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Chamish and the X-Rays
Conspiracy Nonsense, Chamish, and Lies
Barry Chamish, for those who do not know, is a Canadian journalist who describes himself as a Conservative Jew.
Chamish used to live in Israel but now is to be found in the USA where he serves as a conduit for Conspiracy Theories. Many of these theories are anti-Jewish and against the State of Israel. Chamish on occasion sometimes writes himself. He says things that are wrong, are proven to be incorrect, and on occasion are outright lies and it must have been known that they were such at the time of his writing. In the past, Chamish teamed up with Marvin Antelman who is similar to himself but even more anti-Semitic. Antelman claims the State of Israel was created to destroy the Jewish People and is all part of a big conspiracy the main culprits of which are Jews. Antelman bears all the ideological trappings of Classical anti-Semitism. Antelman however distinguishes between bad Jews who he claims run the Conspiracy and good Jews who are dupes of it. Antelman comes from the USA and now lives in Israel. Antelman and Chamish spread lies about the Jewish People and the State of Israel. They are not the only people identifying themselves as Jewish who do this. In the same way as Jewish criminals exist who hurt other Jews and the general public so too one has propagators of Conspiracy Theories directed against the Jewish people. Certain types who present themselves as super Jewish patriots also indulge in such perverted fantasies. To our mind they are little better (in some ways even worse) than Gentile racists and Jew-haters.
They legitimise untruths that should never be countenanced.
One of the lies that Chamish has propagated involves the case of Morroccan Jewish immigrants and ringworm treatment in the 1960s. Chamish did not originate this slur but he picked it up and adopted it as his own. The slur dates back some time but acolytes of Chamish, such as a certain "Elazar", repeat it and regurgitate it so we decided to relate to it.
The slur is based on a movie.
http://redactednews.blogspot.com/2010/01/ringworm-children.html
This Movie is comprised of different themes. part of the movie involves interviews with Jewish immigrants from Morocco to Israel in the late 1950(?)s (early '60s?).
Many of the immigrant children had ring-worm. This was considered a worse infection than it deserved to be.
The Ring worm was treated with X-ray radiation. Such apparently was an accepted practice at the time though even then the medical authorities should have known better. As a result of this -x-ray radiation treatment it has been claimed that cases of cancer and illness in later life resulted. The Israeli Knesset later set up a committee on the matter and a process of monetary compensation was instituted. It is pointed out in the movie that Israel is the only country in the world where a precedent has been set of governmental compensation for such malpractices even though they were done in good faith.
Fair enough. We do not know the details of this case and it may well have taken place as depicted.
[Though it was not. Even factually the claims in the Movie are false or misrepresentations, see extracts from the article by "Bernie" below:]
We admit that, concerning Jewish immigrants from Arab countries etc to Israel, serious mistakes were made, not only in Israel but all over the world.
Some of the early Zionist leaders did have negative views of Oriental Jews. This is known. They were the products of the European Intellectual climate of their time. This was the secular education they received. Mistakes were made. Oriental Jews in some cases were discriminated against and mistreated. This has been admitted, apologized for, and attempts have been made to rectify the injustices that resulted. Even today discrimination still takes place. We are all human beings. People from different backgrounds coming together can get offended or give offence.
The movie also includes segments of interviews with an "academic"(?) and with some other activist. They speak of the pernicious influence of Darwin and the Eugenics Movement and extrapolate to the x-ray affair. It is implied that one of the effects or aims of the X-ray treatment against ring-worm was to impair the mental facilities of migrants from Morocco and similar areas. It is hinted that the Ashkenazic Jews were against the Sephardic Jews getting ahead or having a lot of children so they fried their brains and irradiated them in an attempt to keep them down!! At least that is how Chamish interprets it!
This is a fairy tale, a horror story, a slur, without any factual basis. it is so far far-fetched and ridiculous that a normal person would usually not even consider its feasibility. The Movie however presents this notion and Chamish has promoted it.
The film was produced by a known communist.
It is depicted on a Web Site that is anti-Israel and anti-Jewish.
