Israel Admits ‘Shameful’ Birth Control Drug Injected in Unaware Ethiopian Jews

First topic message reminder :

The Israeli government has tacitly acknowledged injecting Ethiopian women immigrating to Israel with a long-acting contraceptive without their knowledge, telling them they couldn’t come into the country if they didn’t take the shot, which the women thought was a vaccination.

Many have called the practice appallingly racist.

The shots are being blamed for a 50 percent drop in the birth rate in Israel’s Ethiopian community over the past decade.

There are about 120,000 Jews of Ethiopian origin living in Israel, about a third of them born in Israel. There have long been conspiracy theories circulating about forced sterilization. But after a documentary aired last month on Israel’s Educational Network, Health Ministry Director General Ron Gamzu has banned Israel’s health maintenance organizations from injecting Ethiopian women with the contraceptive Depo-Provera.

Gamzu sent out a letter to HMOs telling them “not to renew prescriptions for Depo-Provera for women of Ethiopian origin if for any reason there is concern that they might not understand the ramifications of the treatment,” the news site Haaretz reported Sunday.

According to Haaretz, the documentary chronicled 35 Ethiopian women who immigrated to Israel eight years ago and said they were told they would not be allowed to move to Israel unless they agreed to the Depo-Provera shots.

“We said we won’t have the shot,” recounted one of the women, according to Haaretz. “They told us, if you don’t you won’t go to Israel. And also you won’t be allowed into (an assistance program), you won’t get aid or medical care. We were afraid … We didn’t have a choice. Without them and their aid we couldn’t leave (Ethiopia). So we accepted the injection. It was only with their permission that we were allowed to leave.”

According to the Times of Israel, some of the women didn’t know the shots contained contraceptives; they thought the shots were vaccinations. Others said they kept receiving them after they came to Israel and complained of side effects such as headaches and abdominal pain.

Last month, a report by a local investigative journalist, Gal Gabbay, showed that women in a transit camp in Ethiopia awaiting emigration were told they would have to get the shots in order to come to Israel.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the possible side effects of the drug include a decrease in bone density that puts women at increased risk for osteoporosis and fracture. In addition, returning to fertility can be a lengthy process and withdrawal symptoms can be acute.

“Depo-Provera has a shameful history,” Efrat Yardai wrote in an op-ed for Haaretz, explaining that the drug was used between 1967 and 1978 as part of an experiment that took place in the U.S. state of Georgia on 13,000 impoverished women, half of whom were black. Many of them were unaware that the injections were part of an experiment. Some of the women became sick and a few died during the experiment.

Ethiopian Jews have faced widespread discrimination and isolation since being moved to Israel in the 1980s. Some were forced to live in transit camps or absorption centers to “adjust to society.” They face widespread discrimination in the job market and the educational system.

Hevda Eyal, author of the report “By Women to Women,” told the National that the birth control shots were about “reducing the number of births in a community that is black and mostly poor.”

The Times of Israel details the case of a nurse — captured by a hidden camera in a health clinic — telling an Ethiopian woman that the shot is given to Ethiopian immigrants because “they forget, they don’t understand, and it’s hard to explain to them, so it’s best that they receive a shot once every three months … basically they don’t understand anything.”

http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/01/29/israel-acknowledges-shameful-contraceptive-shots-given-to-ethiopian-jews/


Utterly shameful

Spot on sassy.
Like I said, he just takes the opposite stance in any debate made by certain people.

And makes himself look a total prick in the process.  Very, very weird man.

The real question is, are they going to be held to account for doing this and how do we know what the hell is in some of our injections? Do we think this can and will, only happen in Israel???

They won't be held to account Eddie, because they are never held to account for anything.

We don't know what is in our injections.  I'm supposed to have the flu jab every year, but for the last 3 years it has made be very ill.  This year I decided to take the chance and not have it.  I am very careful who I come into contact with though.

And so they are still talking about me, now claiming I am arrguing for the sake of arguing, which is odd, being as my evidence has not been refuted because there is no case to answer here. Just another situation where those that hate Israel twist anything they can to deligitimise and demonize Israel.
This leaves Eddie and Sassy both talk around and about me, proving they do not have any answers, just further poor insults.
All you need to know is that they are already easily led but numerous wacky conspiracy theories.
That speaks volumes in regards to how people can guage and understand information

So let me get this right.

