tricking parents into thinking they were going to Europe!
Iraqi Children in Algeria and Israel: Good Samaritan?
Wafaa' Al-Natheema, Cambridge, MA
June 10, 2008
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=44770
The Prophet Muhammad said, "When a person practices charity, it
should be so secretly that his left hand does not know what his
right hand has given". Meaning nobody knows how much he has given in
charity. Another famous Arabic proverb states, "it is as if you've
done a bad deed when you do good and announce about it." Such notion
makes it hard for those, who follow it or simply live with such
tradition, to excel in selling themselves (as the term often used in
the USA), in marketing, promotion and propaganda. Precisely why
Arabs and Moslems don't do good in these practices compared to
people elsewhere in the world. So when they attempt to promote their
good deeds (or anything else for that matter) or commit propaganda,
they are easily caught up in the action, and often challenged. I
mention this in the hope that those, who wear the daily fashion of
harshly criticizing Arabs and Moslems for not doing much, or "the
right thing," have some understanding of why that seems so, but not
necessarily true. I began with the Prophet's hadeeth (saying) to
give this societal norm a historic, not religious, dimension.
Generally Arabs and Moslems are not articulate in selling themselves
(or promoting their causes), in deception and propaganda. Therefore
the good they commit is hardly noticeable. Another reason is that
their side of the story is highly censored. Since we live in a world
that worships and follows material whereby the mighty countries with
massive armies and advanced technologies rule and have most of the
say, the Prophet Muhammad's instruction and the Arabic saying are no
longer practical. I conclude so also because of my recent findings
about good deeds committed by Algerians and Israelis in providing
medical care for IRAQI children who have acute medical conditions.
This research offers some instances of censorship.
When doing a search using Google and typing "Iraqi Children in
Algeria," one finds less than seven websites none of which are by
major or well-known media outlets or organizations! The list's top
source by the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) provided only two paragraphs
about the subject of welcoming three Iraqi children in May (2008)
and offering them medical tests in preparation for surgeries in
Algeria. The second link reported about the matter in four lines.
The third was by Echorouk Online, which provided a report of twenty-
one lines with a picture, for a change. The fourth link was by
Lexisnexis.com showing an article published by The Sunday Times
(London), written by Ali Rifat in Amman and Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv
on May 25, 08. This was the most detailed article, but only one-
third of its details were highlighting Iraqi children's treatment in
Algeria, the rest focused on Iraqi children who received medical
care in Tel Aviv. I will evaluate this article later.
Then on another Google page, one finds two additional links giving
information about the news of Iraqi children's medical treatment in
Algeria; one by the forum.e-dz.com and the other account published
in The Washington Times and written by Ben Lando. This article
provided the most details on the subject. It is a strongly
recommended article to read on the subject matter of Algerians' Good
Samaritan. That is it!
Yet when Googling "Iraqi Children in Israel," one finds sixty
articles dating back to March 2007, being covered by major media
outlets such as the Boston Herald, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, and ABC
News as well as on the website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign
Affairs plus two video clips on Google and Youtube. The mountainous
propaganda about Israel's Good Samaritan is evident not only in the
number of news reports written and the writing style, but also in
the extensive details they provided.
The 36-second Youtube clip by Infolive.tv begins with the narrator
stating, "Coalition forces continue battle al-Qaeda in IRAQ
suffering daily casualties," then shows footage of an Iraqi child in
hospital bed and concludes with his mother speaking in Kurdish (with
English subtitles) thanking the organization that helped her son
have surgery at the Holon Wolfsen Hospital. The Youtube propaganda
clip was posted on October 16, 2007 and indicates that it has been
viewed 362 times. The video clip was posted under the title "Two
Iraqi Children Suffering from Heart Disorders Treated in Israel."
People posted utterly hateful and insulting remarks underneath the
clip about Arabs, Iraqis and Moslems and over praised Israel.
