International Media Bias
John | 12.06.2002 22:27
Here is such an example: biased reporting by CNN from today's news.
From CNN's website:
"The Palestine Red Crescent said the Israeli army shelled two ambulances, killing the manager of a medical center who was in one of the vehicles and injuring six people, all ambulance-services personnel. Two were reported in critical condition."
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The same event, reported by Jerusalem Post:
"One Palestinian doctor was killed and three of his staff members were wounded after soldiers fired at a Palestinian ambulance that reportedly attempted to run them over. The ambulance driver approached a roadblock [at high speed] near the Jenin refugee camp and apparently attempted to kill the soldiers, Israel Radio reported. The soldiers shot at the vehicle, which in turn exploded."
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The CNN report does not mention that the ambulance threatened the IDF soldiers or that it exploded. Other than on CNN, no "shelling" is mentioned by any other service. Perhaps the CNN report is confused with another incident today involving tank fire.
The ambulance may have been a bomb. Arutz Sheva reports the incident this way:
"The director of the Red Crescent in Jenin, Halil Suleiman, was killed today while driving what was apparently an ambulance-bomb. The ambulance approached an IDF checkpoint at high speed and under suspicious circumstances. The soldiers signaled it to stop, and when it did not do so, they fired at it; seconds later, it exploded."
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MSNBC declares state of Palestine (13.2.02)
By Diana Lynne, WorldNetDaily.com
MSNBC has declared the state of Palestine on its online Arabic-language portal [
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WorldNetDaily had its Arabic translator check out the site after a reader raised an objection to the inclusion of the non-existent state. The translator confirms that MSNBC.com's Arabic version includes "Palestine" in a list of 19 countries on the side of the site under the heading "Local Arab News." The "nations" are: "Emirates, Egypt, Saudi, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Kuwait, Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Mauritania."
The translator describes these country headings as links to pages containing story headlines. At the time the site was checked, the "Palestine" link pulled up stories headlined, "Death threats against the PA," "Arafat condemns Israeli occupation," and "Arafat affirms rule despite being surrounded."
As WorldNetDaily reported last month, Motorola similarly skewed reality [
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In response to WorldNetDaily's story, Motorola's director of communications and public affairs apologized "for any concern that this error may have caused." [
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The "mistake" caused a furor in Israel and beyond, sparking a campaign among hundreds of executives of Israeli companies to end contracts with Motorola unless the high-tech corporate giant places ads in Israeli newspapers announcing the destruction of the "erroneous manuals" and explaining the reference to the Palestinian Authority as "Palestine."
Israel's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres outlined a peace plan yesterday negotiated with a senior Palestinian lawmaker, Ahmed Qureia, that calls for a cease-fire followed quickly by the establishment of a Palestinian state.
"We will recognize a Palestinian state; they will recognize the state of Israel," Peres told Israel Radio. The Associated Press describes the plan as "long on optimism and short on supporters."
President Bush has repeatedly voiced support for the creation of a Palestinian state that "recognizes the existence of Israel."
While some would call the adoption of "Palestine" as a country heading by MSNBC.com [
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When questioned about the "Palestine" reference, Cherylynne Crowther, vice president of marketing and communications for MSNBC.com explained she didn't have access to a translation of the "navigational decisions of the site" and couldn't verify whether WND's "characterization of it is correct or not."
"With any of our business partners, we monitor their products for their quantitative and qualitative performance. The details you've provided focus on navigation and organizational decisions within the site. Currently, our translation intent is to review top stories and headlines. We are now expanding the scope of our translation agreement to include navigation such as you have highlighted," Crowther told WorldNetDaily, adding that the expanded scope would take effect today.
In October, MSNBC.com launched a "strategic alliance" with GOOD NEWS 4 ME, or GN4ME, to serve as MSNBC.com's Arabic-language portal.
"MSNBC.com has maintained the No. 1 position for two and a half years because we are constantly working to increase audience reach and depth of content," said John Nicol, president and CEO of MSNBC.com, in a press release at the time.
According to the release, GN4ME [
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"We're trusting there's not some anti-Semitic bias," Michael Salata, MSNBC's business development manager commented, according to Wired, referring to the translations provided by GN4ME. "We have a lot of faith in their coverage."
"Unlike many outlets in the region, the MSNBC site will be free of government censorship, 'which is one of the reasons we did it. There is a need for unbiased news in the region, and we hope to go beyond state-run media,'" Wired quotes Salata as saying.
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Eye on the Media: The truth behind Palestinian broadcasts
By Andrea Levin (27.1.02)
CNN reporter Rula Amin's zealous pro-Palestinian bias was conspicuous once again on January 19.
Recounting Israeli destruction of several floors of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation in Ramallah, in the wake of the Palestinian murder of Jewish guests at a bat mitzva in Hadera, she presented only angry, distraught Arab speakers denouncing Israel. (The radio arm of the PBC resumed broadcasting almost immediately from another locale and the main headquarters of the television division located in Gaza was untouched, permitting most of its programs to continue.)
Amin's only nod to Israeli views was a perfunctory: "Israel says the Voice of Palestine is used by the Palestinian Authority for incitement against Israel and Israelis." She quickly added: "Palestinian officials say they only report what Israel does."
Amin omitted mention of even one example of the incendiary content Israelis have long protested.
Indeed, among the most disastrous developments in the pursuit of peace between Israelis and Palestinians must surely be counted the creation of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation. Established in the early years of Oslo, both the television and radio arms soon became potent vehicles for amplifying anti-Israel propaganda in a way that had not been possible previously.
From the outset, PA television has offered sinister fare. One 1998 Palestinian children's series presented sweet-faced little girls singing songs about becoming suicide bombers and drenching the ground with blood in the march to Jerusalem.
Against a backdrop of Disney figures, teachers exclaimed "Bravo, bravo!" to those most ardently pledging themselves to violence. Declarations of devotion to martyrdom and extolling of past terrorist killers of Israelis were commonplace.
More recently, as Palestinian negotiators at Camp David moved toward abandoning peace talks in the summer of 2000, PA television turned to graphic images of old intifada clashes and funerals. Martial music accompanied inflammatory footage.