The Israeli Government told these women it was a vaccine - they admit that

The Isaeli Government told them they could not travel of to Israel without it, even though their so called 'Right of Return' extends to ALL JEWS (even though they have never had anything to do with Israel - The Israeli Government admit that.

It was only done to Ethopian Jews - who are black - The Israeli Government admit that.

The long term effects of the drugs can effect the fertility of the women and give them bone problems - The Israeli Government admit that


But Dodgy Dick tries to pretend that this is something the women wanted,  quoting stuff that came out after Israel was found to be doing it, when they quickly stopped doing it because they knew they had been found out and then went into overdrive trying to make it look less awful than it was, and to get the simpletons to believe that.


If the Nazi's had had this injection during the war they would have done the same to Jews, and quite rightly Dodge would be saying how terrible it was, but because Israel has done it, he takes the opposite stance, being as normal, totally hypocrital where they are involved.

If this was done to women in this country the doctors and nurses involved would be up before the BMA and struck off.


He should be ashamed, but he will not be, because he will turn himself inside out to defend Israeli atrocities.  He repulses me.


What was done to those women was assault and a crime, and cannot be defended, so matter how much he wiggles and squggles.  Utterly shameful.




We are not talking about YOU as a person, we are talking about your argument and the utterly shameful way you are not speaking for morality but for immorality.

Some people as seen twist the facts to suit making unfounded claims off 35 self confessed confused ladies. That leaves open to question what indeed they think they were told. That renders a position of doubt straight away based off not understanding the Israeli's were offering and strongly offering assistance in birth control. I mean if there was even a shadow of doubt to Israeli guilt, the numbers of Ethiopeans coming forward would be staggering to back up this claim and yet all we have is 35 confused Ethiopeans.
Not the best or easy to verify what has been sad based on them being completely confused themselves. Why not the other ten's of thousands?

You also know when Sassy's argument loses all credability when she starts to make a comparrison to Nazi concentration camps, which is about as disgusti8ng a thing for anyone to claim or say. This again proves the reasoning behind Sasy's methods, a hate of Israel, where she has to go one worse and make even more unfounded and fundementally insulting to the holocaust survivors

You are the desperate one.  Anyone with an ounce of morality knows this is totally reprehensible and something that should never be tolerated anywhere, but you stand up for it.  Uttlerly repulsive.

In Ha'aretz Ethiopian Contraception Story, Another Problematic Headline

Last fall, a false Ha'aretz headline and story -- later retracted -- that a majority of Israelis support apartheid policies gave great cheer and sustenance to the anti-Israel crowd, and also made some inroads in mainstream western media outlets. (Of course, among the former, the subsequent correction was ignored.)
Now, Ha'aretz brings a new story which excites those who like to write about "Nazi Israel." In a news story and Op-Ed a few weeks ago, and in another news article this week, Ha'aretz has reported that Israeli authorities forced Ethiopian women to receive shots of Depo Provera, a contraception that lasts three months, in order to immigrate to Israel.
The original headline of the December 2012 Op-Ed was:

The revelation that Israel is sterilizing Ethiopian women adds to a shameful history of abuse of powerless women and communities

Just like the case of the false apartheid poll headline, Ha'aretz editors were compelled to retract this one as well. The new subhead is:

Israel's patronizing and inhumane treatment of Ethiopian women is nothing new

The following correction appears at the bottom of the page:

The Op-Ed, by Efrat Yardai, still ends with the notion that Israel was forcibly sterilizing Ethiopian women:

If they tried to sterilize me or take my children away, I think I would be talking nonsense too.

The original news story generated thousands of Facebook likes and hundreds of tweets. And the follow up article yesterday, a page-one article alleging that for Israeli officials "first time acknowledged the practice of injecting women of Ethiopian origin with the long-acting contraceptive Depo-Provera," is gaining traction in the mainstream media, including the Los Angeles Times. The headline in Ha'aretz's print edition follows:

Ha'aretz reports:

A government official has for the first time acknowledged the practice of injecting women of Ethiopian origin with the long-acting contraceptive Depo-Provera.

Health Ministry Director General Prof. Ron Gamzu has instructed the four health maintenance organizations to stop the practice as a matter of course.
The ministry and other state agencies had previously denied knowledge or responsibility for the practice, which was first reported five years ago.
Gamzu’s letter instructs all gynecologists in the HMOs "not to renew prescriptions for Depo-Provera for women of Ethiopian origin if for any reason there is concern that they might not understand the ramifications of the treatment.”