No such Youtube or Google video clips are found about the Algerian
Good Samaritan toward Iraqi children!! Instead I found a clip
entitled "MSF: Surgery for Wounded Iraqis," which was posted on
Youtube in November 2007 by someone in Belgium! The clip, which was
viewed by only 182 viewers, reports about Iraqi wounded individuals
being treated by Iraqi, Jordanian and foreign doctors in Amman. The
clip has no comments posted underneath it despite that it was
allowable to post comments!!
I was perplexed by the article published in The Sunday Times
(London), which I mentioned earlier being written by Ali Rifat in
Amman and Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv on May 25, 08. I found it again
on the http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ website. Not only two-thirds of
its details focused on Iraqi children's medical treatment in Israel,
but also its title, first paragraph and conclusive quote were
propaganda-geared and startling to read! Its title reads, "Iraqi
mothers deny their sick children Israeli heart operation." The
verb 'deny' has a negative connotation and is criticism provoking.
The fact that two-thirds of the article's information highlighted
children's medical treatment in Israel and their Good Samaritan
makes more sense if the title had been 'Iraqi mothers chose Israeli
heart operation for their sick children.' This title is more
suitable also because only three of the fourteen families chose to
head to Algeria instead of Israel. The remaining eleven families
were suddenly removed from their apartment and placed in a church
until their departure to Israel!! In other words, when three
families chose Algeria over Israel, they made a mistake, how could
they? The first paragraph of this Sunday Times article reads "The
parents of Iraqi babies with congenital heart problems are facing a
dilemma: should they allow their children to be treated in Israeli
hospitals when they have been brought up to believe that Israel is
their mortal enemy?" It is not really their mortal enemy, but they
have been brought up to believe so! This is the intended message
from this paragraph. In other words all the atrocities committed by
Zionists since the forceful establishment of the State of Israel in
1948, and even before that year, toward Arabs are insufficient to
consider Israel an enemy! As if to indicate that their anomosity is
the product of brainwashing and propaganda.
Then Uzi Mahnaimi (in Tel Aviv) continues in the second paragraph
stating, "hostility towards the Jewish State in Iraq is so strong
that many parents refuse to travel to Tel Aviv for the life-saving
hole-in-the heart surgery." Since Uzi reported in present tense
("hostility….. is so strong"), I was not sure what "hostility
towards the Jewish State" he was trying to convey! Israelis have
been nesting in northern Iraq and roaming all over the country, so
what hostility he means! They have even rebuilt some of their
religious sites since Baghdad fell to US occupation forces. They
have trained Kurdish militias who caused the death of thousands of
Iraqis mostly Arabs, not to mention assasinating Iraqi scientists!!
The term "Jewish State" rings another troubling bell. Non-Jewish
Iraqis have lived with Jews for thousands of years and no anomisoty
has been reported against Jews in IRAQ (or in most Arab countries)
until the forceful establishment of Israel. Had he used the
terms 'Israel' or 'Zionists', his sentence won't be highly debated.
Additionally why wasn't Ali Rifat alone sufficient to report about
the patients in Amman heading to Algeria? Why the inclusion of a co-
author (Uzi Mahnaimi) was inevitable for the article to be
published? This comes as a reminder for the times when I used to
give lectures about Palestine and a couple of times I was pressured
to have someone with me present the Jewish/Israeli viewpoint even
when such a practice was not done before with other lecturers! The
Sunday Times should have covered two different stories about the
Iraqi patients; one by Rifat to tackle the news about Iraqi patients
who chose medical care in Algeria and one by Mahnaimi to cover those
receiving treatment in Israel. It is a shame that mainstream media
outlets (in English and other languages) have not covered the news
about these patients and their predicament. People elsewhere who are
willing and able to help would arrange to receive Iraqis in acute
medical conditions and treat them if they hear of their needs and
see others doing so. So why the censorship?
Israelis' Good Samaritan has an additional agenda, which is Israel's
interest in breaking the political barrier with Iraqis; the most
ardent resistors to Israel in the region. How political and
propaganda-geared is this undertaking?
