“Here’s a late result from the Colosseum: Lions 56, Christians nil.”

I’d hope that people who become doctors are motivated by a desire to reduce suffering, and from point of view it is hard to see how one could have a different interpretation of current events in Gaza than the one Gilbert appears to have. So I wouldn’t say he’s necessarily straying outside his medical role to point the finger of blame - Fox’s notion that the Hippocratic oath answers all moral questions for a doctor in any situation is absurd.

Of course the oppressed are usually also oppressors and vice versa - something that Fanon describes very clearly in The Wretched of the Earth (I read it in South Africa last year, and his description of the decadence of the native bourgeoisie was uncannily prescient) - and the world does not divide neatly into goodies and baddies, but right now, I think the stats speak for themselves.

“He has become an apologist for Hamas, totally violating his obligation as a physician to heal the sick and not contribute to violence, ” added Steinberg.

Dr. Mads Gilbert is not alone in getting flack from many sides. In the backdrop of the claims and counter claims made about what is happening in Gaza, Avi Shlaim who in the past served in the Israeli army and is the author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World writes this :

As so often in the tragic history of Palestine, the victims were blamed for their own misfortunes. Israel’s propaganda machine persistently purveyed the notion that the Palestinians are terrorists, that they reject coexistence with the Jewish state.

According to Shlaim who is now Oxford professor of international relations the “brutality of Israel’s soldiers is fully matched by the mendacity of its spokesmen. Eight months before launching the current war on Gaza, Israel established a National Information Directorate. The core messages of this directorate to the media are that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreements; that Israel’s objective is the defence of its population; and that Israel’s forces are taking the utmost care not to hurt innocent civilians. Israel’s spin doctors have been remarkably successful in getting this message across. But, in essence, their propaganda is a pack of lies.”

The following examples illustrate how the practice of dropping all the blames on the victims is now reaching hysterical proportions.

On 7 January, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, delivered the Vatican’s toughest criticism of Israel since its offensive in the Palestinian-ruled enclave, calling Gaza a “big concentration camp.” Instead of regretting the loss of innocent lives, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declared: “We are astounded to hear from a spiritual dignitary words that are so far removed from truth and dignity,” Palmor said. “The vocabulary of Hamas propaganda, coming from a member of the College of Cardinals, is a shocking and disappointing phenomenon,” he said.

As the UN Humanitarian Services complained its staff coming under fire nine times in three days, Mark Regev once again claimed that it was Hamas which was obstructing efforts by UNRWA to provide relief in Gaza. When Alex Thomson from Channel 4 News asked an Israeli government spokesman on 10 January about reports on ICRC ambulances being blocked from carrying wounded civilians, Mark Regev claimed this may have happened because of a possible presence of Hamas elements in the vicinity.