The Ringworm Scandal: When Israeli Doctors Killed Tens of Thousands of Arab Children Tikun-Olam Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם
▻http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2014/10/12/the-ringworm-scandal-when-israeli-doctors-killed-tens-of-thousan
There are a number of readers who are either confused or reading this post sloppily, including the headline. To clarify: there is a link to a Jonathan Cook piece at the end of this post which notes that the State of Israel irradiated both Arab Jewish and Palestinian children for ringworm. Hence the title of this post which uses the inclusive term, “Arab,” by which I include both Jewish and Palestinian children.
There are also those who claim that radiation was a standard treatment for ringworm inside and outside Israel in the 1950s. This too misconstrues the argument put forward in the film and here. While radiation may’ve been considered suitable for ringworm in that era, no one killed children with radiation outside of Israel. The dosage set by Dr. Sheba was far too high and the X-ray machines he used were outmoded and hence the dosage administered could not be calibrated accurately or administered suitably.
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▶ The Ringworm Children testing of large radiation doses on humans. - YouTube
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMp1tef4lg4
directed by David Belhassen and Asher Hemias. The documentary won the award for “Best Documentary” at the Haifa International Film Festival and was featured as a documentary at the Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2007.
It is claimed in the documentary that the X-ray radiation used on the children was thousands of times beyond the maximum recommended dose and it is suggested that the program was funded by the United States in order to test the effects of large radiation doses on humans.
In fact, the treatment in Israel was the same that was used elsewhere in the world.
The documented dosages given to the Israeli children were similar to (if not less than) that administered to children treated for ringworm at New York University Hospital between 1940 and 1959.
A study from the early 1950s found X-ray treatment effective in almost all cases of ringworm.
The documentary alleges that 100,000 children were irradiated, and that 6,000 of them died shortly after receiving treatment. Many of the ’ringworm children’ later developed cancer, and in 1994 the Knesset passed a law mandating the Israeli government to provide them with compensation