Norwegian doctor Confirmed: Mad Mads Gilbert to speak in Berkeley

Extremist Mads Gilbert is coming to Berkeley, sponsored by the usual suspects, including   Jewish Voice for Peace-Bay Area, Middle East Childrens Alliance, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, NorCal Friends of Sabeel, American Muslims for Palestine, the American Friends Service Committee and  Bay Area Women in Black and Students for Justice in Palestine (UC Berkeley).   Mads Gilbert is a  political activist and member of the fringe Norwegian Maoist ‘Red’ party.  He rose to notoriety in the days following the attack on the World Trade center, when he justified the attack that left nearly 3,000 innocents dead.

 

In an interview for the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet Gilbert said "The oppressed also have a moral right to attack the USA with any weapon they can come up with." When asked directly "Do you support a terror attack against the USA?," Gilbert replied, "Terror is a bad weapon but the answer is yes within the context which I have mentioned."

 

He’ll be speaking at the South Berkeley Senior Center Thursday night, Nov. 12 at 7pm.

 

According to NGO Monitor: 

 

In 2009, Dr. Gilbert traveled to Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital as a member of the Norwegian Aid Committee, NORWAC, an NGO funded by the Norwegian government ostensibly to provide health care services in partnership with the Palestinian Ministry of Health. During the fighting and afterward, Gilbert repeatedly and falsely accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians and invented allegations of use of illegal weapons, while making no mention of evidence that Al-Shifa hospital had been used for military purposes and also shielded the Hamas leadership.

 

Hamas' use of Shifa Hospital in Gaza  was disclosed by Wikileaks:

 

NGO Monitor president, Prof. Gerald Steinberg continued:

 

"We urge media outlets and human rights organizations to treat Dr. Gilbert's comments and assessments from Gaza with great caution...By justifying terror, supporting Hamas and fueling the conflict, NORWAC and Mads Gilbert have violated the Hippocratic Oath - 'first, do not harm'."

Norwegian Doctor Confirmed  Justifying terror, supporting Hamas and fueling the conflict - all in a days works for Mads Gilbert and his Jewish Voice for Peace sponsors

 

 

Sami Kishawi, Mads Gilbert and the Electronic Intifada: Wrong again

In an interview that just appeared in the Electronic Intifada (sorry- I don't link to hate sites) Sami Kishawi ( an undergrad at the University of Chicago and member of Students for Justice in Palestine ) publishes a discussion with Mads Gilbert ( Norwegian doctor, and member of the communist party ). Sami's got a history of being rather lose with statistics. Mads is no stranger to controversy himself, once justifying terror attacks against the US, claiming "If the U.S. government has a legitimate right to bomb and kill civilians in Iraq, the oppressed has a moral right to attack the U.S. with the weapons they may create as well." When asked if he supported a terrorist attack against the US he answered: "Terror is a poor weapon, but my answer is yes, within the context I have mentioned."

Regarding health care in Gaza:

SK: What is the health care situation in the Gaza Strip like now?

MG: As a result of the Israeli siege, there has been widespread development of anemia among children and women due to malnutrition as a result of siege and poverty. Stunting, where a child is more than two standard deviations shorter than what it should be, is sharply on the rise. In 2006, around 13.5 percent of children were stunted. In 2009, 31.4 percent under age two were stunted.

In other words, every third child is less developed than he or she should be. And stunting does not only affect growth. It also affects brain development and the ability to learn. This is a direct consequence of malnutrition. Remember, this is not caused by drought or natural disasters, but a deliberate, man-made lack of food and water, imposed, planned, and executed in the most detailed way by the Israeli government. They even calculate how many calories to let in to Gaza to avoid outright starvation but to “just” cause malnutrition since that goes under the radar of human rights abuses.

Except looking at objective indicators, this is simply not true.


According to last years National Nutrition Surveillance Report from the Ministry of Health Nutrition department using WHO statistics in the Palestinian territories:

"The surveillance system shows that major nutrition indicators of underweight (weight for age); wasting (low weight for length); stunting (short for age), tallness, overweight and obesity among children 9-12 months are all within the acceptable national and regional levels.
However, the prevalence of overweight (weight for length) of 26.6 per cent among children 9-12 months is high, and has increased by 2.2 per cent from the 2008 rate (24.4 per cent in 2008).

According to this report, stunting in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as of 2011 are below 5%.

Need some context Sami? In neighboring Egypt, the rate of stunting is 29%. In Jordan, its 8%.

Life expectancy continues to rise under the "brutal and genocidal" Zionist occupation. A Palestinian born in 2010 can expect to live to 73.4, higher than in Hungary, China, and oil rich Saudi Arabia. Its also higher than the Palestinians neighbors in Jordan and in Egypt. Its significantly higher than the world average of 67.2 years.

In the words of Daniel Patrick Moynihan: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."

Nice try, Sami.