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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

[The following is crossposted with permission from CiF Watch -MS]

This is a guest post by Jonathan Hoffman

"Contaminated water is poisoning babies in Gaza" -- so reads the strapline to the disgraceful article by Victoria Brittain today. Anyone who knows anything about medieval Jew hatred will shudder at the similarity to the "Jews poison the well" trope.

Says Brittain: In Gaza "there is now no uncontaminated water; of the 40,000 or so newborn babies, at least half are at immediate risk of nitrate poisoning....Incidence of "blue baby syndrome", methaemoglobinaemia", is exceptionally high; an unprecedented number of people have been exposed to nitrate poisoning over 10 years; in some places the nitrate content in water is 300 times World Health Organisation standards."

I first heard the methaemoglobinaemia allegation from Omar Barghouti at the BRICUP meeting in London last Friday. Neither Barghouti nor Brittain cited any medical evidence in support of their claim. Given the agenda of both these Israel-haters, their credibility is at rock bottom .... except among the true believers of CiF. Brittain for example has blamed Israel for flooding in Gaza, totally unaware that when it rains heavily, the coastal areas of Israel are prone to flooding too.

Much of Brittain's article is based on the recent Amnesty Report which has been comprehensively gutted here by CAMERA and here by me (and elsewhere too, no doubt CiFWatch readers will offer more links).

Indeed CAMERA has written no fewer than six pieces deconstructing the mostly fictional Amnesty Report!

Here is the comment on the Brittain thread by the estimable Petra Marquardt-Bigman:

Almost exactly a year ago, Ms. Brittain wrote an article complaining that the horrendous atrocities in Congo got some attention from British officials, instead of them focusing on Gaza (From Goma to Gaza, was the title). A year later, she complains that instead of all the fuss about global warming, the international community should focus on Gaza... Looks like a pattern to me.

But anyway, who will save Gaza's children? How about Gaza's rulers, who had no problem equipping an army that they boast has some 15 000 fighters, who had no problem building up an elaborate network of bunkers and tunnels for military purposes, who had no problem organizing the building of tunnels for smuggling, who had no problem setting up and running a TV station to "educate" their population in the way Hamas wants them to see things -- ah, and btw, yesterday there was a new type of rocket launched from Gaza into Israel, and recently, Hamas reportedly tested a rocket that could reach Tel Aviv. So all in all, it seems that they don't have a problem to get the things they care about done. Apparently, Ms. Brittain recently visited Gaza, given the colorful description she is giving here, maybe she should go back and ask the Hamas leaders why they don't do anything about the sewage and water problem in order to "save Gaza's children".

Indeed. And Victoria Brittain has a track record of putting the facts in second place behind her personal agenda.

It has been said of her that "Victoria Brittain has never met a terrorist, jihadist, or enemy of a liberal and multicultural society that she doesn't admire...."

Sounds ideal for a Guardian CiF author ....

2 Comments

UNICEF just issued a report on maternal and child health- Children in the disputed territories suffer less from stunted growth due to maternal and childhood undernutrition than others in the region.

Palestinian Territories- 10%
Lebanon - 11
Jordan - 12
Oman - 13
UAE - 17
Saudi Arabia - 20
Kuwait - 24
Iraq - 26
Syria - 28
Egypt - 29
Yemen – 58

Excuse me for clouding the issues with facts:
According to the first article, the nitrate contamination has been going on long before the "seige" and is likely related to animal waste....
The second article addresses the same issue- breastfeeding infants would end this problem-
The percentage of children who have received supplementary feeding in the form of formula milk was 51.5% in Gaza Strip. The mean age at supplementation of liquids and solids was 4 months.

Sci Total Environ. 2008 Jul 15;398(1-3):164-74. Epub 2008 Apr 14.

Elevated nitrate levels in the groundwater of the Gaza Strip: distribution and sources.
Shomar B, Osenbrück K, Yahya A.
Institute of Environmental Geochemistry, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. bshomar@ugc.uni-heidelberg.de
Seven years of monitoring groundwater in the Gaza Strip has shown that nitrate was and still is a major groundwater pollutant. The objectives of this research were to study the distribution of NO(3)(-) in the groundwater of the Gaza Strip and to identify the sources of NO(3)(-) in the Gaza aquifer system by assessing nitrogen and oxygen isotopes. The most recent samples collected in 2007 showed 90% of the wells having NO(3)(-) concentrations that are several times higher than the WHO standards of 50 mg/L. Potential NO(3)(-) source materials in Gaza are animal manure N, synthetic NH(4) based fertilizers, and wastewater/sludge. The average concentrations of N in the sludge, manure and soil of Gaza were 2.9%, 1% and 0.08%, respectively. The range in delta(15)N of solid manure samples was +7.5 to +11.9 per thousand. The range in delta(15)N of sludge samples was +4.6 to +7.4 per thousand, while four brands of synthetic fertilizers commonly used in Gaza had delta(15)N ranging from +0.2 to +1.0 per thousand. Sludge amended soil had delta(15)N ranging from +2.0 to +7.3 per thousand. For both delta(18)O and delta(15)N, the ranges of groundwater NO(3)(-) were -0.1 to +9.3 per thousand and +3.2 to 12.8 per thousand, respectively. No significant bacterial denitrification is taking place in the Gaza Strip aquifer. Nitrate was predominantly derived from manure and, provided delta(15)N of sludge represents the maximum delta(15)N of human waste, to a lesser extent from septic effluents/sludge. Synthetic fertilizers were a minor source.

. East Mediterr Health J. 2007 Sep-Oct;13(5):994-1004.
Relation of nitrate contamination of groundwater with methaemoglobin level among infants in Gaza.
Abu Naser AA, Ghbn N, Khoudary R.
Public Health Laboratory, Ministry of Health, Gaza, Palestine. Ahmadabonaser@hotmail.com
A descriptive, cross-sectional and analytical study was carried out in 3 areas of the Gaza Strip, Palestine, in 2002, to determine the factors associated with high methaemoglobin (Met-Hb) levels in infants and the relationship with nitrate concentration in drinking water wells. Drinking water sources were likely to be the main factor for high levels of Met-Hb. Out of 338 infants attending for vaccination, having supplemental feeding, use of boiled water and age 3-6 months were associated with high Met-Hb levels. The highest mean Met-Hb level was in Khan-Younis, where the highest mean nitrate concentration was recorded in drinking water. The results emphasize the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for infants

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