129:(CDC) wrote in its report on the epidemic that it occurred in three waves. The first wave from March 21 to 24, 1983, began at roughly 8:00 am "when a 17-year-old student experienced a sensation of throat irritation and had difficulty breathing shortly after entering her classroom" in Arrabah the CDC wrote. Symptoms soon spread to classmates and at least one teacher, and some of the girls complained of a smell like rotten eggs. "On the basis of the students' reports of odor, they suspected the presence of a toxic gas and immediately instituted a widespread but unsuccessful search for the source," the CDC wrote.
51:, director general of Israel's health ministry, also concluded that most of those affected had a psychological illness, though he said that some who fell ill after April 3 were faking, when epidemiologists say that the outbreak had subsided. Hefez wrote in his 1985 study "The Role of the Press and the Medical Community in the epidemic of 'Mysterious Gas Poisoning' in the Jordan West Bank" that Israeli newspaper reports of poisoning at the start of the epidemic added fuel to the flames. A front-page article in
401:, Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, wrote in a letter to the UN Secretary General that the accusations of poisoning by Israel were false and "Israel medical authorities, who immediately instituted an inquiry into the matter, could not establish the existence of any organic cause." A World Health Organization inquiry also found no organic causes for "this ill-defined health emergency." The letter also cites Red Cross doctor
171:, though he also said its spread was boosted by the reporting of the Israeli press and Palestinian distrust of Israel's intentions in the West Bank. "The social and historical context of this incident may throw light on the subsequent snowballing of events," he wrote. "The Djenin area is located in the Jordan West Bank region occupied by Israeli forces since the 1967
157:
suggested strongly that a toxic gas was the cause. The epidemic was probably terminated by the closing of West Bank schools," the CDC concluded. "No evidence was encountered to indicate that patients had deliberately or consciously fabricated their symptoms. Evidence against malingering was provided by normal findings on physical examination."
326:, the director general of Israel's health ministry believed they were "dealing with a case of mass hysteria rooted in the tense anti-Israeli climate in the occupied West Bank," Brig. Iliya said "we tend to think it was all provocation designed to stir up the normally quiet Jenin streets." Not all military officials agreed with him. Brig. Gen.
432:' to loiter in the hospitals, that he had discouraged the hospitals from releasing the schoolgirls after they had recovered, and that he was trying to inflame the situation. The coverage gave more weight to the Arab charges than to the American and Israeli explanations. There was no journalistic justification for the disparity."
319:, the head of Israel's military administration in the West Bank, said on April 5 that his men had arrested a number of Palestinians, insisting that "political agitators" were behind the outbreak. He told a press conference that "Palestinian student organizations and other political bodies were behind the illness."
278:
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apologized for its early coverage of the epidemic. "First reports suggested that the illness was caused by mass poisoning. But
Israeli and American doctors later concluded that the symptoms, including dizziness, nausea and headaches, had been caused by mass hysteria. Articles on April 4, April 5, and
36:
Investigators concluded that the wave of complaints was ultimately a result of mass hysteria, even if some environmental irritant had originally been present. This conclusion was supported by a
Palestinian health official, who said that 20% of the early cases may have been caused by the inhalation of
132:
The CDC reported that 70% of patients in the first wave were schoolgirls between 12 and 17 years old and that "clinical, epidemiologic, and toxicologic analyses indicated the illness was of psychogenic origin and was induced by stress. The outbreak, which began at a girls' secondary school, may have
156:
S gas escaping from a latrine at the secondary school in
Arrabah. Subsequent propagation of the outbreak was mediated by psychological factors, occurred against a background of anxiety and stress, and may have been facilitated by newspaper and radio reports that described the symptoms in detail and
144:
The CDC defined the second wave as between March 26 and 28, mostly hitting Jenin and nearby villages. The second wave saw 367 people fall ill, 246 of them schoolgirls. The CDC reported that 67% of the patients in the epidemic's second wave were schoolgirls and that symptoms "developed in persons of
57:
on March 28, 1983, even claimed that
Israeli military investigators had found traces of nerve gas and quoted "army sources" as saying that they suspected that Palestinian militants were poisoning their own people in order to blame Israel and provoke an uprising. Palestinian leaders followed up with
427:
also apologized for quoting an Arab doctor in the West Bank without giving equal time to
Israeli officials. The doctor said that "Israeli officials had dismissed him as director of public health services there because he refused to agree that the illnesses had no organic basis. The article omitted
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released their own report, which "rejected contentions that 943 cases of acute illness over two weeks were caused by deliberate poisoning or were fabricated for propaganda purposes." The report "concluded that the outbreaks represented an epidemic of true psychologic illness and that the cause of
