Israel Matzav

Israeli doctor: 'Dear Goldstone, they cheated you, you're wrong'

I edited the Google translation of this Maariv article to make it more readable. The original Hebrew article is here.

Dr. David Tzengen fought in Jenin during Operation Defensive Shield, and then he fought to clear his name and those his colleagues and exposed the lies about the "slaughter." Now he enlists again and writes to judge Richard Goldstone: "You allowed yourself to be deceived by the terrorists fabrications". He calls to: "Check again."

Dear Judge Goldstone,

My name is Dr. David Tzengen, I work in pediatric endocrinology and diabetes at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. More than half of my patients are Palestinians from Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. I speak Arabic, and I established the first training program for Palestinian doctors in the field of pediatric endocrinology. The doctors whom we train are highly valued, and they are included as authors in studies that we have published in leading journals.

I was also chief medical officer of my division during the operation in Jenin in 2002. I was responsible for the medical care of our soldiers, and I was also responsible to facilitate full medical services by the hospital in Jenin for the civilian population, and I was personally involved in countless medical treatments that Palestinians (including combatants) received from Israeli doctors.

During and after the operation, the hospital director in Jenin was the source of what was falsely called the "massacre in Jenin, which killed 5,000 people." That same person, Dr. Abu - Ghali, also argued that part of the hospital in Jenin was destroyed by Israeli tank missiles.

You know, honorable judge, that these statements were proven and documented to be shameless lies, not only by Israeli sources, but also by "Human Rights Watch" and by UN organizations. Only 52 deaths were counted on the Palestinian side (and 23 on the Israeli side). These organizations and photographs of the hospital in Jenin after the operation showed no evidence of any destruction Israel caused to the hospital.

Immoral behavior by Palestinian physicians is not new

This Dr. Abu - Ghali, the hospital director, a doctor, lies and incites in the martyrs' service. It is hard to believe that the director of the hospital can give such transparently false testimony. I cannot understand it and you cannot understand it, but unfortunately, that's what happened .

Tragically, the immoral behavior of physicians in the Palestinian Authority is not new. Pediatrician George Habash sent his terrorists to kill Israeli children in schools, and so also the leader of Hamas, Dr. Rantisi, and so also pediatrician Dr. Mahmoud a - Zahar encourages firing missiles from Gaza on Israeli children's schools.

Please, Judge Goldstone, you should really be careful when such liars serve as the basis for your report. I am sure you mean well but as an eyewitness to events in Jenin and and to the distorted reports in the media and by the UN thereafter, I understand what happened to you. How a man with such standing and integrity can be made into a linked report so wrong.

See, Judge Goldstone, your report on the case of "Al Fakura" on January 5-6 (paragraphs 688-651 in the report). You are reporting how Israel was accused of directly bombing the UNRWA school. It took two weeks to withdraw this accusation, but you, distinguished judge, went to collect your evidence only from those people who spread the blood libel.

Judges are expected to look for evidence

Furthermore, when you analyzed the arena, you claimed that you could not verify the numbers, 24 dead and 40 wounded, but that these numbers are not considered exaggerated. At the end, in the part dealing with factual findings, you already determine that 24 people were killed and 40 injured.

Have you by some chance tried to verify any part of these invented and inciteful figures? Have you watched the al-Jazeera or BBC reports from that date regarding the incident? Did you at least try to verify your "factual findings" through the records of emergency rooms that referred people to the trauma department that day? Did you review the identity cards of the "dead" or the cemetery in which they were purportedly buried?

Well, no you did not do it.

Since you are a Judge, I must be convinced that you did not mean to harm Israel, I am trying to believe you have reached Gaza without prejudice, but judges are expected to at least look for a little evidence (the media, emergency room records, burial places, etc.) relating to evidence and not to accept impossible "facts".

We advocate peace

But you allowed yourself to be mislead by fabrications from terrorists, or even from doctors like Dr. Abu Ghali from Jenin. My colleagues in Israel and I are proud of the medical services that are given to everyone equally, regardless of their origin. We're also proud to belong to a nation identified as having higher moral values than others.

I call upon you, Judge Goldstone, to take the al-Fakura incident, examine the media coverage of the same date, to see the events in this context, to try to live for one day with responsibility for the existence of a small nation of six million Jews who are constantly threatened by 300 million Muslims. I call upon you to try not to draw conclusions from those lies and deceptive witnesses, even if they are supposedly professionals.

In the modern world, propaganda and lies are definitely part of war, and as a judge it is forbidden for you to serve as a tool to strengthen hate and confrontations. We are advocates for peace, we are lovers of peace, and we try our best to fight for our right to exist while maintaining the highest moral standards, even at the cost of our lives.

As I was finishing translating this, I got an email saying that the article was originally written in English and that the English will be provided. If I like the original better, I will substitute it (or add it) for my translation.