The ministry official's letter stressed the new guidelines did not constitute a position on the claims and relate to all women, not just those from Ethiopian

See also Elder of Ziyon's excellent post on this topic, in which he cites a 2005 study showing that Ethiopian women favored the Depo Provera shots, which could be administered without the husbands' knowlege:

Because contraceptives may introduce social discord, leading at times to intimate partners’ violence amongst African couples, women of low bargaining powers often resort to family planning methods that are suitable to covert use.

Women can take injections of Depo-Provera while visiting a health facility and remain protected against unwanted pregnancies for three months. This may be done without their husband’s knowledge and without the bother of having to remember to take the pill or to undergo clinical procedures that are involved when opting for implants or intrauterine devices. Consequently, a general pattern that has been observed in the contraceptive method mix in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in the developing world is the predominance of injectables.

Here again is the real evidence, where it can be easily seemn as how this has been twisted on numereous occasions by those set out to demonize Israel>

The parts highlighted are links





s demographer Petra Naihmas notes in the Demographic Research journal: “Ethiopian immigrants arrived from a rural, less developed country, where traditionally children have an important economic role to play. Obviously, within a developed urban economy, children are a net economic burden upon the parents until early adulthood and there is an emphasis on the future returns to investment in the education of children. The economic incentive to reduce fertility exists.”
Futhermore, Naihmas contends that “abortions are being increasingly relied upon as a form of pregnancy control, especially among younger Ethiopian women” in Israel. Moreover, she says, women are putting off marriage and children: “The increase in median age of first marriage is particularly impressive for new Ethiopian immigrants, which increased by six years between 1990 and 2000.”
According to a 2007 USAID report, many women in Ethiopia want birth control and are unable to get it; 34 percent of Ethiopian women want family planning services to prolong the time between births, or to prevent additional pregnancies. In their Ethiopian clinics, the JDC provides these critical, sought-after family planning services, and women are treated there from their own free will. These are the same services that are offered in thousands of programs around the world, run, for example, by the United Nations Population Fund. And yet Gabai assigned a sinister purpose to the JDC family planning workshops, referring to them as a “euphemism for decreasing the birth rate.”

Richard The Lionheart wrote:And so they are still talking about me, now claiming I am arrguing for the sake of arguing, which is odd, being as my evidence has not been refuted because there is no case to answer here. Just another situation where those that hate Israel twist anything they can to deligitimise and demonize Israel.
This leaves Eddie and Sassy both talk around and about me, proving they do not have any answers, just further poor insults.
All you need to know is that they are already easily led but numerous wacky conspiracy theories.
That speaks volumes in regards to how people can guage and understand information

Who are you talking to?

And you have just done it yourself? Talked around us and not to us and you did it to Zack earlier?!!!

You are odd.

From Sassy;s article this part was a massive twist off the facts and fundementally lying:


The Israeli government has tacitly acknowledged injecting Ethiopian women immigrating to Israel with a long-acting contraceptive without their knowledge, telling them they couldn’t come into the country if they didn’t take the shot, which the women thought was a vaccination.

What was really said was this:



In a recent letter to the country's four HMOs reported Sunday, Ron Gamzu, director general of the health ministry, instructed gynecologists against renewing prescriptions in cases where the patient does not fully understand the treatment's implications.



So as stated from the very beginning and have no idea why sassy is bringing up a story two years old, no doubt in desparation to demonize Israel, but this was clearly a problem in communication. There was nO Governemnt policy that made it a condtion of entry into Israel of having the injections. That was twisted based off some feared this might happen if they did not again confused over what they were being offered.

Once you pull apart the very first lie, its easy to see fact from fiction here.
I will leave this up to thers to decide based on where I have provided a far more accurate account of what happened.

eddie wrote:

Richard The Lionheart wrote:And so they are still talking about me, now claiming I am arrguing for the sake of arguing, which is odd, being as my evidence has not been refuted because there is no case to answer here. Just another situation where those that hate Israel twist anything they can to deligitimise and demonize Israel.
This leaves Eddie and Sassy both talk around and about me, proving they do not have any answers, just further poor insults.
All you need to know is that they are already easily led but numerous wacky conspiracy theories.
That speaks volumes in regards to how people can guage and understand information

Who are you talking to?