1. The Haaretz correspondent, Yoav Stern, reports on October 27, 07
that Iraqi and Palestinian Children (from Gaza) were being brought
to Tel Aviv for heart surgery, yet at the same time Israel has been
directly terrorizing and killing Palestinians in Gaza as well as
participating in the killing of Iraqi scientists while training
Kurdish guerillas to kill other Iraqis mostly Arabs! Double
standards and patronage.
2. Simon McGregor-Wood's report, on December 11, 07 for the ABC
News, reads, "Israeli charity saving Iraqi children one heart at a
time," while Israel has been collaborating with the USA-UK forces in
their killing of more than one million hearts!! In the same article,
one also reads "the children are made to feel at home. They are
given doughnuts and candy, a traditional gift for the Jewish holiday
of Hanukkah." So just in case Iraqis didn't know about Hanukkah,
they need (along with thousands of readers) to be reminded of it and
psychologically connect it with the Good Samaritan! Not to mention
that Hanukkah has no historic or religious significance and was
created to be commemorated around and to imitate Christmas and for
celebration in Hollywood movies, TV series and the news.
3. When Algerians welcomed three Iraqi children for heart surgeries
in May 2008, their Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not publish the
news on their website because they don't do propaganda well and
don't intend to turn their Good Samaritan into a political campaign.
Yet the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a report on
their website on October 11, 2007 entitled, "Two Iraqi Children to
come to Israel for emergency heart surgery." The Israeli government
was so eager to tell the world about their good deed that this
report was posted on their website on the same day Iraqi children
arrived in Tel Aviv!
The Legality of This Undertaking:
The Iraqi Parliament's Health and Environment Committee has called
for an investigation. The Health Ministry claims it didn't know of
the organizations or the project providing heart surgeries to Iraqi
children in Israel. Additionally some of these Iraqi families were
told that the surgery was to be performed in a European country, but
after arriving in Amman, they found out that they would be traveling
to Israel for surgery! Why mislead the families?
One of the Iraqi children, Sara, would need regular medical
attention. While in Jordan with her mother, a group of Iraqi doctors
helped the mother and two other families to find other options.
Algeria responded immediately. So they moved three of the families
to a three-room apartment from the one provided by Brothers
Together, a Christian group. This move was unsettling to the
international coordinator of Brothers Together. The Washington
Time's Ben Lando reported that Brothers Together transported 80 or
more children to Israeli hospitals. Despite that this group has not
registered with the Iraqi government to work as a nongovernmental
organization in Iraq, or with the World Health Organization, they
arrange for the medical treatment, the visa to Amman and provide
accommodation! The projects and activities of any humanitarian
organization are bound by international law. The fact that they did
not register with the Iraqi government and that there are no
diplomatic relations between Iraq and Israel, these so-called
charitable organizations have been functioning illegally.
According to a reliable source, the Iraqi Ambassador in Jordan, Saad
Al-Hayane refused to sign a Death Certificate for a child that died
following the surgery in Israel arguing that there are no diplomatic
relations between Iraq and Israel.
Alternatives and Lessons:
Iraqis should only be treated in Arab and Islamic countries as well
as in countries that have had no military presence in IRAQ such as
China, Cuba, India and Russia. All have excellent medical services.
Countries that have been participating in the destruction of IRAQ
and the killing of Iraqis; the USA-UK-Iran-Israel collaborative or
those provided military forces to participate in the killing of
Iraqis and the robbery of the country's treasures (such as Holland,
Japan, Korea and many others) must be banned from offering any
health treatment to Iraqis, thanks for the patronage and double
standards. Israel has had its long history of terrorism and human
rights violation not just against Palestinians, but also against
their own Jewish community mainly those who came to Israel from Arab
and African countries. When it comes to health, charity and medical
treatments in Israel, the following is of importance:
1. Upon arrival at Tel Aviv airport in the 1950s, Arab Jews were
sprayed with DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane), which is a
synthetic pesticide; a chemical with a long controversial history
and was banned two decades later. The purpose of the spraying was to
disinfect them from germs! The Israeli government did not welcome
Jews coming from Europe and the USA the same way!