With the outbreak of rioting in September 2000, Palestinian broadcasting continued to stoke violence. A news story by USA Today's Jack Kelley about the Voice of Palestine radio described in dramatic fashion agitated VOP radio reports claiming Israel was bombing and killing children in Bethlehem.
Yet on visiting that town, all was quiet.
Similar fraudulent reports charged "settlers" were "shooting Palestinian women" in Hebron, where no such violence had occurred. In Nablus Israeli troops were alleged to be "burning homes" - where, again, no such thing was happening.
One report, according to Kelley, even claimed "hundreds of jets and helicopters are taking off from the aircraft carrier belonging to the criminal occupation force." Israel has no aircraft carriers. PA television has regularly delivered as well incendiary Friday sermons by religious leaders. One day after the Ramallah lynching of two Israelis, Ahmad Abu Halabiya, a member of the PA-appointed Fatwa Council, called on listeners to find and butcher Jews "no matter where they are, in any country. Fight them, wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them."
One week after the Dolphinarium bombing on June 1, 2001 in Tel Aviv in which 21 people, mainly young girls, were killed, PA television carried the sermon of Sheik Ibrahim Al-Madhi. He said: "Blessings to whoever waged Jihad for the sake of Allah; blessings to whoever raided for the sake of Allah; blessings to whoever put a belt of explosives on his body or on his sons' and plunged into the midst of the Jews, crying 'Allahu Akbar...'" In July, a Friday sermon on PA TV exhorted Palestinians to train their children in the "love of Jihad for the sake of Allah and the love of fighting for the sake of Allah." Sheik Ibrahim Al-Madhi told his audience that "local" Jews not from other countries, and Christians, could live as "Dhimmis" among the Muslims - as unequal, subordinate peoples.
In August on PA television, Sheik Isma'il Aal Ghadwan admonished listeners to seek martyrdom, holding up as a model those who offered their own mutilated bodies as tokens of sacrifice. He said: "The sacrifice of convoys of martyrs [will continue] until Allah grants us victory very soon.
The willingness for sacrifice and for death we see amongst those who were cast by Allah into a war with the Jews, should not come at all as a surprise..." (All translations are from MEMRI, Middle East Media Research Institute.)
One Palestinian broadcast that made news in 2001 on American television was that containing, in the words of NBC correspondent Martin Fletcher, a "commercial" for child martyrdom. In vivid re-enactments, Palestinian boys and girls were shown how to put down their "toys" and pick up rocks and follow the path of martyrs. In the video, paradise awaiting after death is depicted as an inviting, green, sunlit meadow where friends meet and play.
That CNN - and many other media outlets - should report Israeli attacks against PA broadcasting structures without so much as a mention of the vile hatred emanating from its airwaves, poisoning the lives of Palestinians and Israelis alike, is testimony to the determination of some outlets to purvey a distorted, anti-Israel image of the conflict no matter how divorced their coverage may be from the conflict's realities.
The writer is executive director of CAMERA, the Center for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.
(Jeruslaem Post)
Deception In The Media, A Growing Evil (2.2.02)
by Joshua Waul,
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The Media today is complicit with the New World Order plan to dispose of God's claim to Jerusalem, and to see this evil at work, one does not have to look very far.
I received from a friend in the U.S., excerpts from a report by an AP correspondent, Mort Rosenblum, accusing Israel of depriving the Palestinians of ample water supplies. Following are some of the statements:
"Arabs receive a fraction of what goes to Jews (water), which adds hard immediacy to the slow process of making peace."
"In the West Bank, some Palestinians trudge long distances for water, at times within earshot of youths frolicking in the swimming pools of Jewish settlements built in their midst."
"In the Gaza Strip, a few thousand Jewish settlers have ample water piped from Israel while a million Palestinians pump the last drinkable dregs of underground rivers polluted by encroaching seawater and sewage."
"You cannot talk about peace while you have this discrimination on the ground," said Ayman Rabi, executive director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group. "Every day, the problem is getting worse."
The fact that Mort Rosenblum is Jewish doesn't help matters, but unfortunately there are a lot of left leaning Jews who think in the natural, and deny the biblical heritage regarding the land of Israel.
Yes, there is a water crisis in the Middle East! Yes, the Palestinians do not enjoy the same access to water that their Jewish neighbors do. Yes, there has been shortsighted water management within the Israeli government.
What they are NOT telling you...
Numerous foreign countries however, have given Arafat BILLIONS of dollars, for the express purpose of building housing, infrastructure, and YES. WATER PROJECTS! He has not built ANY of them to date. His people still live in the squalor of refugee camps because he places no value on human life or the living conditions of the people he claims to be so concerned about.
He is reported to have over $25 Billion in foreign bank accounts that were supposed to go to these improvement projects. This makes the world support of this madman even more preposterous. Why aren't these governments holding him accountable? Why aren't they threatening him with war crimes in the Hague? Because the NWO crowd have a singular goal in mind, destruction of all notions of national sovereignty anywhere that such ideas are entrenched. And nowhere is the right to land issues more entrenched than in the Middle East, particularly Israel.
Various news agencies are reporting that Israel murdered an eleven-year-old boy, forgetting to mention that he was throwing hand grenades at Israeli soldiers at the time. There is of course a question as to whether he was shot by Israelis or Palestinians. I remind you of the twelve-year-old boy that was made into a martyr by the world press when they accused Israel of shooting him in a gun battle, only to find out later that film clips proved conclusively that he was actually killed by Palestinian crossfire. The media however, NEVER reported that finding, or retracted their stories and accusations.
They show pictures of Palestinian houses being torn down, and fail to mention that these concrete shells never get finished, are a safety hazard to all who live near them, and are shelters for terrorist within Jerusalem. Not to mention the fact that they were built by people who had no right of ownership to the property, and were thrown up as a blatant attempt to "squat" the land. They are illegal, Period! Try going into the downtown area of any major city in the U.S. and just start building a house on land you don't own, without any legal permits, and tell me what happens. Go ahead, try it, I will publish your results in this report.
I am watching the world press become more and more bold in their absolute hatred of Israel. The lies are without remorse, and are nothing less than calculated to reach their desired effect, which is to mobilize world opinion against Israel.
