The British Medical Journal ran a double page spread asking, “Should we consider boycotting Israeli academic institutions?” Opposing commentaries by Tom Hickey and Michael Baum hash the issue.
But Ann Robinson argues that the BMJ isn’t an appropriate venue for such debate:
There are so many forums in which the politics of the Middle East can be debated. I follow the spirited interchanges on Comment is free and read the varied opinions in the Guardian and other liberal newspapers, including the Israeli paper Ha’aretz which is often hypercritical of the Israeli government. I don’t need the BMJ to inform me about the Middle East. In fact, it used to be nice to read something I knew would be about medicine, not politics….
There are a tonne of health inequalities on our doorstep. Health rationing of cancer drugs. Postcode rationing of fertility treatment. The health gaps between rich and poor, north and south, men and women. If the BMJ wants to become a political, campaigning magazine, let it shine the spotlight closer to home. Or is that less fun?
