MORE SHAME FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES IN ITS FURTHER SALUTE TO ISRAELI APARTHEID PARADE IN NYC

The recent ‘Salute to Israel Parade’ in NYC (May 5) was a shameful day for New Yorkers when, following charges just days prior by virtually every major human rights group of the commission of war crimes by Israel’s IDF as well as the stone-walling of the UN Jenin investigating mission ordered by the Security Council, thousands turned out in NYC for a “Salute to Israel”. Just as shameful was the pathologically dissociated coverage of the event by the major media among them the New York Times none of whom mentioned the recent finding of war crimes or any of the other atrocities
committed as a matter of policy by the Israeli government as part of its program of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. For those who were at the rally and read about it the next day in the media the discrepancy was shocking. The criticisms and a different account of the parade were given voice with our story ‘A Shameful Day for NYC and an Ominous Day for Human Rights as...’ published that week ( http://stop-the-genocide.org/salutetoIsrael.html) and reproduced below. Now the NY Times under pressure from radical Zionists in New York have apologized for their original coverage, in effect, now saying it was not biased enough. Here’s the excerpt of the apology and below the full story which gives a more accurate account of the numbers and the event:

NEW YORK TIMES (excerpts for full article go to:  http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/23/international/23BOYC.html?ex=1023157859&ei=1&en=1bc1b01c0b5adb18)

May 23, 2002

Some U.S. Backers of Israel Boycott Dailies Over Mideast Coverage

By FELICITY BARRINGER

Intense public reaction to coverage of the violence of the Middle East conflict has prompted unusually harsh attacks on several news media outlets and has led to boycotts of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.
Broadcast news operations, including CNN and National Public Radio, have also been criticized. The general manager of one public radio station, WBUR-FM in Boston, said it had lost more than $1 million in underwriting and pledges this year or nearly 4 percent of its annual budget because some supporters of Israel encouraged people not to give.

The coverage by The New York Times has been condemned by rabbis in several congregations...Critics of The Times dispatched hundreds of e-mail messages and angry commentary earlier this month when it published a front-page photograph of the Salute to Israel parade in Manhattan that showed a small group of pro-Palestinian counter demonstrators in the foreground and pro-Israeli marchers and their supporters in the background.

Since the pro-Israeli marchers and supporters numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and the pro-Palestinian group in the hundreds,

(NOTE: THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. SEE ‘A SHAMEFUL DAY...’ ARTICLE ON WAY OVERLY PUMPED UP NUMBERS BY TIMES AND OTHER NEWS SERVICES)

the photograph and a pair of related photographs in the Metro section reinforced the critics' impression that The Times was straining to create a sense of equivalence.
An editors' note the next day said, "In fairness the total picture presentation should have better reflected The Times' reporting on the scope of the event, including the disparity in the turnouts."

(HERE THE TIMES, WHOSE COVERAGE WAS HUGELY BIASED IN ITS ORIGINAL STORY BY ITS WILD INFLATION OF THE NUMBER OF ATTENDEES AMONG OTHER THINGS, FURTHER CAPITULATES TO THE ISRAELI LOBBY BY APOLOGIZING FOR WHAT WAS ALREADY A COMPLETELY BIASED ARTICLE IN FAVOR OF (WHAT WAR CRIMES?) ISRAEL. BELOW IS THE ORIGINAL STOP-THE-GENOCIDE A NEWS STORY WHICH CHALLENGES THE TIMES ARTICLE AS IT WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN. THE ORIGINAL TIMES ARTICLE IGNORES THE FINDINGS OF HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS OF THE PREVIOUS DAYS, THE SQUASHING OF THE INVESTIGATION BY THE UNITED NATIONS ON HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AS ORDERED BY THE THE SECURITY COUNCIL, BUT ALL THE RACIST SIGNS CARRIED BY THE ISRAELI MARCHERS AS WELL AS ANY DISCUSSION OF WHAT REALLY HAPPENED WITH THE POLITICIANS. SUCH COVERAGE, BY OMITTING MENTION OF THESE CRIMES ITSELF BECOMES COMPLICIT IN THEM, AND CELEBRATING THE PERPETRATORS AS THE ‘SALUTE’ PARADE DID, CELEBRATES THE CRIMES THEMSELVES).


A Shameful Day for NYC and an Ominous Day for Human Rights as Thousands March up 5th Ave. in ‘Salute’ to Israeli Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing ( http://stop-the-genocide.org/salutetoIsrael.html)

NEW YORK, May 5 - It was just a little over a week following Amnesty International’s report finding the commission of war crimes by Israeli soldiers (IDF) in the Jenin refugee camp, and 2 days after Human Rights Watch also issued a press release charging the IDF with committing war crimes including the willful and unlawful killing of civilians and the use of “Palestinian civilians as ‘human shields’”. It was just 3 days after Physicians for Human Rights issued their preliminary findings on the Jenin incursion also showing the intentional targeting of civilians including woman and children and the disabled, and it was just 4 days after Kofi Annan was forced by Israeli’s lack of cooperation to abort the UN Jenin fact-finding mission (as mandated by Security Council resolution 1405). It was on this day when NY’s Mayor Bloomberg said to reporters “if New Yorkers don’t stand up (for Israel) today, I don’t know when you would”