And you have just done it yourself? Talked around us and not to us and you did it to Zack earlier?!!!

You are odd.

Yes thanks for all your kind words Eddie

As neither of you were engaging and just slagging me off I thought it was more prudent to show the evidence to a far higher decree of accuracy and allow others to decide for themselves.
Anyway this is two years old, so maybe she can explain why she brought this up again

Did Israelis force contraception on Ethiopian women? (UPDATE x2)

This troubling story has been all over the place, all from this Ha'aretz article claiming that Israeli officials admit to giving contraceptive injections to Ethiopian women without their permission.

But what does the article actually say?

A government official has for the first time acknowledged the practice of injecting women of Ethiopian origin with the long-acting contraceptive Depo-Provera.

Health Ministry Director General Prof. Ron Gamzu has instructed the four health maintenance organizations to stop the practice as a matter of course.

The ministry and other state agencies had previously denied knowledge or responsibility for the practice, which was first reported five years ago.

Gamzu’s letter instructs all gynecologists in the HMOs "not to renew prescriptions for Depo-Provera for women of Ethiopian origin if for any reason there is concern that they might not understand the ramifications of the treatment.”

He also instructed physicians to avail themselves of translators if need be.

Gamzu’s letter came in response to a letter from Sharona Eliahu-Chai of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, representing several women’s rights and Ethiopian immigrants’ groups. The letter demanded the injections cease immediately and that an investigation be launched into the practice.

About six weeks ago, on an Educational Television program journalist Gal Gabbay revealed the results of interviews with 35 Ethiopian immigrants. The women’s testimony could help explain the almost 50-percent decline over the past 10 years in the birth rate of Israel’s Ethiopian community. According to the program, while the women were still in transit camps in Ethiopia they were sometimes intimidated or threatened into taking the injection. “They told us they are inoculations,” said one of the women interviewed. “They told us people who frequently give birth suffer. We took it every three months. We said we didn’t want to.”

First of all, Israeli doctors admitted offering Depo-Provera years ago to those who want it. In June 2008, the health minister of the time, Yaacov Ben Yezri, "said the high number of Ethiopians in Israel using the drug reflected a 'cultural preference' for injections among Ethiopians." Whether this is true or not, it shows that Ha'aretz is sloppy already in the first paragraph - they meant to claim that Israel acknowledged injecting the drug without permission.

But does that memo really say that?

The TV special that claimed that these women were coerced into taking the drug aired about six weeks ago. Isn't it possible that this memo was more to show caution that there might have been some women who misunderstood the use of the drug or the options they have for birth control? That's the way the quoted part reads tome. It certainly doesn't admit that Israeli doctors were conspiring to sterilize Ethiopian women, as Ha'aretz alleges - and as other media have willingly published.

Now let's look at the earlier article about the TV investigation:

Women who immigrated from Ethiopia eight years ago say they were told they would not be allowed into Israel unless they agreed to be injected with the long-acting birth control drug Depo Provera, according to an investigative report aired Saturday on the Israel Educational Television program "Vacuum."

The women say that while waiting in transit camps in Ethiopia prior to immigration they were placed in family planning workshops where they were coaxed into agreeing to the injection - a charge denied by both the Joint Distribution Committe, which ran the clinics, and the Health Ministry.

"We said we won't have the shot. They told us, if you don't you won't go to Israel And also you won't be allowed into the Joint (American Joint Distribution Committee) office, you won't get aid or medical care. We were afraid... We didn't have a choice. Without them and their aid we couldn't leave there. So we accepted the injection. It was only with their permission that we were allowed to leave," recounted Emawayish, who immigrated from Ethiopia eight years ago.

Emawayish was one of 35 women, whose stories were recorded by Sebba Reuven, that relate how they were coaxed and threatened into agreeing to receive the injectable birth control drug.

The birth rate among Israel's Ethiopian immigrant population has dropped nearly 20 percent in 10 years.

According to the report, the women were given the Depo Provera injections in the family planning workshops in transit camps, a practice that continued once they reached Israel. The women who were interviewed for the investigation reported that they were told at the transit camps that having many children would make their lives more difficult in Ethiopia and in Israel, and even that they would be barred from coming to Israel if they refused.

