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Palestinians and Sephardical Jews: the sames genes-Censorship-who? Why

by Open-Publishing - Monday 8 January 2007
2 comments

Wars and conflicts Discriminations-Minorit. International

http://www.refuseandresist.org/newrepression/122901genetics.html

Genetics paper erased from journal over political content

[Nature - 11/22/01]

A paper about the genetic origins of Palestinians has found itself at the centre of a political storm. In a highly unusual move, the journal Human Immunology has deleted the paper from its September issue after receiving a wealth of complaints over what some saw as inappropriate political comments about the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

The paper examines genetic variability in the HLA complex ‹ a highly diverse complex of immune-system genes ‹ in a sample of Palestinians (A. Arnaiz-Villena et al. Hum. Immunol. 62, 889?900; 2001). But controversially, it also includes a historical introduction calling Jews living in the Gaza strip "colonists" and describing some Palestinians as living in concentration camps. The paper’s publication sparked a "cascade" of angry letters complaining that such comments had no place in a scientific journal, says the journal’s editor-in-chief, Nicole Suciu-Foca of Columbia University in New York.

The paper "purports to be a scientific treatise" but "offers opinion on geopolitical issues that cannot be substantiated by the data presented", wrote Dolly Tyan, then president of the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI), which runs the journal, in a letter to members on 3 October. "ASHI is offended and embarrassed by its inclusion within the journal."

The publisher of Human Immunology, Elsevier Science, has removed all electronic versions of the article and has sent a letter to individual subscribers and librarians advising them to ignore the article "or, preferably, to physically remove the relevant pages".

The paper’s lead author, Antonio Arnaiz-Villena of the Complutense University in Madrid, says he did not intend to offend anyone and calls the decision to withdraw the article "unwise". He says he has several letters of support, including one from Jean Dausset, president of the Human Polymorphisms Study Centre in Paris, one of the founding fathers of HLA genetics. A more appropriate action, Arnaiz-Villena says, would have been to publish the letters of complaint and allow him to respond.

But the depth of anger the article raised made such a course impossible, argues Suciu-Foca. One ASHI member was so offended by the article that he resigned, she says. "We would have had mass resignations and the journal would have been destroyed if this paper were allowed to remain."

The paper was in a special issue on anthropology edited by Arnaiz-Villena. Although Arnaiz-Villena says the paper was approved by two reviewers, the incident has prompted the journal’s editorial board to revise its policy so that in future the editor-in-chief will supervise work by guest editors, Suciu-Foca says.

The data announced in the paper, which indicated that Jews and Palestinians have a close genetic relationship, were worth reporting, says Steven Marsh, a member of Human Immunology’s editorial board who studies the nomenclature of HLA genes at the Anthony Nolan Research Institute in London. "Had the authors confined themselves to announcing their scientific results, it would have been an interesting paper," he says.

The retraction of a scientific paper because of political statements is "unprecedented", says Sheldon Krimsky, an expert on publication ethics at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. But the editorial board took legal advice before making its decision, Suciu-Foca says. "This has nothing to do with freedom of opinion," she says. "This journal is not the right forum for expressing political views."

The editors invited Arnaiz-Villena to resubmit a revised version of the article, Suciu-Foca says, and reviewers are now considering a new version for possible publication.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

[posted 12/29/01]

Forum posts

  • It is a well known fact since Palestinans are Semites, maybe that’s the reason why Sepharadi jews are 2nd class Israeli citizens, and Paletinians 3rd or 4th class citizens, the first class citizensn are the Ashkenazi jews, who control that contry since its creation, and who have nothing to do with the land of palestine.
    They were a central Eeuropean people who converted to judaism in the 9th century just like many other ethnic groups did when jaudadaic philosophy suted them, like some Ethiopians, some Indians and even some Chinese.
    If you look at the original Israeli jews(the ones who’ve always been there) ’s attitude towards Palestinians, it is a lot less antagonistic than that of the Ashkenazis.
    So, Zionism was instigated by Ashkenazi jews not Sepharadi, although now many Sepahradis are fevent Zionists (as a large part of french jews, of which 80% comes from North Africa; Sepharadis).
    Zionist have always been in the business of censuring anyone and anything that says the truth about them, or criticises Isarel.That’s why Israel gets away with murder since its creation. It is also a very well known fact that Zionists like the nazis and fascist , are "SUPREMACISTS".
    Everyone has to accept the fact that they(Zionists) are above all rules and laws.
    In France being a racist; Anti Arab, or anti Black or anti anything else, is not a single problem, but to be Anti-semite, is a criminal offence, and can lead you to prison, if Zionosm isn’t racism, what is it then?

    M.Chabou.NL

    • "if Zionosm isn’t racism, what is it then?"

      While it is true that Zionism carries with it connotations of a nasty form of racism, although it is a mere pretense since indigenous Palestinian Arabs and Jews have a common genetic makeup, it is best characterized as a form of colonialism, that term carrying with it all of the attributes and intentions of the imperial forms of it that have been practised by the Europeans and Americans over the past 400 years. One might say that Zionism represents the last gasp of this imperial colonialism and Israel’s failure to subdue the inhabitants of the occupied territiories shows that its death is nigh.