Yes. they may mix some truth in, but they will inevitably come to an erroneous conclusion in contradiction to the facts. They are unashamedly against Israel, and against the God of Israel!
I have repeatedly warned that the goal of this Intifadah by the New World Order people who pull the strings on all sides of this conflict have been to divide Jerusalem, create it as an International City belonging to the world, and to put troops on the ground to enforce the imposed fate upon the Israeli citizenry. Today, President Bush is meeting with his father, and gaining advice on how to proceed in the Middle East, George senior of course started this whole land for peace deal in Madrid in 1991, and has always been in favor of taking control of the situation in order to keep the flow of oil uninterrupted. George Jr. is as I suspected following in his fathers footsteps by continuing to support the land for peace idea, and pressing Israel to accept the idea of foreign "peacekeepers".
If George Jr. was a bible believing Christian as he claims, then he would know that Israel is the indivisible property of the Almighty God, and that he is treading on lethal ground when he takes an instrumental lead in dividing it. As I have predicted, he is starting to show a little blame on Israel for their stubborn pursuit of a non-violent peace.
Again the bible tells us in Zechariah that ALL of the nations of the world will come against Israel, not just some, or most, but all. This has to include America as well.
I must reiterate that Arafat cannot in any way sign an End of Conflict agreement with Israel. The Koran expressly forbids it. His own bodyguards will murder him, within 30 minutes of doing so. This is why he had to walk out of the Camp David meetings, and if Clinton and the rest of the world really didn't understand that, then they are too ill informed to be in positions of leadership....
Please see the forthcoming article(s) "What the Palestinians actually believe;" and "Why Israel?" to get a better picture of what is really happening between Israel, and the World.
Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem,
Joshua Waul
CNN and AP's bias of the week (25.1.02)
1. CNN WARPS THE FACTS
In reporting on the Palestinian shooting spree in Jerusalem on Tuesday, CNN's homepage headline proclaimed:
"ISRAEL SHOOTING WOUNDS DOZENS"
Read carefully. The false implication of this CNN headline is that Israel perpetrated a shooting spree.
In another article this week, CNN referred to Hamas as "an organization known among Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza Strip for actions such as building schools, hospitals and helping the community in social and religious ways..."
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Whoops! Did CNN forget that Hamas is classified by the U.S. State Department as a "terrorist" organization, with no differentiation between the military and political arms? Says the State Department:
"Various Hamas elements have used both political and violent means, including terrorism, to pursue the goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel."
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If you believe that CNN has demonstrated bias in these instances, write to:
CNN Email Adresses
2. ASSOCIATED PRESS BOTCHES THE HEADLINES (AGAIN)
On Tuesday, two separate events occurred:
1) A Palestinian terrorist sprayed machine-gun fire on shoppers in downtown Jerusalem,
2) Israel uncovered a bomb factory in the West Bank, subsequently killing the 4 Hamas terrorists who operated it.
In a vile case of "moral equivalency," Associated Press ran the following headline on Tuesday:
"ISRAEL KILLS 4, PALESTINIAN WOUNDS 8" (
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AP would have you believe that it's tit-for-tat: A 78-year-old Jewish shopper is gunned down, just as a Palestinian bomb-maker is, too. Recall that earlier this week, AP delivered another botched headline, in reporting on Israel's incursion into the town of Tulkarem:
"ISRAEL TAKES OVER ENTIRE WEST BANK" (
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Send AP your comments to:
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CNN Conceals Truth about PA Broadcasting (29.1.02)
by Andrea Levin, Executive Director of CAMERA
CNN reporter Rula Amin's zealous pro-Palestinian bias was conspicuous once again on January 19. Recounting Israeli destruction of several floors of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation in Ramallah, in the wake of the Palestinian murder of Jewish guests at a Bat Mitzvah in Hadera, she presented only angry, distraught Arab speakers denouncing Israel. (The radio arm of the PBC resumed broadcasting almost immediately from another locale and the main headquarters of the television division located in Gaza was untouched, permitting most of its programs to continue.)
Amin's only nod to Israeli views was a perfunctory: "Israel says the Voice of Palestine is used by the Palestinian Authority for incitement against Israel and Israelis." She quickly added: "Palestinian officials say they only report what Israel does." Amin omitted mention of even one example of the incendiary content Israelis have long protested.
Indeed, among the most disastrous developments in the pursuit of peace between Israelis and Palestinians must surely be counted the creation of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation. Established in the early years of Oslo, both the television and radio arms soon became potent vehicles for amplifying anti-Israel propaganda in a way that had not been possible previously.
From the outset, PA television has offered sinister fare. One 1998 Palestinian children's series presented sweet-faced little girls singing songs about becoming suicide bombers and drenching the ground with blood in the march to Jerusalem. Against a backdrop of Disney figures, teachers exclaimed "Bravo, bravo!" to those most ardently pledging themselves to violence. Declarations of devotion to martyrdom and extolling of past terrorist killers of Israelis were commonplace.
More recently, as Palestinian negotiators at Camp David moved toward abandoning peace talks in the summer of 2000, PA television turned to graphic images of old Intifada clashes and funerals. Martial music accompanied inflammatory footage.
With the outbreak of rioting in September 2000, Palestinian broadcasting continued to stoke violence. A news story by USA Today's Jack Kelley about the Voice of Palestine radio described in dramatic fashion agitated VOP radio reports claiming Israel was bombing and killing children in Bethlehem. Yet on visiting that town, all was quiet. Similar fraudulent reports charged "settlers" were "shooting Palestinian women" in Hebron, where no such violence had occurred. In Nablus Israeli troops were alleged to be "burning homes" - where, again, no such thing was happening.
One report, according to Kelley, even claimed "hundreds of jets and helicopters are taking off from the aircraft carrier belonging to the criminal occupation force." Israel has no aircraft carriers.
PA television has regularly delivered as well incendiary Friday sermons by religious leaders. One day after the Ramallah lynching of two Israelis, Ahmad Abu Halabiya, a member of the PA-appointed Fatwa Council, called on listeners to find and butcher Jews "no matter where they are, in any country. Fight them, wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them."