It was following these just the latest cries from human rights groups, as well as Israel’s ongoing serial violations of international law and one UN resolution after another (including prohibitions on torture, protection of the sick and wounded, and the rights of children) that thousands marched up 5th Ave. in New York City in a “Salute to Israel” parade. It was a shameful day for New York, and an ominous day for global peace, justice, and human rights as marchers and spectators, some holding pre-printed signs reading: “Read the Bible. The Land of Israel Belongs to the Jews” referring to ‘Biblical Israel’ including the entire illegally Occupied Territories, others riding floats provocatively displaying huge maps of greater apartheid Israel with all the illegally built, racially segregated Jewish only settlement areas and roads included, each and every one constituting a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. Well trained teens in matching outfits were marching with a huge provocative banner reading “One Jewish Jerusalem Forever”, while others held signs reading “Peace Means No Arabs,” and another reading “End the Arab Occupation of Jewish Land”.

The actual number of people attending the parade was way, way fewer than the million organizers claimed, although some media outlets just repeated the numbers the organizers had given them in their reports as though they were facts. Radio 1010 WINS, had the figure of attendees at a million, the NY Times gave the figure as as 700,000 to 800,000, the New York Post had the figure at a slightly more realistic 200,000, but in fact to say that there 50,000 spectators there would be stretching it. It was probably more like 25,000 or so with perhaps an additional 10,000 to 20,000 accounted for by the marchers themselves bussed in from suburbia with mass-produced printed signs some of whom joined the spectator sections after they marched.

The number of protesters that showed up, although way undercounted and under interviewed by the mainstream press, probably surprised everyone. The NY Times put the number at 600, but if their figure of 700-800,000 was right (it wasn’t) for the number of supporters over the 15 block parade then there had to have been some 85,000 protesters since they covered one side of 3 blocks of the 15. If the number of 25,000 is closer to the actual number of salute supporters then the number of protesters would have been nearer to 2,700 which is way closer to the truth. More significant, however, although not surprising to anyone who understands the Palestinian cause, was the diversity of the protesters. While radical pro-Zionist groups like the ADL have spent huge amounts of money, and often thuggish if not criminal practices, attempting to curtail free speech or criticism against Israel by labeling such criticism anti-Jewish or anti-semitic, the large number of Jewish protesters in New York (perhaps half of the total number of protesters) carrying signs such as “Jews Against the Occupation,” “Israeli Jews Against the Occupation,” “Another Jew Against Zionism”, or the orthodox rabbis holding Palestinian flags, fully rejected this Zionist spin. “All human life is sacred,” said Rabbi Dovid Weiss. “We stand with our Palestinian friends” against the inhumanity of Zionism which runs completely counter to what we take to be the true teachings of Judaism.

The protesters who also included among them Muslims, Christians, and human rights advocates who would not consider themselves members of any organized religion at all carried signs like “End Israeli Apartheid,” “Stop Funding Israeli Terrorism,” “End the Occupation,” “Indict the War Criminals,” “No Justice, No Peace!”, and “Never Again, To Anyone.” Chants included “End the Occupation Now!”, “Judaism, Yes, Zionism No” (lead by the orthodox rabbis), “Hey Sharon, Whatta You Say? How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?”, “Free, Free Palestine!”, “1-2-3-4, We Don’t Want Your Racist War”, “Hitler and Sharon, They’re the Same the Only Difference Is the Name”, and “Your Parents Are Lying While Children are Dying!” .

It was a disgraceful day for New York, and indeed the country to see not just the Mayor of New York, but the Governor (Pataki) and both U.S. Senators showing up to march in this salute to apartheid, state terrorism, and ethnic cleansing. The disgust and contempt of the protesters surged as U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, thick theatrical pancake makeup on his face for the video cameras that accompanied him, attempted to walk by the multiple blocks of demonstrators ignoring them while smiling and waving at the side of the street where the bussed-in pro-Israeli spectators were placed. “Shame, shame!” shouted the demonstrators as Schumer walked on trying to pretend they weren’t there. “Have the courage to face us!” shouted a protester over and over, and the chanting grew. He didn’t. Most of the other politicians, including Hillary Clinton, seeing this, chose to remain hidden inside their limousines as they went by the demonstrators, smoked glass windows tight, getting out only at selected places to be filmed or have photos taken for their respective campaigns without thee unpleasant sounds of people waving signs about state terrorism, war crimes, and human rights.

Just three days after the salute to apartheid parade in NY, Sharon, now encouragingly met with demonstrators calling for his indictment when he shows up to speak, proclaimed to an ADL rally, after thanking the US for helping Israel squash the Jenin investigation, "I don't see that any nation in the world has the right to bring the Israeli citizens and the state of Israel to (a world) court. No one!" While groups at Princeton and Harvard have now joined the divestment movement growing on colleges campuses around the country, the Bush administration, the day after the NY parade announced its intention to “unsign” its signature from the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC).


 http://www.stop-the-genocide.org