Open Communication and Discussion Facilitate Reconciliation: The Maimonides Approach to Publication of Manduca’s Letter in The Lancet
Shraga Blazer
AbstractIn August of 2014, Manduca P et al. published “An open letter for the people in Gaza” in The Lancet. This letter was the response of those authors to their perspective of what was happening in Gaza during the summer-long conflict between Israel and Gaza. Israel was finally responding to years of bombardment from Gaza into civilian areas in the south of Israel. Two of the authors of the letters were known anti-Semites, and held connections with David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard in Louisiana and advocate of Nazism. Both these authors expressed sympathy and support for Duke’s rabidly anti-Jewish positions. In their letter they accused Israel’s medical community of complicity in committing terrible atrocities and even implied that chemical warfare was being used by Israel.
Rambam Maimonides Med J 2015;6(1):e0001