One week after the Dolphinarium bombing on June 1, 2001 in Tel Aviv in which 21 people, mainly young girls, were killed, PA television carried the sermon of Sheik Ibrahim Al-Madhi. He said: "Blessings to whoever waged Jihad for the sake of Allah; blessings to whoever raided for the sake of Allah; blessings to whoever put a belt of explosives on his body or on his sons' and plunged into the midst of the Jews, crying "Allahu Akbar..."
In July, a Friday sermon on PA TV exhorted Palestinians to train their children in the "love of Jihad for the sake of Allah and the love of fighting for the sake of Allah." Sheik Ibrahim Al-Madhi told his audience that "local" Jews not from other countries, and Christians, could live as "Dhimmis" among the Muslims - as unequal, subordinate peoples.
In August on PA television, Sheik Isma'il Aal Ghadwan admonished listeners to seek martyrdom, holding up as a model those who offered their own mutilated bodies as tokens of sacrifice. He said: "The sacrifice of convoys of martyrs [will continue] until Allah grants us victory very soon. The willingness for sacrifice and for death we see amongst those who were cast by Allah into a war with the Jews, should not come at all as a surprise..." (All translations are from MEMRI, Middle East Media Research Institute)
One Palestinian broadcast that made news in 2001 on American television was that containing, in the words of NBC correspondent Martin Fletcher, a "commercial" for child martyrdom. In vivid re-enactments, Palestinian boys and girls were shown to put down their "toys" and pick up rocks and follow the path of martyrs. In the video, paradise awaiting after death is depicted as an inviting, green, sunlit meadow where friends meet and play.
That CNN - and many other media outlets - should report Israeli attacks against PA broadcasting structures without so much as a mention of the vile hatred emanating from its airwaves, poisoning the lives of Palestinians and Israelis alike, is testimony to the determination of some outlets to purvey a distorted, anti-Israel image of the conflict no matter how divorced their coverage may be from the conflict's realities.
A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distorts the News
This is a letter sent to news networks editorials about the media bias:
To all media folks -- Greetings!
We have all encountered media bias. Now its been exposed by a CBS Insider how the media distorts the news. Bernie Goldberg even wrote a book about it.
Its not just CBS (feedback was sent to CBS as well) who mimicks CNN and BBC who gets its reports from Reuters and Associated Press who employ local Palestinian folks posed as "journalists" to report one sided propaganda bashing Israel at each and every turn. Facts have been written about the lies Palestinians weave that the western press just gobble up and nobody says it better than Andrea Levin of CAMERA in regards to CNN but I can apply same logic to each media I have mentioned.
Executive Director Andrea Levin charged that CNN regularly levels allegations against Israel without regard for their accuracy. "It's a serious matter to say Israel is confiscating land and not compensating owners. Both charges are false. Israel does not 'confiscate' property and does compensate landowners, Arabs and Jews alike, when the state takes land by eminent domain. The question is why does CNN accept as credible any accusation uttered by the Palestinians, while impugning Israel out of hand, however specious the charge?" Levin asked.
Calling for "a house-cleaning at CNN's Jerusalem Bureau and a revamping of the network's reporting practices," CAMERA cited a long record of error-ridden and partisan coverage by the Atlanta network. The organization had also lodged protests with network officials as recently as January over statements by Jerusalem Bureau Chief Walter Rodgers. Reporting on a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Washington's National Press Club, the CNN correspondent said the leader's remarks were "a very slick effort by the arch practitioner of propaganda to reingratiate himself with the American public."
Rodgers appeared incensed at Netanyahu's recounting of Palestinian violations of the Oslo peace agreements. CAMERA noted that a search of CNN transcripts revealed no instance in which Rodgers used similarly derogatory language about other heads of state. On the contrary, noted Levin, the Middle East's most unsavory dictatorships are described respectfully.
"Yasir Arafat recently delivered a speech in Iran filled with venomous and false charges against Israel. He attacked Israel for plotting to replace the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem with a Jewish Temple, an incendiary libel designed to inflame the Arab and Islamic world against Israel. But CNN didn't call Arafat a propagandist," said Levin. "Arafat regularly delivers diatribes in Arabic calling for holy war against Israel and extolling suicide bombers, then talks peace when speaking English to Western audiences but CNN doesn't call this slick propaganda."
Levin added that in the same January broadcast Rodgers read a Palestinian document containing what he called 'serious' charges alleging Israeli violations of Oslo. Again, the CNN reporter repeated Arab assertions as fact, making no attempt to corroborate them. He charged, for instance, that Netanyahu had "turned at least half a dozen Jews out of jail ... people who were guilty of killing Palestinians." The claim is inaccurate. Israel's President, Ezer Weizman, not Netanyahu, pardoned two Israelis who were juveniles when they committed their crimes and who had served four years of a ten-year term. Four other prisoners had their sentences reduced but had many years yet to serve. "This kind of derelict reporting is pervasive," said Levin.
In contrast to CNN's continual echoing of Palestinian accusations against Israel, Rodgers ignores entirely or dismisses out of hand Israel's enumeration of Palestinian breaches of Oslo. Thus when Israel recently restated its insistence that the PA comply with its obligation to rescind the PLO charter calling for Israel's destruction, Rodgers' reports disparaged the Israeli government's contention and insisted the charter had been satisfactorily revised.
CAMERA said CNN distortions crop up on virtually a daily basis and have been a longstanding problem. Levin cited a report from June 1997 that alleged Israeli policies in Jerusalem have caused a "dwindling" of the Arab population in the city. The facts are precisely the opposite -- the city's Arab population has burgeoned, growing at a faster rate than the Jewish population. Indeed, Palestinian officials themselves cite numbers higher than Israeli figures. Nevertheless, despite their having broadcast the bogus charge maligning Israel, network officials have refused to issue a correction.
"We've concluded the network doesn't much care whether they get their facts right," said Levin. "They've got an agenda and they don't let the truth get in their way. You have to assume, too, that a network this irresponsible on the subject of Israel is doing the same thing in covering other stories."
Let the Media know that your audience is wise and wont be fooled by biased one sided rhetoric any longer!
