Murder in Palestine? Revisiting the causes of the Acre/Akka typhoid outbreak of 1948
In 1948, an outbreak of typhoid occurred in the coastal town of Acre (Akka) in northern Palestine. This was a time when Jewish and Arab communities were in open conflict, and subsequent claims that Jewish militants had deliberately contaminated the town’s water supply have become part of major narratives of the period and are routinely presented as fact. Drawing on a range of records, including the contemporary reports of Red Cross delegates and British military personnel on hand to examine the conditions, this paper discusses the supposed evidence for deliberate contamination and how the episode has been presented publicly since.
Date: 28 January 2019, 16:00 (Monday, 3rd week, Hilary 2019)
Venue: History Faculty, George Street OX1 2RL
Venue Details: Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Dr Roderick Bailey (University of Oxford)
Organising department: Oxford Centre for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology
Organisers: Professor Robert Iliffe (University of Oxford), Dr Sloan Mahone (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: hsmt@history.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Oxford Centre for the History of Science Medicine & Technology (OCHSMT) Seminars and Events
Topics:
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editor: Belinda Clark