UPDATE 1:48 PM

There's actually more to this letter than what Maariv published. Here's the original letter in English, complete with what Maariv omitted (I got this via email):

Dear Judge Goldstone,

My name is Dr. David Zangen, I am a consultant in Pediatric Endocrinology and diabetes at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem. Over 50% of my patient population is Palestinian from Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. I speak Arabic and initiated the first training program for Palestinian physicians in the field of Pediatric Endocrinology. The trained physicians were fully respected and were included as first authors on our studies that are published in world leading professional journals.

But, at the same time I happened to be the chief medical officer of my brigade during the Defensive Shield Operation in Jenin 2002. I was responsible for the medical treatment of our soldiers but also for enabling the hospital in Jenin to provide full medical services to the civilian population and I was personally involved in numerous medical treatments that Palestinians (including warriors) received from Israeli physicians.

During and after the operation the director of Jenin hospital was a source to what has been falsely called the "Massacre in Jenin where 5000 people were massacred" this same person Dr. Abu Rali has also claimed that one part of the Jenin hospital was destroyed by Israeli tank missiles "12 tank rockets were shot at the hospital …" etc

You should know, honored Judge that these statements have been proved and documented as straight lies not only by Israeli sources but also by the Human Rights Watch and the UN organizations counting only 52 dead people on the Palestinian side (23 on the Israeli side). These organizations and photographs of Jenin hospital following the operation showed no evidence for any destruction at the hospital buildings etc.
This Dr. Abu Rali a director of a hospital, a physician, lies and incites in the service of the Shahids. It is hard to believe that a director of a hospital can give such an obvious false testimony. I can't understand it and you can't understand it but unfortunately this is what has happened. Even persons who would usually be considered reliable sources become advocates of straight lies. Tragically, moral misbehavior of doctors in the Palestinian Authority is not new. The Pediatrician George Habash sent his terrorists to kill children in Israeli schools and so did the Hamas leader the pediatrician Dr. Rantisi…and so continues to do the Pediatrician encouraging the sending of rockets from Gaza on innocent Israeli schools Dr Mahmud Zaher.

Please judge Goldstone, you should really be careful when such straight liars serve as the basis for your report. I am sure that you mean well but being an eye witness both to the events in Jenin and to the subsequent media and initial false UN reporting I do understand what happened to you. How a person of such stature and integrity could become associated with such a faulted report.

Look Judge Goldstone at your report on the Al Fakhura event on January 5-6th 2009 (paragraphs 651-688). You do report how Israel was accused for directly bombing the UNRWA school. It took 2 weeks to withdraw from this accusation but you, honored Judge, went back to get your testimony only from the same people who spread the blood libel of bombing the school. Moreover when analyzing the scene you claim that you could not verify the numbers of 24 dead and 40 wounded but these numbers are not considered exaggerated. Finally in the Factual findings part you already determine that 24 people were killed and 40 injured!

Did you by any chance try to validate any of these invented and inciting details? Did you look at the Al Jazeera or BBC reports from the same very date of the event? Did you try to validate your "factual findings" conclusions by getting at least Emergency Room charts on the people admitted to their trauma department on this very day? Did you go over the I.D.'s of the "dead" people and the place or cemetery where they were supposedly buried?

Well you didn't!

In all the scene of "40 dead and 40 wounded" filmed by Al Jazeera and other channels reporters and screened at the same day all over the world you could not see bodies or blood spots in the streets beside two or three casualties and one footage of a single wall damaged by a bomb. As a physician who was at terrible suicide events with smaller number of casualties I can testify how it looks like for hours following the event….The media documentation of the Al Fakhura event does not verify and definitely does not go along with the fantasy and lies of your witnesses.

As a judge I must be sure that you did not mean to hurt Israel, I try to believe that you came to Gaza without prejudice…but a judge is expected to look at least for some evidence and verification (media, ER registration, burial places etc….) of the testimonies and not accept impossible "facts". You have let yourself to be misled by fabrications made by either terrorists or even doctors such as Dr. Abu Rali from Jenin.

I and my colleagues in Israel are proud of the medical service that is given equally to every human being regardless of his origin; we are also proud to belong to a nation that has the imprint of having higher moral standards than others.
The price that we pay for this status is very high. The Palestinians and other Muslims around the world, either common people or even respected doctors, use straight lies as part of the war against us. The Western world media criticizes us and tries to find where we were not behaving up to the extremely high moral standards that we made ourselves.

I call on you Judge Goldstone take this Al Fakhura event, look at the media coverage from the very same date…see the events in the context…try to live one day with the responsibility for the existence of this small nation of 6 million Jews threatened constantly by 300 million Muslims. I call on you to try and not draw conclusions from such lies and misleading witnesses even if they come from so-called professionals. In the modern world propaganda and lies are definitely a part of the war and as a judge you should not serve as a tool for augmenting hatred and conflicts.

We look for peace, we love peace and we do try our very best to fight for our right to exist in the highest possible moral standards even at the cost of our lives.

Zeir gut gezogt (very well said).

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:38 PM