Yardena Anat Even
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EYE ON THE MEDIA: The other side of incitement (10.1.02)
In the face of the violent onslaught against Israelis throughout the West Bank, Gaza and within Israel, various "human rights" organizations, international bodies and journalists have heatedly denounced the Jewish state for its alleged use of "excessive force" in defending its people.
Absent almost invariably from the excoriating of Israel is any reference to the role of the Palestinians themselves in instigating the violence and placing their civilians in the line of fire.
Los Angeles Times Bureau Chief Tracy Wilkinson recently joined this distorted chorus deploring Israel's military conduct. In an extensive front page story ("Israeli Activists Urge Army to Probe Civilian Slayings," December 31, 2001) running to 3,300 words, she manages never to mention the Palestinian Authority's grotesque incitement to hatred and murder of Israelis - incitement that has propelled children into battle.
Nor does she note the simple fact that the violence would end the moment the Palestinians stopped it.
Instead, she builds her story around the charges of the far-Left B'Tselem organization, well known for its lopsided critiques of Israel, and on the accusations of Ra'anan Cohen from the Meretz party. He is quoted saying "something very sick has entered this system. The Israel [army] is indeed making a tremendous military effort, and there's no doubt that it increases the burden and the tension. But this should not justify lies and the loss of our moral values." No member of Israel's unity government is interviewed as counterpoint to the Meretz critic.
Although several Israeli military spokesmen are interviewed, their brief, general comments are juxtaposed against detailed and evocative anecdotes concerning individual Palestinians killed by soldiers.
Wilkinson claims that "a review by The Times of several civilian deaths reveals a pattern of questionable Israeli military action and minimal inquiry into what went wrong, as well as little if any disciplinary action."
She states, as though uncovering some nefarious truth, that "the Israeli army has defined the current conflict in a way that loosens the rules of engagement and allows soldiers wide discretion in opening fire..."
It is entirely unclear how the supposed "review by The Times" of Israeli military actions was conducted. No description is given of the methods employed to arrive at the serious accusation leveled. But what is glaringly obvious is Wilkinson's failure to make clear certain plain realities.
The Palestinians have since September 2000 launched thousands of violent attacks on Israelis with stones, bombs, mortars, guns, and suicide killers. Palestinian civilians, including children, have deliberately been sent to the front lines, with gunmen shooting from crowds of youthful stone-throwers and drawing Israeli response, snipers shooting from residential neighborhoods triggering Israeli defensive action, and bomb-planters placing explosives near areas used by olive harvesters and schoolboys.
Stoking the violence, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad have continuously glorified the "martyrs" lost in such attacks and encouraged more of the young to sacrifice themselves. Small children wrapped in mock explosives to simulate future suicide bombers are a gruesome feature of public parades, PA television spots urge young people to seek a martyr's paradise, and PA mosques exhort the public to greater bloodshed against Israel.
Nor is there any reference in the Times piece to the conduct of other democracies, including America, in coping with similar military challenges.
Thus Wilkinson makes no note that, while the Palestinians have lost close to 800 in 15 months of daily violence that they instigate, when United States forces under a UN peacekeeping mandate faced similar circumstances of rioting civilians and gunmen in Somalia in the early 1990s, 500 Somalis were killed in just one clash, 100 in another and many more in other encounters.
Such US action was deemed unavoidable and justified because of the aggression of the adversary.
Commenting on the deaths of 100 Somalis in a September 9, 1993, clash, UN spokesman Major David Stockwell defended firing on civilians, saying "Everyone on the ground in the vicinity was a combatant, because they meant to do us harm."
US spokesmen also denied excessive force or any violation of international law in the clash that killed 500, stating that the Somalis themselves bore the ultimate responsibility, since they deliberately put their people in harm's way and initiated the firefight.
The violent death of anyone is a tragedy, and can be recounted by journalists in heartwrenching ways. Stories like those in Wilkinson's piece can be written, for example, of the civilians killed by the current American campaign in Afghanistan. But surely it would be journalistic dereliction to use such stories to confound the relative culpability of the United States and its Al-Qiada and Taliban adversaries.
It is similarly indefensible when Wilkinson and others use such stories to distort basic truths of culpability in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The writer is executive director of CAMERA, the Center for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.
Los Angeles Newspaper Apologizes for Anti-Israel Cartoon
On December 21, 2001, the Los Angeles Daily News featured an editorial cartoon by Patrick O'Connor showing the Nativity scene. In the foreground, baton-wielding Israeli soldiers with Jewish Stars of David emblazoned on their helmets are shown beating on what appear to be three Arab men, or The Three Wise Men.
The Anti-Defamation League fielded dozens of complaints. In a letter to the Daily News, ADL's Los Angeles Regional Office said the cartoon, "fans the flames of intolerance." The full ADL Letter to the Editor follows.
The following Sunday, after numerous complaints about the misleading and offensive nature of the image, the Daily News printed a public apology for running the cartoon in its pages, and printed many letters from readers.
The Daily News Apology
To our readers:
Our editorial cartoon Friday offended many people. We are deeply sorry. Our intent was to underscore the need to end the escalation of violence in the Middle East, but the cartoon's images obscured the message that was in our hearts. We apologize to all.
Few Example by Joseph Farah / WorldNetDaily.com
A Biased Report
On Oct. 1, shortly after the outbreak of Palestinian rioting,
National Public Radio's Jennifer Ludden reported:
"Today is a repeat of the last three days ... You've got this Goliath of an Israeli army with guns. In some places yesterday they used armored tanks. There were battle helicopters buzzing overhead. At one point in the Gaza strip yesterday, Israeli soldiers fired an anti-tank missile. All this directed at young kids with stones."
But according to the pro-Israel group CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), this is just another example of extreme and long-standing anti-Israel bias on NPR's part.
"None of the Israeli weaponry cited has been 'directed at young kids with stones,'" according to CAMERA. "At that point, the tanks had not fired one shot at anyone, but were positioned as a deterrent. The helicopters had been brought in to help rescue an Israeli shot by Palestinians who was trapped and bleeding to death in defense of Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. The anti-tank missile was used against Palestinian snipers firing at Israelis from high-rise buildings at the Netzarim junction in Gaza."
