A prestigious medical journal is under fire on Monday, after its editor-in-chief refused to issue an apology for using the publication to promote anti-Semitic propaganda.
The offending article, entitled "An Open Letter for the People of Gaza," drew ire from watchdog groups and medical experts alike for calling Israel's self-defense operation in Gaza "a massacre" and alleging that "95% of Israeli academics" supported what they claimed was "a military assault on innocent civilians."
The one-sided piece, which claimed to have been based on the views of "24 signatories," declined to mention Hamas's launching 3,600 rockets on millions of Israelis, the terror tunnels, or the constant incitement against Jews and Israelis - nor anything related to the practice or study of medicine.
But that is all just the tip of the iceberg.
Several of the article's authors - which included Paola Manduca, Iain Chalmers, Derek Summerfield, Mads Gilbert, and Swee Ang - have been implicated in or accused of links to terror and extremist groups as well.
Watchdog group NGO Monitor revealed additional links on Monday, noting that Manduca and Ang - who are both members of pro-Palestinian NGOs - heavily promoted a video from White Supremacist David Duke to the Italian Google group Sempre Contro la Guerra.
Ang wrote, “This is shocking video please watch. This is not about Palestine - it is about all of us!” The email also contained, in bold red lettering, “SEE THIS VIDEO BEFORE IT IS REMOVED FROM CIRCULATION - Please do pass on to others who you think would be interested and would pass on>>>The whole world needs to know.”
The video is described on Duke’s YouTube page as “reveal[ing] how the Zionist Matrix of Power controls Media, Politics and Banking and how each Part of this Tribalist matrix supports and protects each other!” The video labels the Federal Reserve Bank as “the Zio Club FED,” calls NBC News anchor Brian Williams a “good Shabbez goy Zioscript reader,” identifies U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan as a “Zio tribalist,” and states, “Zios invaded and took over Walt Disney Corp. just as they invaded and took over Palestine.”
NGO Monitor added that the circulation of this video is not an isolated incident, and for more than a year Manduca has disseminated articles and made comments containing antisemitic and racist content.
Medicine and politics: 'hand in hand'?
But bigotry is not a problem for Lancet editor Dr. Richard Horton, who called the accusations a "smear campaign" in an interview with the British Telegraph - and claimed that propaganda and medicine "go hand-in-hand."
“It's utterly irrelevant. It's a smear campaign,” Horton stated Monday. “I don’t honestly see what all this has to do with the Gaza letter. I have no plans to retract the letter, and I would not retract the letter even if it was found to be substantiated.”
When countered that a letter about politics has nothing to do with health issues, Horton turned defensive.
“How can you separate politics and health?," he claimed. "The two go hand-in-hand.”
Both Manduca and Ang agreed.
"I legitimately use my right of freedom of opinion," Manduca alleged, claiming she is not anti-Semitic but "do[es] not agree or value the politics of the government of Israel, nor of many others, including Jews in and out of Israel.”
Manduca's 'disagreements' include forwarding a message alleging that the 2012 Boston marathon bombings were carried out by Jews, and that the media was “buying the Zionist spin."
In another message, she accused the State of Israel of "strangling" other nations and "stealing their sunlight."
Ang, meanwhile, played dumb when confronted by Telegraph interviewers.
“I didn’t know who David Duke was, or that he was connected to the Ku Klux Klan," she claimed. "I am concerned that if there is any truth in the video, that Jews control the media, politics and banking, what on earth is going on? I was worried.”