307:
in which he charged that the fainting spells were caused by
Israeli poisoning. Rahman wrote that a "sulfurous powder" was found at two schools, and that a coke bottle containing a "noxious substance" and "emitting fumes" was found at a third school. He concluded "it is without question that a new
86:
under
Israeli rule, when a girl ran to a window, coughing and complaining of breathing difficulties. Within hours, six other students complained of the same symptoms. Panic spread to other classes. Israeli and Palestinian doctors, on investigating, are also reported to have detected a nauseating
23:
occurred in late March and early April 1983. Researchers point to mass hysteria as the most likely explanation. Large numbers of
Palestinians complained of fainting and dizziness, the vast majority of whom were teenage girls with a smaller number of female Israeli soldiers in multiple West Bank
44:
Albert Hefez was the lead
Israeli psychiatric investigator into the incident, and he found that the Israeli press and Palestinian medical personnel both fueled the mass hysteria. He said the Israeli press, by speculating that "poison" was behind the incidents in its early reporting and quoting
206:
The psychiatrist writes that these reports spread panic. "Not only was the number of effected persons increasing rapidly, but some unknown agent was poisoning the public. The answer to the ultimate question of 'Who is behind it?' would obviously depend on ones political affiliation. Thus, the
32:
reported that "Palestinian leaders have accused
Israeli settlers and officials of using 'chemical warfare' in West Bank schools to drive Arabs out of the area" and that some Israeli officials "accused radical Palestinian factions of using gas or chemicals to incite demonstrations."
27:
The cause was determined to be psychological in April 1983, but the fainting spells led to accusations and counter-accusations between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel even arrested some Palestinians during the outbreak, alleging that political agitation was behind the phenomenon.
87:
odour in the school. Cases of vomiting and complaints of blurred vision were also reported. Schoolgirls fell sick, some fainted. At the time the girls were in a different classrooms. They were taken to hospitals but no medical causes for their complaints were found. Some
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the presence of an unknown perpetrator. No mention was made of the fate of the first group of girls... This increased the fear and suspicion already existing among the Arab population," he wrote. He also identifies a front-page article from
45:
unnamed Israeli army officials as saying nerve gas was being used by Palestinian militants to provoke an uprising, spread panic. He found that Arab medical personnel, in turn, decided that the "poison" must be coming from the Israeli side.
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to look into "the situation arising from the cases of mass poisoning which have affected more than 1,000 Palestinian schoolgirls," saying "these serious cases require that the Security Council discharge its responsibility under the
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Baruch Modan, Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Health said that the first cases could have been caused by an "environmental irritant". Yellow powder that was seen around some school in Jenin proved to be a common
122:(early April) and other towns, with 943 people eventually hospitalized in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israeli military authorities in the West Bank closed Palestinian schools for 20 days during the epidemic.
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631:
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April 26 reported on these medical investigations. But because of the positions and relative lengths of the articles, the overall effect was greater emphasis on the charge of poisoning than on the Israeli rebuttal."
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all age groups and both sexes in an area of east Jenin after local residents observed a car moving through the streets emitting a thick cloud of smoke. The third wave was on April 3 with most of the cases in the
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904:
796:
289:, active on the West Bank" and that the outbreak came amid a "major Israeli settlement drive," creating an environment in which Palestinians were ready to believe they were being poisoned by Israel.
211:
article from March 31 that put forth the hypothesis that Palestinian activists were putting out a false story to provoke an uprising. Some Israeli doctors theorized the girls were playacting.
152:"Data collected in these investigations indicate that the West Bank epidemic was triggered either by psychological factors, or, more probably, by the odor of low, sub-toxic concentrations of H
848:
379:, in order to ensure Israel's compliance with the rules of international law relative to the protection of the civilian population in the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories."
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to conduct an independent investigation of the "reported cases of poisoning." The UN investigation found that mass hysteria was the likeliest cause of the epidemic, as did the
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alleged it was part of a "planned and systematic crime against our people." Some Israeli officials accused the Palestinians of using poison to provoke mass demonstrations.
