of the Palestinian people.
The king has extracted the Palestinian issue from the embrace of Iran, to which Hamas had turned because it had no alternative, and has returned Hamas to the lap of the Sunni family. Since Saudi Arabia is the main ally of the US in the Arab world, the king has put the Palestinian issue firmly on the table of the Oval Room.
In Jerusalem, near panic broke out. This is the scariest of nightmares: the fear that the unconditional support of the US and Europe for Israeli policy will be reconsidered.
The panic had immediate results: “political circles” in Jerusalem announced that they rejected the Mecca agreement out of hand. Then second thoughts set in. Shimon Peres, long established master of the “yes-but-no” method, convinced Olmert that the brazen “no” must be replaced with a more subtle “no”. For this purpose, the red herring was again taken out of the freezer.
It is not enough that Hamas recognize Israel in practice. Israel insists that its “right to exist” must also be recognized. Political recognition does not suffice, ideological recognition is required. By this logic, one could also demand that Khaled Mashal join the Zionist organization.
If one thinks that peace is more important for Israel than expansion and settlements, one must welcome the change in the position of Hamas–as expressed in the Mecca agreement–and encourage it to continue along this road. The king of Saudi Arabia, who has already convinced the leaders of all Arab countries to recognize Israel in exchange for the establishment of the state of Palestine across the Green Line, should be warmly congratulated.
But if one opposes peace because it would fix the final borders of Israel and allow for no more expansion, one will do everything to convince the Americans and Europeans to continue with the boycott on the Palestinian government and the blockade of the Palestinian people.
The day after tomorrow, Condoleezza Rice will convene a meeting of Olmert and Abbas in Jerusalem.
The Americans now have a problem. On one side, they need the Saudi king. Not only does he sit on huge oil reservoirs, but he is also the center-piece of the “moderate Sunni bloc”. If the king tells Bush that the solution of the Palestinian problem is needed in order to dam the spread of Iranian influence across the Middle East, his words will carry a lot of weight. If Bush is planning a military attack on Iran, as it seems he is, it is important for him to have the united support of the Sunnis.
On the other side, the pro-Israel lobby–both Jewish and Christian–is very important for Bush. It is vital for him to be able to count on the “Christian base” of the Republican Party, which is composed of fundamentalists who support the extreme Right in Israel, come what may.
So what is to be done? Nothing. For this nothing, Condi found an apt diplomatic slogan, taken from up-to-date American slang: “New Political Horizons”.
Clearly, she did not ponder on the meaning of these words. Because the horizon is the symbol of a goal that will never be reached: the more you approach it, the more it recedes.
See Also
Three Provocations – The Method in the Madness By URI AVNERY
“There isn’t a better candidate for torture than a person who isn’t really considered a person.”
The name Josef Mengele is so infamous that it needs no introduction. Mengele was the German doctor who performed medical experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp. An American doctor, James Marion Sims was equally monstrous, but his name is less well known.
Sims was a doctor who routinely performed unnecessary and sadistic surgeries on slaves in Alabama. He opened the skulls of babies and performed gynecological surgeries on women. They were forced to endure unimaginable treatments, all without the ether that had by then become available as an anesthetic. Of course, being enslaved people, they had no choice in any decisions that Sims made about their bodies or their lives.
Sims allegedly sought to treat vaginal fistulas caused by complications of child birth. One woman underwent this treatment, without anesthesia, 30 times. He obviously didn’t cure her of anything.
Because Sims’ victims were black Americans their stories remained largely untold. They were not the first or the last black Americans to be subjected to what can only be called torture in the name of scientific investigation. Sims is called “the father of gynecology” and eventually became president of the American Medical Association. He has been immortalized in a monument that still stands in New York’s Central Park.
“Sims’ victims were not the first or the last black Americans to be subjected to what can only be called torture in the name of scientific investigation.”
Of course, there has been a memorial to the Jewish Holocaust on the Washington Mall for more than ten years. There is still no monument to American slaves who built all of the capitol monuments. Sadistic torture can be condemned as long as it didn’t happen here.
A newly published book Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, is a comprehensive chronicle of surgeries performed without anesthesia, the notorious Tuskegee experiments that prevented 400 men from being treated for syphilis over a 40 year period, and forced sterilizations.
Harriet Washington, the author of Medical Apartheid, has performed an invaluable service. White Americans love to point fingers at Germans who won’t apologize for Hitler, or Japanese who claim that the rape of Nanking didn’t take place. There is little interest in acknowledging, much less apologizing for atrocities that took place on American soil.
History tells us that torture and murder are considered acceptable if the perpetrators are white and the victims aren’t. The population of American Indians was decimated from an estimated 15 million before European occupation to 200,000 in 1890. Simply put, they were murdered. They were shot and scalped and infected with disease. Millions of Africans taken into slavery in Africa perished before reaching the western hemisphere where they faced the prospect of being the property of Dr. Sims and his ilk.
The litany of atrocities documented in Medical Apartheid shocks the soul and the senses. Yet it must be pointed out that those atrocities are all logical results of the white supremacy that was manifested in chattel slavery, and the terror that followed it. There isn’t a better candidate for torture than a person who isn’t really considered a person.
It is indeed valuable that some of the most racist crimes committed in this country have finally been exposed. But it will be of little use if this history is dismissed as vestiges of another time instead of revealing an ideology that has never disappeared from the American consciousness. The use of black Americans as guinea pigs didn’t end with the slavery era and wasn’t confined to the South.
“It is unclear if the children died because of the effects of HIV or from side effects of the medications they were given.”
The same sickness that permitted slaves to be the subject of cruel experiments puts foster children in the same danger. From 1988 to 2001, 465 children in New York City’s foster care system were subjected to experiments with AZT and other toxic HIV drugs.
The state acting in loco parentis, gave itself permission to test drugs on children as young as six months of age. Fifteen percent of the children died, but it is unclear if they died because of the effects of HIV or from side effects of the medications they were given.
Again in New York City in the 1990s, 100 boys, all African American or Latino who were diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, were used to test the now banned drug fenfluramine. They were chosen because they all had older brothers in the juvenile justice system. The tests were conducted to detect biological markers for “anti-social” behavior. It is a question never posed about white people, who are capable of being quite anti-social.
If New York at the end of the 20th century offered the same treatment as Alabama in the 19th century, then white supremacist ideology, and medical apartheid, are alive and well. We can add health care to the long list of items that are ordinarily beneficial but may not be for people of color. Take a dose of paranoia and call your lawyer in the morning.
Margaret Kimberley is an editor and senior columnist for the Black Agenda Report. Her Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. When sending email, please remember to replace the (at) with @.
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