2. In a scandal unknown to the world, many infants of Yemenite Jews
upon arrival to the "promised land" in the 1950s have disappeared.
Some were told that their infants have been sick and died in
hospital, but the parents never received their bodies or death
certificates. The news of the graves of Yemenite Jewish children
found empty were covered in few newspapers in August 1997, but
worldwide mainstream media did not cover this scandal. The later
findings were that these babies were sold to Europeans for adoption!
Had the babies been Ashkenazi (western) Jews, the investigation of
their disappearance would have been held immediately and without
court orders.
3. In another scandal unknown to the world, Moroccan Jewish children
received poisonous radiations without their parents consent. "In
1951, the director general of the Israeli Health Ministry, Dr. Chaim
Sheba flew to the USA and returned with 7 x-ray machines, supplied
to him by the American army." The ministry of health tricked the
parents by pretending to take the children to school trips. The
parents were later told that the x-rays were a treatment for the
scourge of scalpal ringworm. Shortly after the doses given 6000
children died. Others developed cancer that killed them over time.
Those who lived suffered from epilepsy, amnesia, Alzheimer's disease
and chronic headaches. More extensive details about this disgraceful
project can be accessed in sources below. When "The Ringworms
Children" documentary film by director David Belhassen was shown in
August 2005 on Israeli TV, it was aired simultaneously with the
highest-rated TV show of the year, the finale of Israel's talent-
hunt show: "A Star Is Born." The next day, the photo of the newly
born star took up half the front pages. There was not one word
about "The Ringworm Children" in any paper, or on the Internet! Had
those deaths been by Ashkenazi Jews, an annual commemoration would
have been featured in mainstream media and people worldwide would
have heard of it just like in the case of holocaust.
4. Israel has had many instances of sending the wrong food to the
occupied territories. On July 28,1997, the Washington Post
reported, "There is substantial evidence that unscrupulous Israeli
merchants, working in cahoots with Palestinian profiteers, sent tons
of spoiled flour to the West Bank and Gaza last spring. And large
quantities of canned baby food, shipped from Israel to Gaza under
the label of the Milk Industries Group in Afula, Israel, turned out
to be relabeled soy formula whose expiration date had passed."
These examples should be a lesson and a reminder to Iraqis in
general, particularly children under occupation, to never take
medication, games, food or gifts from strangers even if they seem
nice especially from US military personnel, never mind illegal
organizations that mislead patients about even the core matter; the
location of their medical treatment! Among the USA's charities
during the embargo on Iraq were many instances of donating expired
food and medicine! That is how the industrial west and Israel
operate with people from the world they call Third! Knowing that
most of the patients who received medical treatment in Israel since
2007 have been Kurds, an extensive campaign to educate the Kurds and
others in northern IRAQ about the aforementioned issues is a MUST if
Iraqis want to avoid being exploited and to prevent the division of
Iraq and the stealing of its resources!
Source:
1. Iraqi doctors and Asma al-Haidari in Jordan.
2. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3998
990.ece
3. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/may/29/hatred-of-is
rael-cuts-deep-to-heart
4. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/915228.html
5. Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Israel+beyond+politics/Two%20Iraqi
%20children%20to%20come%20to%20Israel%20%20for%20emergency%2 ...
6. ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3708320
7. GoogleVideo: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-
1943335450928651086
8. Youtube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdjTL_43qQI
9. Youtube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ePGEurQxE0
10. Yemenite Jewish Children Scandal:
· http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9302/ym.htm
· http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/315/7109/623/g
· http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124705
11. Moroccan Ringworm Victims: http://www.jewwatch.com/jew-genocide-
ringworm-children.html.
Haaretz and other sources that covered this story have removed the
report from the Internet, probably due to pressure! Other sources on
Moroccan Victims: http://zennobia.blogspot.com/2005/04/series-what-
zionists-have-done-to.html
http://booksinternationale.pbwiki.com/The+Ringworm+Children
12. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/mideast/july/28/g
um2807.htm
13. Hanukkah Notes: http://zanjabeel-
saffron.blogspot.com/2006/12/hanukkah-notes.html
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