The Ramallah Lynch
Riccardo Cristiano, Mideast representative for the official state-owned Italian television station, RAI, placed an ad in the Oct. 16 edition of the main Palestinian Authority newspaper, Al Hayat al Jedida, promising he would never think of giving any bad publicity to the Palestinians or their cause.
Mob of Palestinians beating and kicking an Israeli soldier after
dragging him out of a Palestinian police station in Ramallah.
Irena Nourezitz, wife of Vadim Nourezitz, one of the two Israeli soldiers lynched at Ramallah, called her husband on his cell phone during the ordeal. A Palestinian attacker shouted into the phone, "We have just killed your husband." "My dear friends in Palestine," the ad began. "We congratulate you and think that it is our duty to put you in the picture (of the events) of what happened on October 12 in Ramallah."
He was referring to the brutal beating and murder by a Palestinian mob of two non-combatant drivers in the Israel Defense Force, at a Palestinian Authority police station in Ramallah.
Apologizing for a rival, private Italian television station's filming of the brutal lynchings, he assured readers that it was not the official Italian news media that did so.
"Israeli television broadcast the pictures," Cristiano bemoaned, "as taken from one of the Italian stations, and thus the public impression was created as if we (RAI) took these pictures. We emphasize to all of you that the events did not happen this way," the ad continued, "because we always respect (will continue to respect) the journalistic procedures with the Palestinian Authority for (journalistic) work in Palestine. ..."
Cristiano added, "We thank you for your trust, and you can be sure that this is not our way of acting. We do not (will not) do such at thing. Please accept our dear blessings."
The Death of Muhamad Al-Dura
In the aftermath of the Dura shooting, the international media glibly reported that "a French photographer" or "a French television crew" had filmed the tragedy. In reality, although the news organization was French, the photojournalist who actually filmed the shooting was a Palestinian named Talal Abu Rahma, who lives in Gaza.
Rabbi Avi Shafran weighed in on anti-Israel media bias in the Oct. 13 edition of the Providence Journal-Bulletin. "When baseless biases are openly voiced, they are seen for what they are: ugly, evil, human faults," he wrote. "When subtly layered, though, into journalistic products' choices of photographs, captions, turns of phrase, stories' spins, they often slip by unnoticed, and proceed to infect and deform countless hearts and minds."
While National Public Radio correspondents routinely portray Israeli soldiers as jack-booted thugs, some in the international news media are even more openly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than the major American press:
Tuvia Grossman's Story
Tuvia Grossman tells in his own words how Palestinians tried to lynch him, and how this event highlights the power of the media to influence public opinion.
by Tuvia Grossman
I was thrust into the international limelight when The New York Times and other major media outlets published a photo of me -- bloodied and battered -- crouching beneath a club-wielding Israeli policeman. The caption identified me as a Palestinian victim of the new intifada. In fact, however, I am a 20-year-old Jewish student from Chicago, studying at a yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Here's how it all happened:
It was the eve of Rosh Hashana, and I hailed a taxi with two of my friends to go visit the Western Wall. Along the way, the driver took a shortcut through one of the Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem. We turned a corner and suddenly there were about 40 Palestinians surrounding the car. Before we knew it, huge rocks had smashed all the windows of the taxi.
Some of the Palestinians pulled open the door and dragged me from the vehicle. About 10 attackers jumped on top of me, punching and kicking me. I crouched to the ground, and tried to cover my face to protect myself as much as possible. All I could see were a flurry of sneakers kicking me in the face.
Then I felt a strong pair of hands grabbing me, and I uncovered my face because I thought someone was trying to help me. But it was just another Palestinian; he held the back of my head and punched me square in the face. I fell flat on the ground and the Palestinians jumped on top of me again. One of them stabbed me in the back of my leg, ripping through muscles and tendons. Two other Palestinians held my head so I couldn't move, while two more bashed rocks onto my head... again and again and again.
By this time the beating had gone on for about eight minutes. I had already lost three liters of blood and was losing consciousness. I said "Shema Yisrael" -- the declaration of faith that a Jew says before he dies. I tried not to black out, because I was sure if I did it would be the end.
Because it was the eve of Rosh Hashana, the image of a shofar flashed through my mind, and I recalled a Biblical story I'd learned in school. The prophet Gideon and his 300 men were badly outnumbered against the Midianite army of 130,000. So Gideon's troops banged pots and blew shofars, hoping that the noise would scare the enemy. With God's help, the ploy worked, and Gideon won the battle.
So I yelled at the top of my lungs. The Palestinians were startled momentarily, and I was able to get up and run. Unfortunately, I am heavily nearsighted and my contact lenses had fallen out. So there I was -- barely able to see a thing, with blood pouring down my face and my leg badly wounded -- being chased up a hill by 40 Palestinians throwing rocks at me.
It was a miracle, but I somehow outran them and reached a gas station where Israeli soldiers were posted.
I collapsed on the ground, and that's when a group of freelancer photographers started snapping pictures. An Israeli policeman was protecting me, yelling at the Palestinians to back off from finishing the lynching. But the photo -- sent throughout the world by the Associated Press -- identified me as a Palestinian. The obvious implication was that the Israeli policeman had just beaten me. In truth, it was the total opposite. I was a Jewish victim of Palestinian attackers. It's bad enough to be beaten bloody, get stitches up and down my head, and have my leg so severely stabbed that therapy is required to regain use of it. But to be used as a pawn in the media war, as part of the Palestinian propaganda to gain international sympathy, well, that hurts even more.
Letters to Ney-York-Times editorial, complaining about the false reporting:
Letter from Aaron Grossman, Father of Tuvia, to New-York Times editor:
Regarding your picture on page A5 (Sept. 30) of the Israeli soldier and the Palestinian on the Temple Mount - that Palestinian is actually my son , Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago. He, and two of his friends, were pulled from their taxicab while travelling in Jerusalem, by a mob of Palestinian Arabs and were severely beaten and stabbed.
That picture could not have been taken on the Temple Mount because there are no gas stations on the Temple Mount and certainly none with Hebrew lettering, like the one clearly seen behind the Israeli soldier attempting to protect my son from the mob.