If true, this is indeed terrible. But the denials in that program were no less emphatic:

The Joint said in a response to "Vacuum" that its family planning workshops are among the services it provides to immigrants, who learn about spacing out their children's birth, "but we do not advise them to have small families. It is a matter of personal choice, but we tell them it is possible. The claims by the women according to which 'refusal to have the injection will bar them from medical care [and] economic aid and threaten their chances to immigrate to Israel are nonsense. The medical team does not intervene directly or indirectly in economic aid and the Joint is not involved in the aliyah procedures. With regard to the use of Depo Provera, studies indicate that is the most popular form of birth control among women in Ethiopia," the Joint said.

In its response to "Vacuum," the Health Ministry said it did not "recommend or try to encourage the use of Depo Provera, and that if these injections were used it was against our position. The Health Ministry provides individual family counseling in the framework of its well baby clincs and this advice is also provided by the physicians of the health maintenance organizations."

The Jewish Agency, which is responsible for Jewish immigration from abroad, said in response that it takes a harsh view of any effort to interfere in the family planning processes of Ethiopian immigrants, adding that "while the JA has never held family planning workshops for this group in Ethiopia or at immigrant absorption centers in Israel, the immigrant transit camp in Gondar, as the investigation noted, was previously operated by other agencies."

Three separate organizations on two continents are accused of performing the same reprehensible practice, a practice that would involve an unusual amount of collusion and conspiracy. But not one doctor from these agencies has come forward to verify the claims.

Yet another denial was published in a blog when the report first came out, from a doctor at The Joint:

JDC runs the medical program in Gondar for potential immigrants to Israel. As part of this, we offer voluntary contraception to our population. Our clinic offers both birth control pills and injectable contraception. If a woman prefers another method of contraception such as implantable or tubal ligation, we send them to facilities down the road in the city of Gondar for this.

Women come to the program because they desire family planning. We present the various options to them and they choose. So women both choose to use contraception and choose their method. And choose when to discontinue contraception. It has always been that way in our program.

Right now we’re caring for about 4500 potential immigrants to Israel. We average about 85 family planning visits each month.

We do not inform the Israeli authorities who is on family planning, and I have no idea what happens once they arrive in Israel.

Regarding the rate of 30% reported some years ago, we offered family planning to the population at a time when it was less available to the general public, and our population chose to use it.

At present, the rate of modern contraceptive use in Amhara Region is 33% indicating a significant demand, as contraceptive services have become more available to the public. Even now, there is an unmet demand for contraceptive services in this region of over 20%. To give you an idea of the rise in this service, in 2005, 15.7% used modern contraception in Amhara region.

Injectable contraceptives are the most desired throughout the country. They are easy, culturally preferred, and offer the ability to be on birth control without a woman informing her husband, which is an issue here.

I appreciate the chance to set this record straight.

Best wishes,

Rick Hodes, MD, MACP
Medical Director, AJJDC-Ethiopia


Update 9:50 am CST – I followed up with Dr. Hodes to make sure there was no mistake about what he was saying:

"So to be clear, you're saying that you personally never told any woman that she would have to take Depo-Provera shots in order to immigrate to Israel? The women claim that JDC workers from Israel told them they had to do it. Is that claim to the best of your knowledge false?"

Dr. Hodes replied:

To the best of my knowledge, this claim is 100% false.

Neither myself nor my staff have ever told any women in our program that they should take Depo-Provera for any reason. 100% of Depo-Provera shots are purely voluntary, and may be discontinued (or changed to another method) at any time.

In fact, we don't have JDC workers from Israel come and tell women
these things.

So how can these contradictory claims be reconciled? The idea that the Joint, the Jewish Agency and the Health Ministry are all lying might work for anti-Israel conspiracy theorists, but it is hardly credible.

My guess - and it is only a guess - is that Ethiopian women were generally enthusiastic about the idea of birth control. And as Dr. Hodes says, the idea of injectable contraception was appealing to them - because they don't have to tell their husbands.

This is the key to understanding the story. The Ethiopian husbands would generally be averse to their wives taking birth control, so they must do it in secret - and the Depo-Provera is by far the best method to keep their husbands from knowing. They simply tell them that they were receiving inoculations or some other excuse.

Now, when the men start getting suspicious as to why they aren't having kids, how many of the wives will admit that they are secretly taking contraception? It is much easier to come up with a story about how it all happened without their knowledge, or how they were forced to do it against their will.

