Israel admits using soldiers as guinea pigs

[scarletghoul]

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12912



Israel has admitted to developing an anthrax vaccine through a secret research project involving tests on unaware army soldiers.

The Israeli Defense Ministry revealed on Wednesday that the vaccine was tested on 716 soldiers while they had not been fully informed about the study, Ynet reported.

The project, codenamed "Omer 2", was held during the first part of the 1990s and the subjects were picked out of a pool of 4,000.

Some of the soldiers, who say that the experiment has had life-threatening side effects for them, are now filing a lawsuit against the Israeli Army, Haaretz reported.

So far, 11 soldiers have sought medical attention due to the side effects sustained as result of the tests.

Israeli Physicians for Human Rights have also filed a lawsuit against the army over the experiments.

The experiments were carried out in light of what was then defined as the "strategic threat of a surprise biological attack facing Israel," the report said.

Meanwhile an official medical committee has published a report, raising doubt over motivations for advancing the experiment.

The report which was drafted by a special committee of doctors, a legal advisor, and a scientist from the Weizmann Institute of Science, was finally approved for publication on Wednesday.

The report revealed that even while the experiment was taking place, Israel had already had a stock of anthrax vaccines.

"An accelerated effort to produce large quantities of the vaccine was underway a year prior to the experiment, and by the time the experiments were launched, Israel had enough vaccines to cover the civilian concerns," the report said.

The committee also criticized the "shroud of secrecy" which the experiments' directors implemented.

"The committee was unconvinced that the need for a vaccine was duly considered by decision makers. Also, it is not clear who the decision makers were who determined the vaccine's necessity," read the report.

The only official document found by the committee about the experiment was written by the deputy Defense Minister.

[Yehuda Stern]

Again, this is nothing new. There have been countless stories like this in Israel's history - not only experiments, but also just irresponsibility towards rank and file soldiers, i.e. making them swim in the Kishon river (today notorious for the pollution in it).

The Israeli ruling class is as brutal and contemptuous towards working class people as any in the world. However, the aristocratic nature of Israeli workers prevents them from effectively combating such things. Here we have another lesson that workers in Israel cannot develop a revolutionary consciousness like the working class of other countries, and that the Palestinian workers' revolution is the only way to liberate not only the Palestinian working class and the masses, but also Jewish Israeli workers.

[Yehuda Stern]

No no. Indoctrination is a cheap excuse for it. Workers everywhere get indoctrinated to some extent.

Israel has a labor aristocracy just like any other capitalist state, but it's working class is also aristocratic in general in relation to the other workers of the region. Jews receive massive material benefits from the Zionist state, although these are being rolled back in recent years - a move which terrifies some of the members of the ruling class, causing them to make noises about going back to some sort of social-democratic "model."

At any rate, it's all down to the colonialist nature of Israel. Why do I think Israeli workers cannot develop a revolutionary consciousness? Let me first say that what I said was imprecise - they can, but under current conditions only a tiny minority. Even under the best conditions, things are probably not going to be much better. Anyway, it's proven by history - whenever world events have propelled workers to become radicalized, in Israel they had the effect of making workers even more loyal to the Zionist state (for the most part - you could see some radicalization among certain layers at times).