Publication patterns on occupied Palestine in four key medical journals 1990-2016: a descriptive study.

BACKGROUND: The atrocities in Syria have been covered in the four general medical weekly journals in the USA and the UK. Medical journal articles addressing political determinants of public health have rightly described and criticised the international community's failure to enforce humanitarian law while urging global bodies of power to ensure protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure and medical services. Discussions of the political influences on health of people in the occupied Palestinian territory (West Bank and Gaza Strip) seem to be considered politically out-of-bounds by some medical journals. This study used a keyword-based search to explore patterns of publication about the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel by four large US and European medical journals.

METHOD: The four highest ranked, peer-reviewed, international medical journals were searched: The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), The Lancet, and The British Medical Journal (BMJ). Searches were conducted between Sept 1 and Sept 6, using each journal's search engine with the keywords "Gaza", "West Bank" and the stems "Palestin*" and "Israel*" in all fields for the period Jan 1, 1990, to Sept 6, 2016. News and commentary articles were included in the findings.

FINDINGS: The searches found the term "Palestin*" in 49 articles from the two US journals (32 in JAMA; 17 in NEJM) and 694 articles in the two UK journals (236 in The Lancet; 458 in BMJ). "Israel*" was found in 840 articles in US journals (386 in JAMA; 454 in NEJM) and in 2972 articles in UK journals (1388 in The Lancet; 1584 in BMJ). "West Bank" was found in nine articles in US journals (nine in JAMA; none in NEJM) and in 297 articles from the UK (211 in The Lancet; 86 in BMJ). "Gaza" was found in 18 articles in US journals (15 from JAMA; three from NEJM) and in 487 articles in UK journals (324 in The Lancet; 166 in BMJ).

INTERPRETATION: Compared with the two US-based medical journals, the UK journals published substantially more articles with the relevant keywords and discussed political responsibilities for the dire health conditions experienced by the Palestinian people. The journals included in this study differed in the extent to which they featured news and comments, which might have affected the number of published articles. Because there is a larger research establishment in Israel than in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the keyword "Israel" might have been included in a larger number of clinical and biomedical scientific papers. Medical leaders, including journal editors, have a responsibility to participate in the discussion around this preventable situation, which could have long-lasting public health consequences.

FUNDING: None.