Aaron Grossman, M.D.
Another letter sent to New-York Times.
When a photo gets published, there are many links in the chain, and in this case, I don't know where the fault for the garbled caption lies. But it is deeply disturbing that the New York Times, the Associated Press (and everyone else in-between) assumed that if it's a victim, it must be a Palestinian.
There is a great struggle here in Israel and this event highlights the power of the media to influence public opinion. If truth is to prevail, we can't just "read" the newspaper. Be discerning and become part of the process. Otherwise, you're just a passive object of someone else's agenda.
Who are the innocent victims and who are the aggressors? The truth is often the opposite of how it appears.
Mark Seagers' eyewitness to the Ramallah savage lynching of two Israeli soldiers.
MARK SEAGER, 29, a British photographer, was working on a pictorial study of Palestinian refugees when he found himself caught up in the horrific lynching of two Israeli army reservists in Ramallah. The only journalist to witness the beating, as he tried to take the photograph that would have made his fortune, the crowd turned on him with such hatred, destroying his camera, that he feared for his own life. This is his exclusive, eyewitness account:
"I had arrived in Ramallah at about 10.30 in the morning and was getting into a taxi on the main road to go to Nablus, where there was to be a funeral that I wanted to film, when all of a sudden there came a big crowd of Palestinians shouting and running down the hill from the police station.
I got out of the car to see what was happening and saw that they were dragging something behind them. Within moments they were in front of me and, to my horror, I saw that it was a body, a man they were dragging by the feet. The lower part of his body was on fire and the upper part had been shot at, and the head beaten so badly that it was a pulp, like red jelly.
I thought he was a soldier because I could see the remains of khaki trousers and boots. My God, I thought, they've killed this guy. He was dead, he must have been dead, but they were still beating him, madly, kicking his head. They were like animals.
They were just a few feet in front of me and I could see everything. Instinctively, I reached for my camera. I was composing the picture when I was punched in the face by a Palestinian. Another Palestinian pointed right at me shouting "no picture, no picture!", while another guy hit me in the face and said "give me your film!".
I tried to get the film out but they were all grabbing me and one guy just pulled the camera off me and smashed it to the floor. I knew I had lost the chance to take the photograph that would have made me famous and I had lost my favourite lens that I'd used all over the world, but I didn't care. I was scared for my life.
At the same time, the guy that looked like a soldier was being beaten and the crowd was getting angrier and angrier, shouting "Allah akbar" - God is great. They were dragging the dead man around the street like a cat toying with a mouse. It was the most horrible thing that I have ever seen and I have reported from Congo, Kosovo, many bad places. In Kosovo, I saw Serbs beating an Albanian but it wasn't like this. There was such hatred, such unbelievable hatred and anger distorting their faces.
The worst thing was that I realised the anger that they were directing at me was the same as that which they'd had toward the soldier before dragging him from the police station and killing him. Somehow I escaped and ran and ran not knowing where I was going. I never saw the other guy they killed, the one they threw out of the window.
I thought that I'd got to know the Palestinians well. I've made six trips this year and had been going to Ramallah every day for the past 16 days. I thought they were kind, hospitable people. I know they are not all like this and I'm a very forgiving person but I'll never forget this. It was murder of the most barbaric kind. When I think about it, I see that man's head, all smashed. I know that I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life.
That night when I got back to Jerusalem, I found out that I was the only photographer there and people kept asking me if I'd got the picture, then telling me I would have made my name.
I was so shocked that for the first time I didn't call my girlfriend who is back home in west London, five months pregnant with our first child. Of course, she was really worried because she'd seen on television what had happened and she knew that I was in Ramallah and then I hadn't called.
She was horrified and, when I did speak to her the next day, she asked: "Did you see?" I just said yes, but I couldn't really talk about it. Afterwards, I heard even worse details like that the policeman's wife was phoning his mobile to see if he was all right and them telling her that they were killing him. From what I saw, I can believe that.
I love this country, I'd love nothing more than to see Israelis and Palestinians sharing an argalah or waterpipe but, after the hatred that I've seen in the past few days, I don't think that will happen in my lifetime. Look how many years that they've been talking peace - since 1993. Then, within just a couple of weeks, they are at each other's throats. It seems that it's easier to hate than to forgive.
I didn't get the picture that would have made me famous but at least I am alive to see the birth of my child."
PA Police Beat Photographer for "Disgracing" Gaza
Associated Press reports (14 May) that a Palestinian photographer for Agence France-Presse has said he was held for ten hours and beaten by security agents of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority in punishment for photographing two boys washing a donkey in the Mediterranean. Fayez Noureddin, 33, of Gaza City, said three armed men put a sack over his head and punched and kicked him, then took him to their headquarters where he endured ten hours of beatings, beltings and obscenities.
Noureddin says he was told he distorted the "image of the city and the Palestinian Authority." Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam printed the donkey photograph, with the caption, "Through the picture of the donkey, the AFP photographer insists on showing Gaza as backward." Issa Qassem, editor of Al-Ayyam, said, "He's deliberately sending such pictures out of Gaza," the editor said. "We want to ruin his reputation and stop him from taking such pictures. He sees nothing positive about our society."
BBC responds that Gaza reporter meets their 'best standards of balance'
LONDON - The Israeli Embassy here is demanding that the British Broadcasting Corporation investigate comments made by its World Service reporter in Gaza, Fayad Abu Shamala, during an event organized by Hamas earlier this month.
On May 6, Shamala spoke on behalf of journalists at a Hamas ceremony honoring Palestinian, Arab and Islamic reporters which was attended by senior Hamas leaders, including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Ismail Abu Shanab.
According to Hamas' Web site, Shamala thanked "the Hamas movement for holding the exceptional affair, despite the pace of current events and the sensitive circumstances applying to journalists and media organizations, which are waging the campaign shoulder-to-shoulder together with the Palestinian people."
Hamas removed the report of the event from its Web site once it learned that Israel had protested over Shamala's comments to the BBC.
A BBC spokeswoman confirmed that Shamala had attended the event "along with other journalists. He also said a few words in his capacity as a member of the Palestinian National Union of Journalists."