I am not denying that there is racism in Israel, just as there is everywhere else. I can certainly believe that some Israeli doctors may be more likely to recommend the Depo-Provera injection for black women than their whiter patients. I can believe that the frustration of not being able to communicate can result in sub-par care, and in not explaining the contraceptive options that they have. It is very possible that the doctors did not properly inform the women of the (sometimes serious) side effects that Depo-Provera has. The TV program helped expose these fissures in the care being given to Ethiopian women. This would naturally result in the Gamzu memo that Ha'aretz reported so eagerly.

The idea that doctors - especially in doctors who willingly travel to Ethiopia, people who would be among the most dedicated medical professionals on the planet - would conspire to effectively sterilize black women is simply not plausible.

Ha'aretz, and the gullible hateful media that follows it slavishly, was actively trying to demonize Israeli health officials and organizations that are dedicated to helping people - in order to report a scoop. The facts that we are aware of today, however, do not add up to the claims being made.

Perhaps my theory isn't 100% correct. I'm the first to admit that we don't have all the facts. But what I am suggesting fits the facts we do know much better than the yellow journalism being practiced in this case.

UPDATE: Mordy in the comments points to a 2005 study that says exactly what I was guessing:

Because contraceptives may introduce social discord, leading at times to intimate partners’ violence amongst African couples, women of low bargaining powers often resort to family planning methods that are suitable to covert use.

Women can take injections of Depo-Provera while visiting a health facility and remain protected against unwanted pregnancies for three months. This may be done without their husband’s knowledge and without the bother of having to remember to take the pill or to undergo clinical procedures that are involved when opting for implants or intrauterine devices. Consequently, a general pattern that has been observed in the contraceptive method mix in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in the developing world is the predominance of injectables.

If a reporter visits one or fifty of these women and asks if they took the injections voluntarily, what do you think they would say?

UPDATE 2: Reuters did a tiny bit of actual reporting and asked Gamzu whether his memo was an admittance that Israel is forcibly giving the drug to Ethiopian women:

Ministry Director-General Roni Gamzu said the decision did not imply he accepted the allegations by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

Ha'aretz' misinterpretation of the memo, as I wrote above, was the linchpin for the entire story.

This is looking more and more like Ha'aretz' version of the "Racist Jews steal organs from Arabs and Haitians" story that the anti-semites love to push.


http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/2013/01/did-israelis-force-contraception-on.html#.Vog7D1n0k4r




This provides a very good insight into how Israel haters invent and falsify their claims

May see you later, so have fun and remember, before posting up claims, be sure to research fully the claim you are posting.

What a truly awful policy to have in putting these Jewish women through this process by making it a condition of entry that they have this done before being granted permission to go to Israel.

It's absolutely disgusting and I doubt it's applied to Jewish women coming from Europe or North America..

They've stopped but only when the women have it explained to them with translators but it's still a condition of entry nevertheless otherwise they would be free to travel to Israel without it at all.

What i truely awful is that you would believe medical professionals would do such a thing, being as they are there medically help people and that there is not a shred of evidence that any doctors did such a thing.
All you have to see is again the evidence of what Israel doctors do to hlp people which you seem to wish to ignore, which proves you are incapble of looking at anything objectively but already from a position of hate against Isrealis rendering your postion compremised.


http://www.israel21c.org/liberia-thanks-israel-for-halting-ebola-outbreak/

Nearly three years ago, in February 2013, the BBC Jerusalem Bureau’s Yolande Knell produced an article which appeared on the BBC News website’s Middle East page under the headline “Israeli Ethiopian birth control to be examined“.
As was documented here at the time, Knell’s report was actually no more than a rehash of an article which appeared on the same day in the Ha’aretz newspaper.

“In fact, this story has been around for some time, after Ha’aretz first latched on to a programme  made by Israeli journalist Gal Gabai which was broadcast in December 2012 on Israeli television and which asserted that some Ethiopian immigrants had been given the contraceptive Depo-Provera against their will. The original Ha’aretz article embroidered the already problematic television programme and the exaggerated story took on a life of its own in many foreign media outlets, with Ha’aretz later finding itself dealing in damage control.” 

In the same article Knell also misrepresented another much older story connected to Israel’s Ethiopian community in order to pad out her insinuations of racism.

““The issue is extremely sensitive in Israel where the population of about 120,000 thousand Ethiopian Jews sometimes complains of discrimination. There have been several scandals in the past. In 1996, for example, the Israeli authorities admitted they had secretly disposed of blood donations given by Ethiopian Israelis because of fears about HIV/Aids.”

