SIR – The letter by Merton Davis, ‘Why die a miserable death?’ was a complete lie in claiming that a cure for pancreatic cancer had been found by Israel. Readers should know that no cure has been found and Davis’s claim that ‘it only takes a few weeks for the cure to start making a dramatic difference’ is an invention.
That Merton Davis should use this forum to give false hope to pancreatic cancer sufferers is a disgrace especially as, unless there is early diagnosis, survival is normally six to 12 months.
Israeli researchers say they have found that molecule research using mice may ‘potentially’ offer a breakthrough in pancreatic cancer treatment. If their research is funded, they intend to progress testing to pigs over a two-year period. It is often found that positive animal testing does not prove successful in human testing – the final process of approval for use.
‘Oncotarget,’ the open access journal that published the Tel Aviv research findings, has been de-listed by many medical organisations and the subject of criticism for the publication of questionable cancer researchers fabricated data in the past.
The false claim by Davis was used in his attempt to undermine the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. This peaceful movement, established by Palestinians, asks governments and every-day shoppers not to buy Israeli products so as to demonstrate their revulsion of Israel’s denial of human rights to those under its illegal occupation and settlements.
We can expect many more such false attempts to counter criticism of Israel now that the International Criminal Court is to investigate, document and expose Israel’s litany of monstrous crimes committed against the essentially defenceless indigenous Palestinians.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) gives the court jurisdiction over war crimes committed in or from the territory of the State of Palestine, now an ICC member, since June 2014; crimes such as the transfer of Israeli settlers into the occupied territory of Palestine and the forced removal of Palestinians from their land. It doesn’t take a great legal scholar to understand that dropping tons of bombs from fighter jets on a defenceless civilian population constitutes a war crime.
Israel’s killing of unarmed protesters and its illegal occupation and settlements will be investigated and more will learn of the atrocities hidden from public view which should lead to more people joining the BDS movement.
This ICC investigation means that the enormous efforts Israel makes to justify its attacks on Palestinians — and to claim that they are carried out in self-defence only — may finally be beginning to fail.
Bob Storey,
Skibbereen.