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reported that events earlier in March had "produced a pervasive atmosphere of distrust throughout the West Bank. West Bankers' fears are fanned by statements like that of
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175:. The Arab population perceives the situation as a temporary occupation but some tend to believe that the Israelis would do anything to perpetuate the status quo."
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58:
accusations that Israel had poisoned them in an attempt to drive them from the West Bank. Such epidemic hysteria has a long history. Notable cases are the
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The school in Arrabah where the epidemic began saw 32 girls affected. Over the next two weeks, 57 Palestinian girls complained of similar symptoms at
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headlined "The Mysterious Poisoning goes on: 56 High School Girls in Djenin Poisoned." "The headline regarding a 'mysterious poisoning' implied in
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wrote in March 1983 that the accusations leveled at Israel over the fainting spells "may yet become a modern blood libel against the Jews."
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The epidemic had peaked by April 1, Hefez found. "The official communiqué rejecting any poisoning etiology, published in the morning paper
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had been used and that "Israeli army sources suspected an attempt to provoke the Arab population in anticipation of the coming '
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on April 1, appeared at the peak of this final wave. Although several cases appeared after this report, the panic declined."
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584:"The role of the press and the medical community in the epidemic of "mysterious gas poisoning" in the Jordan West Bank".
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on March 28 as feeding local hysteria. That article said Israeli investigators had found preliminary indications that
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265:... who said in mid-March that Israel had made a fatal mistake when it did not drive 200,000 to 300,000 Arabs of the
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241:—of using "chemical warfare" to either drive them out of the West Bank or to sterilize their young women.
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of 1962, and the 2008–2012 outbreak of psychogenic illness among Afghan school girls over suspected
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The Israeli government was of two minds about what was going on at the time of the epidemic. While
696:. G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Lexington Books. pp. 4–5.
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455:, argues that the fainting epidemic was largely a grand lie designed to harm the image of Israel.
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found that most of the fainting cases were psychological in nature. A Palestinian doctor from
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area. Schools were closed in the West Bank after the April 3 outbreak and the epidemic ended.
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accused Israel of using chemical weapons to exterminate Arab people, and Arab doctors from
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raised suspicion that the gas was intended to produce sterility in the affected girls."
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Hefez writes that the outbreak really spread after a March 26 article in the newspaper
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said "there is no sign of poisoning. Still, something has happened to these girls."
334:, acknowledged that 10 Israeli soldiers in Jenin had fallen ill, while two wearing
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778:""Poison" controversy is latest symptom of distrust on West Bank," Trudy Rubin,
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875:"Statement by the President of the UN Security Council (April 4, 1983) S/15680"
849:"Request to UN Security Council from UN's Arab Group (March 31, 1983) S/15673"
834:"Israel maintains innocence in illness bout", The Associated Press carried in
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On March 31, 1983, the Permanent Representative to the UN from Iraq asked the
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accusational tone and statements became even more apparent." He points to a
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624:"Mass hysteria blamed for Afghan schoolgirl 'poisoning,' not the Taliban"
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On April 4, 1983, the UN Security Council met and formally requested the
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who escorted the girls came down with the same symptoms, including
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The Palestinian counter-narrative emerged quickly, he wrote. "The
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592:(7). American Psychiatric Association Publishing: 833–837. 1985.
405:, who felt it "was a mass phenomenon without any organic basis."
1005:
The influence of newspaper reports on outbreaks of mass hysteria
428:
the Israeli explanation for his dismissal: that he had allowed '
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had not. "Border patrolman are not immune from such phenomena."
237:
Palestinian officials accused Israelis—either the government or
905:
United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine
797:
United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine
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and Israel's own lead psychiatric investigator, Albert Hefez.
242:
163:, the lead psychiatric investigator of the epidemic for the
1049:
Riots and civil disorder under Israeli Civil Administration
931:"U.S. Experts Blame Anxiety For Illness of West Bank Girls"
167:, found that it spread through the community much like the
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In late April, a team of US medical researchers from the
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The first fainting spells were on March 21, 1983, in the
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On March 29, 1983, the Deputy Permanent Observer of the
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been triggered by the odor of low concentrations of
1039:
Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the United Nations
312:against the Palestinian people has been launched."