Instead of blindly repeating things she reads in Ha’aretz, had Knell bothered to read the 1996 report by former Israeli president Yitzhak Navon into that incident before putting finger to keyboard, she would know that the disposal of those blood donations was the result of a failure by the blood services (which are run by Magen David Adom – not “the Israeli authorities” as Knell states) to update an earlier directive from 1984 (at the time of Operation Moses) which related not to HIV, but to Hepatitis B,

Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Navon report stated:
“Contrary to the public impression, there is no connection between the decision made in 1984 and AIDS.” “At the time the health services were worried by findings connected to the prevalence of diseases such as Malaria, Tuberculosis and Hepatitis among the Ethiopian immigrants from ‘Operation Moses’.””

Ha’aretz subsequently corrected the article upon which Knell’s report was based but no amendment was made to the BBC’s article, which still remains available online.
Israel’s State Comptroller (Ombudsman) has now completed an investigation into the allegations.

“There is no evidence that Ethiopian women who immigrated to Israel were required to take birth-control shots against their will, State Comptroller Joseph Shapira wrote this week in a letter obtained by Haaretz. Shapira wrote that he had concluded his investigation into the allegations, which surfaced in December 2012, and that “no evidence could be found for the claims raised that shots to prevent pregnancy were administered to Ethiopian women under pressure or threats, overt or covert, or in any way that was improper.””

Yolande Knell’s ugly smears never had any verified, factual basis but nevertheless the BBC allowed her inaccurate article to become “historical record“. Obviously, it is high time for the BBC to make amends by appending a note to the article which explains that its content is inaccurate and misleading. 


http://bbcwatch.org/2016/01/20/three-year-old-allegations-from-bbcs-yolande-knell-shown-to-be-untrue/

So the articles were a lie then? This didn't happen?

eddie wrote:So the articles were a lie then? This didn't happen?

A better way to say this is the accusations claimed have no evidence.
Where what I found appalling in all this Eddie, is no matter if people try as they often do to label claims at Israel which are in many cases fabricated to demonize Israel, this claim had to be one of the lowest of the lows to even claim. It was fundementally claiming Israeli doctors were culpable to such a policy, people who easpcially israeli doctors go out of their way to help not just Israeli citizens but even their enemies who are ill or in need of medical attention. Becuase when it comes to the vast majority of medical people they are not biased and look to save lives

Hence why this falsified claim made was fundementally an attack on medical professionls, more than it was any attack on the nation of Israel.

Israel Admits Ethiopian Women Were Given Birth Control Shots

Health Ministry director general instructs all gynecologists in Israel's four health maintenance organizations not to inject women with long-acting contraceptive Depo-Provera if they do not understand ramifications of treatment.

A government official has for the first time acknowledged the practice of injecting women of Ethiopian origin with the long-acting contraceptive Depo-Provera.

Health Ministry Director General Prof. Roni Gamzu has instructed the four health maintenance organizations to stop the practice as a matter of course.

Gamzu’s letter instructs all gynecologists in the HMOs "not to renew prescriptions for Depo-Provera if for any reason there is concern that they might not understand the ramifications of the treatment.”

He also instructed physicians to avail themselves of translators if need be.

Gamzu’s letter came in response to a letter from Sharona Eliahu-Chai of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, representing several women’s rights and Ethiopian immigrants’ groups. The letter demanded the injections cease immediately and that an investigation be launched into the practice.

About six weeks ago, on an Educational Television program journalist Gal Gabbay revealed the results of interviews with 35 Ethiopian immigrants. The women’s testimony could help explain the almost 50-percent decline over the past 10 years in the birth rate of Israel’s Ethiopian community. According to the program, while the women were still in transit camps in Ethiopia they were sometimes intimidated or threatened into taking the injection. “They told us they are inoculations,” said one of the women interviewed. “They told us people who frequently give birth suffer. We took it every three months. We said we didn’t want to.”

read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-admits-ethiopian-women-were-given-birth-control-shots.premium-1.496519

If you ever wanted evidence that a persons real intent is hate through racism, there iist is for all to see.
An investigation has been concluded on this and sassy posts up an article 3 years old.
That is not having any due care for peace but to deligitimize and hate a people and its nation. If this had been a false allegation leveled at a Muslim majority country, she would have insisted it would be a war crime


Double standards