A “scientific” study in which a senior Hamas official participated causes a stir: “The anti-Israel sentiment

In recent days, a study on the restoration of the health system in Gaza, funded by the British research fund UK Research and Innovation, was published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. One of the authors of the article is senior Hamas official Yosef Abu-Rish, director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, a body operating under the rule of Hamas, which is also defined as a terrorist organization in Britain.

The article itself presents the health system in Gaza as a victim of systematic attacks, and describes the situation as an “unprecedented destruction” of medical infrastructure. Distinctly political terms are used throughout the text, including accusations of a “deliberate attack on health facilities” and the broader context of “siege and control.”

Prof. Cyril Cohen, head of the immunotherapy laboratory and dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University, strongly criticizes the study. “He is very biased,” he says. “In biological-medical research, it is wrong to get into politics and write words like ‘genocide’ or ‘decolonization’. When such terms are used, it shows that there is a political goal, and in this case it is clear who is behind it. In science, we strive for no bias.” According to him, scientific research must adhere to clear standards, the purpose of which is to “lead to the study of the truth”.

Cohen also points to methodological problems: “95% of the interviewees there are men, from a very specific field of physical trauma and orthopedics. This is not a representative sample. I am very surprised that such a newspaper decided to publish something that does not meet the accepted scientific standards. This is a more political than scientific article. They tried to dress up something political in a scientific article, and it is not appropriate.”

As you may remember, the Hamas organization made cynical use of medical facilities, and used them for the purpose of torturing abductees, sheltering and hiding its people. Senior officials in Israel’s health system, including Prof. Zeev Rothstein, former CEO of the Sheba Medical Center and the Hadassah Medical Center, have previously referred to the testimony of abductees about stitches and surgeries performed without anesthesia in Hamas captivity. “The opinion does not tolerate a doctor participating in a torture or any inhumane act,” he said, stressing that doctors are obligated to the doctor’s oath and to provide humane treatment to every person.

“As a scientist, I don’t accept it”

Cohen also refers to an important process in creating research: “There is a process called ‘peer review.’ According to him, it is possible to publish opinion articles on health issues, “but here they turned it into a scientific article. As a scientist, I don’t accept that.”

He believes that the political climate around Israel creates a reality of excluding Israeli researchers. “There are blatant cases of reluctance to cooperate because you belong to Israel. Sometimes the colleagues say that it is not them, but their university that is not ready to cooperate with Israel.” According to him, there have also been cases where articles have encountered scientifically irrelevant criticism. “I also received a case in which the judge of the article asked to confirm that the samples in the study were not taken from Palestinians during the war – something that had nothing to do with the scientific topic of the article, which was finally rejected and not published by the same newspaper.”

Prof. Cohen points out that his colleagues’ lectures were canceled “under the guise of security considerations”, he emphasizes: “If there was innocence that after the war things would go back to the way they were – we understand that this is not the case. Once the genie is out of the bottle, it is very difficult to get it back.” However, at Bar-Ilan University as in other Israeli academic institutions, a committee for the fight against the academic boycott works to fight these phenomena.”

According to him, “there are many researchers, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who want to continue collaborating and say that science and politics should not be mixed.” He tells about a delegation of French researchers who came to Israel to express support for Israeli science, despite severe criticism directed against them on social media. “The anti-Israel sentiment exists – and it has also spilled over into science,” he says.

We requested a response from the British Embassy in Israel, but it has not yet been received.