728:"Nod for three more Jewish villages", Reuters in
966:Poison: modern manifestations of a blood libel
821:"Mystery Illness Due to Agitation" Reuters in
693:Poison: Modern Manifestations of a Blood Libel
622:The Christian Science Monitor (July 9, 2012).
453:Poison: modern manifestations of a blood libel
1034:1983 in the Israeli Civil Administration area
656:Poison: modern manifestations of ablood libel
37:some kind of gas, but the remaining 80% were
8:
744:
742:
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465:Children in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
342:Findings – no poison, mass hysteria to blame
475:Media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict
357:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
507:"More Schoolgirls in West Bank Fall Sick"
685:
683:
24:towns, leading to 943 hospitalizations.
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410:Department of Health and Human Services
760:from the original on February 17, 2024
750:"Epidemic of Acute Illness--West Bank"
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279:expulsion of Arabs from the West Bank
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305:President of the UN Security Council
634:from the original on March 21, 2024
941:from the original on June 26, 2024
710:from the original on June 26, 2024
505:David K. Shipler (April 4, 1983).
233:Accusations and political backdrop
14:
907:. August 29, 1983. Archived from
519:from the original on May 20, 2023
294:Palestine Liberation Organization
799:. March 29, 1983. Archived from
550:. April 18, 1983. Archived from
21:1983 West Bank fainting epidemic
659:. Lexington Books. p. 8.
586:American Journal of Psychiatry
308:phase in Israel's campaign of
1:
780:The Christian Science Monitor
628:The Christian Science Monitor
377:Charter of the United Nations
259:Deputy Speaker of the Knesset
254:The Christian Science Monitor
436:Comparisons to a blood libel
332:Israeli army's medical corps
169:Tanganyika laughter epidemic
64:Tanganyika laughter epidemic
470:List of mass hysteria cases
413:this illness was anxiety."
384:Secretary General of the UN
127:Centers for Disease Control
16:Mass event in the West Bank
1080:
732:(Malaysia), April 21, 1983
281:has been advocated by the
165:Israeli Ministry of Health
1059:April 1983 events in Asia
1054:March 1983 events in Asia
443:of the Israeli newspaper
392:World Health Organization
141:S) gas near the school."
1064:History of the West Bank
1044:Mass psychogenic illness
653:Raphael Israeli (2002).
388:International Red Cross
285:of American-born Rabbi
89:female Israeli soldiers
1024:20th-century epidemics
416:In an "Editors Note",
273:in the 1967 war." The
1029:1983 health disasters
1009:Psychiatric Quarterly
730:The New Straits Times
598:10.1176/ajp.142.7.833
303:sent a letter to the
911:on February 12, 2019
881:on February 12, 2019
855:on February 12, 2019
803:on February 12, 2019
690:Israeli, R. (2002).
544:"Ailing schoolgirls"
351:. Though a trace of
836:The Lakeland Ledger
397:On August 25, 1983
118:(March 29), 310 in
108:Zahra Middle School
103:and stomach pains.
937:. April 26, 1983.
935:The New York Times
901:"A/38/365 S/15939"
823:The Glasgow Herald
756:. April 29, 1983.
512:The New York Times
425:The New York Times
418:The New York Times
301:Hasan Abdul Rahman
220:Tul-Karem Hospital
114:(March 26), 37 at
60:Salem witch trials
30:The New York Times
703:978-0-7391-0208-4
554:on March 24, 2008
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399:Yehuda Blum
328:Moshe Revah
287:Meir Kahane
269:across the
216:Arab league
173:six-day war
70:poisoning.
1018:Categories
980:0739102087
666:0739102087
481:References
315:Brigadier
263:Meir Cohen
793:"S/15659"
606:0002-953X
336:gas masks
267:West Bank
245:Chairman
197:nerve gas
97:dizziness
80:West Bank
963:(2002).
945:June 26,
939:Archived
885:June 28,
859:June 28,
764:June 26,
758:Archived
714:June 26,
708:Archived
632:Archived
517:Archived
459:See also
445:Ha'aretz
430:leftists
310:genocide
239:settlers
227:Ha'aretz
192:Ha'aretz
116:Tulkarem
101:headache
82:town of
74:Epidemic
54:Ha'aretz
672:May 10,
638:July 1,
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