The statement however says that "the BBC has not been able to access the Web page mentioned by some Israeli sources and therefore cannot comment on anything which the Web site may have quoted as coming from Fayad Abu Shamala."
Shamala has been working as the BBC's Gaza correspondent for 10 years and "Fayad's reports have always matched the best standards of balance required by the BBC," the statement said.
The London embassy wrote in response to the BBC's statement that, "We are staggered by the BBC's failure to distance itself from such a shocking expression of allegiance to Hamas by one of its correspondents. The BBC likes to claim it is impartial but these comments and the BBC's failure to condemn them and to take appropriate action raises serious questions about its impartiality ... Their statement is completely unacceptable, the embassy is waiting for a full response."
The embassy yesterday furnished the BBC with print-outs of the Hamas Web site page which included a description of the event and quoted Shamala.
Factual Misreporting of the News - A CNN Example
On January 28, 2001 Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres spoke at the Davos Economic Conference. While Israel was making a last ditch effort to save the Peace Process by making major concessions in Taba, Arafat delivered an anti-Israel diatribe full of misinformation, so hostile and vitriolic -- calling Barak's Israel "fascist" -- that it left the international attendees stunned. All this was whitewashed by CNN, and no major paper or network carried the actual text of Arafat's speech.
This is the Actual Davos Text from the Palestinian Foreign Affairs website.
(Source:
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January, 28 2001
Mr. President
Ladies and Gentlemen, leaders and members of the participating delegations,
Allow me first, Mr. President, to convey to you, a special greeting on convening this important economic forum. I would like to express to you, as well, our sincerest thanks and our deepest appreciation for your kind invitation...
When we talk about economics, there is no way but to talk about politics because of its great influence on economics...
The current Government of Israel is waging, for the last four months, a savage and barbaric war, as well as, a blatant and fascist military aggression against our Palestinian people. In this aggression it is using internationally prohibited weapons and ammunitions that include in their construction depleted uranium. In addition, Israel is laying against us total siege, indeed, worse than that, it is imposing this siege against every village and town. It is prohibiting the freedom of movement and travel of our people. It is jeopardizing the basic human rights of our Palestinian citizens, dismissing our workers, closing our factories, destroying a number of these, so much so that 90% of our workers are forcibly unemployed, destroying our farms and fruit trees and prohibiting export and import, indeed it is forbidding us to receive, from brothers and friends, donated provisions. All this is in violation of all resolutions of international legality, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Human Law and the Fourth Geneva Convention relating to the Protection of Civilians in Times of War.
Have you seen a more ugly policy than this policy of collective punishment or more destruction in the contemporary age? Israel is putting all of our people in confrontation with this dangerous military escalation, and its occupational, settlement, aggressive and armed expansionism as well as in confrontation with its dreams of achieving territorial and regional gains at the expense of our people, in a manner, which is in contravention of international legality and the rights of our Palestinian people to their land, Christian and Islamic holy places and to their natural resources.
Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen, leaders and members of the delegations,
Whoever wants really to achieve peace and seeks it with belief and sincerity, does not resort to killing, persecution, assassination, destruction and devastation as the Government of Israel and its army of occupation are doing to our people these days and since four continuous months. The number of Palestinian martyrs has exceeded the four hundred. The number of injured persons has exceeded seventeen thousand, of whom 5439 are children. These are the human losses and damages. The grand total, so far, of the economic and financial losses in all sectors, as a result of destruction caused by the Israeli occupational military machine, to the infrastructures and to public and private property and other losses is US $ billion 2,4 including the heavy losses inflicted on the Palestinian farmers as a result of cutting more than one hundred thousand trees and leveling of 10000 dunums of land (1 dunum = 1000 m2). This, of course, leaves destructive consequences on the livelihood of the Palestinian citizens and the Palestinian investment. Added to these losses should be those caused by the Israeli shells, from tanks, artillery, planes and rockets, to the buildings, establishments, installations and institutions, such as schools, colleges, churches and mosques.
This is a very short resume? of what has befallen our society in terms of dire human and material losses and as a result of the situation of total siege and closure. As a result, the percentage of those who are living under the lineof poverty has risen to 75% and general national income has decreased sharply in millions of US dollars annually.
While we confirm to you, dear friends once more, our adherence to a comprehensive, just and permanent peace, the peace of the brave, as a firm strategic choice of our Palestinian people, we look up to you, and to the United Nations and to all justice-, freedom-, peace- and democracy - loving forces the world over, and to all brothers and friends, to approach the vital and influential international forces in the world, so as to bear their moral and human responsibilities in order to work in sincerity, objectivity, neutrality and fairness, to find a quick and just solution to the Issue of Palestine, in accordance with the spirit of right and justice and the international resolutions related to Palestine.
You know, ladies and gentlemen, that we have made great concessions and sacrifices in order to achieve comprehensive, just and permanent peace. Yes, indeed, we have accepted less than one quarter of the total area of historic Palestine. We accepted, at the Madrid Peace Conference, the principle of land for peace on the basis of [UN] Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 which call for the withdrawal of Israel, the occupying power, from all Arab and Palestinian occupied territories, including Holy Jerusalem, to the fourth of June border lines; the dismantling of every thing the occupation has built in terms of settlements and settlement structures that have no basis of legality; and the implementation of [UN General Assembly] Resolution 194 on the Palestinian refugees. We have achieved, as well, peace agreements with my late partner Yitzhak Rabin, in making the peace of the brave, which guarantees us the establishment of our independent Palestinian state, with holy Jerusalem as its capital.
We look forward to the whole international community, the United Nations Organization and the vital and influential international forces, to work for ending this Israeli war and aggression against our unarmed people; a war and an aggression which constitute a flagrant and blatant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relating to the Protection of Civilians in Times of War. We ask for the provision of international protection for our people immediately, the lifting of the siege and closure and the ending of this escalating military aggression.
Our Palestinian people, ladies and gentlemen, look up to you to help them in realizing their inalienable legitimate national rights so as to be able to march forward on the road of development and construction of their homeland, to catch up with the developed and advanced course of international economy, and to live with dignity, freedom, sovereignty and independence in their homeland, