Major medical journals show anti-Israel bias in coverage of Hamas war - report

The world’s most influential medical journals have shown an anti-Israel bias when reporting about the murderous incursion of thousands of Hamas terrorists into Israel on October 7 and the war in Gaza that it forced upon Israel, according to an analysis appearing in the latest issue of IMAJ, the Israel Medical Association Journal. 

The analysis was carried out abroad, by Dr. Gabriel Levin of the Jewish General Hospital of McGill University in Montreal; Dr. Raanan Meyer of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; and Dr. Yoav Brezinov of the Lady Davis Institute at McGill. 

They reviewed 1,628 English-language scientific publications using keywords related to Gaza, Hamas, violence, humans, and Israel. In 37 of them, the most prominent were The Lancet, the BMJ, and Nature. The articles were written by authors from 12 countries around the world (46% were “correspondence (letters to the editor)” and 32% were in the “news” category. 

Eighteen of the 37 articles were published in The Lancet (in the UK); nine in the BMJ; five in Nature; and five in other medical journals. 

More pro-Hamas, Gaza articles in academic journals than pro-Israel

A total of 43% of the articles were in favor of Hamas and Gaza, 21.6% wrote positive things about Israel and the IDF; and 35.1% were neutral. Most of the pro-Israel correspondences were written by Israelis. Pro-Palestinian articles had a higher Altmetric score (an early indicator of an article's potential impact that is calculated quickly after publication), so their impact on social media was much stronger than those that were pro-Israel.

Of the general medical news journals, none published a pro-Israel correspondence or news article, the North American physicians wrote. Of the 16 articles that were pro-Palestinian/Gaza, half were published in the UK, while others were sent from Gaza itself and from Jordan. 

“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a deeply contentious and emotionally charged issue. The media and academic journals covering this conflict often grapple with biases that stem from various sources. Academic journals may face challenges in maintaining complete impartiality as researchers may bring their own biases into their work. The challenge is to strive for balanced reporting and research that reflects the complexity of the conflict,” they concluded. “Addressing bias in both media and academic publications is essential for promoting objectivity and ensuring that a broader range of perspectives is considered in the ongoing conversation surrounding this protracted conflict.”