The site is pro-Arab and pro-Palestinian and racially against Jews.
The web site implies that there is something racially inheritantly sinister about Ashkenazic (i.e. European) Jews.
Sephardic Jews on the other hand are OK since the web site considers them "racially Arabs".
Chamish is quoted on the site as an authority as happens often on anti-Jewish web sites.
And so on.
Chamish has been adequately replied to in the article:
Barry Chamish and the Ringworm Children Hoax
By Bernie on 09 Mar 2007
http://plancksconstant.org/blog1/2007/03/ringworm_hoax.html
Extracts:
[Article shows that scientifically and factually the claims must be wrong. If this subject interests you then we strongly urge that you go to the URL and read the article in full]
In 1951 there were at most 20,000 Moroccan Jews in Israel. Yet in this poorly researched and obviously anti-Jewish documentary it states that 100,000 Sephardic children, of which Moroccans were the majority, were exposed to X-rays. Demographically speaking this could not have happened. Someone is guilty of an anachronism. Ascribing present statistics to past events is one of the many mistakes or purposeful lies in this documentary.
Again we have historical revisionism. Back in the 50s radiation from x-ray machines was considered harmless. Shoe stores in America even had X-ray machines used for shoe-fitting that were a common sight in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It wasn't until 1969 that the .5 rad maximum yearly exposure was determined.
Chamish goes on and on with other conspiracy theories all of which are just as easy to debunk as this one.
So that's the real story: X-ray treatments were given to Sephardic youths, which long range problems were not known by the state at the time. Chamish's assertions of treatments with 35,000 times the normal dose, saying everyone knew the max was .5 rad, the stories of screaming pain from the treatments, putting in Moroccans because that would make the largest group in Israel feel injured, inserting the conspiracy with American military, etc., on and on now shows that he took a tragic event and painted it Michael-Moore-style as the Ringworm Holocaust and Moroccan genocide.
Chamish loves conspiracy theories. A year later, he inserted this hoax into the anti-Semitic jew watch and other gullible websites that assumed the story was true.
But like many movies in Hollywood, "based on a true story" does not mean the story, as depicted, is actually true. Here is how the world was back in the 50s:
In 1950 two epidemics of ringworm appeared in French schools. Similar outbreaks occurred all over the world. Americans treated during the 1950's for ringworm by X-ray irradiation were 20 years later found to have an increased incidence of thyroid cancer.
Israel at that time was also plagued with an outbreak of ringworm, a skin disease that grows in the roots of the hair and quickly spreads among children who live in crowded conditions. The State of Israel began a comprehensive treatment and prevention campaign, some of which were X-ray treatments of the heads of all children up to age 15 who had emigrated from Arab countries. About 20,000 children underwent these treatments.
The dose given, in actual fact, was about 130 rads which at that time was considered safe. The medical world in the 50s, even outside Israel, was as yet unaware of the future damage involved in these radiation treatments; the connection between such treatments and cancer and other illnesses was discovered only years later. Xray treatment of the scalp for ringworm in the early 50s was considered by everyone to be safe. It was only years later that medical researchers in the US during the 1970s found an increased incidence of thyroid cancer among people who had been treated early in life with X rays for such conditions as acne, ringworm, and tonsillitis. See encarta.msn. But to allege that Israelis knew about the dangers 20 years before anyone else is absurd.
I could list hundreds of more studies, but the point is that there was no secret that these children were treated, nor was there any covering up of the studies. They were published in International Scientific and Medical publications for all to see for the past 55 years.
In 1994 Israel held hearings in the Knesset on compensation for those so irradiated. As to why it took so long to hold the hearings? It wasn't until the late 80's that a significant number contracted cancer or other illnesses as a result of the radiation campaign.
The Knesset set compensation levels for various levels of injuries but by 2004 many of the victims complained or expressed dissatisfaction with the compensation scheme.
Here is a clip from the video: The Ringworm Children, released by Dimona Productions Ltd. in 2003. Directed by David Belhassen & Asher Hemias. Those who view this film without knowing the science and details I outlined above may well believe the Israeli government took money from the US to purposely poison its own people.