Professor Richard Horton, editor of Europe’s most prestigious medical journal, provoked an academic storm recently when he published an open letter to the people of Gaza that publically condemned Israeli medical practices. Today he is visiting Rambam Health Care Campus to experience first-hand the diversity and multicultural administration of Israeli medical care.

Rambam Health Care Campus is hosting a series of meetings this week with Professor Richard Horton, editor of the British medical journal The Lancet, which is also one of the oldest and most respected journals in the medical world. Professor Horton will meet with senior researchers and physicians at Rambam and the Technion’s Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, and attend seminars. On Thursday, Professor Horton will, among other activities, participate in the Rambam Grand Rounds, a series of faculty lectures given every Thursday morning at Rambam.

During Operation Protective Edge, Horton instigated a media storm following publication in The Lancet of an open letter to Gaza signed by several dozen physicians from the West, accusing Israel of “cruel” and “vicious war crimes.” Publication of the letter brought an immediate reaction from the international medical community.

Physicians, researchers, and Israeli officials were severely distressed by the letter and responded strongly to The Lancet. Rambam officials have stated that the purpose of Horton’s visit is to provide a venue for academic discussions and meetings in Israel’s multicultural medical institutions that have strong medical cooperation agreements with the Palestinian Authority to treat people from the PA areas and Gaza. Some of the lectures and discussions will also examine the limits and appropriateness of freedom of political opinion in scientific journals, and openly consider and discuss the unilateralism of which The Lancet has been accused.

The invitation to personally view the facts of how Israeli medical care is administered at Rambam and other hospitals received the endorsement of the Israeli Ministry of Health.

“Rambam Health Care Campus is a medical institution—characterized by some of the highest standards of scientific research in the world, creating an unusual human mosaic—an employee culture that includes all sectors and groups in Israel,” says Prof. Rafi Beyar, Director of Rambam, “I believe that Professor Horton will certainly hear from impressive professional colleagues and raise questions about the publications that caused such a furor two months ago. He will be invited to express his opinion. I believe he will be quite impressed and will learn that Israel’s public health system does its very best to genuinely care for its neighbors, that multiculturalism and medical education is extended to health care professionals in the Palestinian Authority, and he will observe Rambam’s exceptional openness and scientific representatives, on behalf of the State of Israel for the development of global research and medicine.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)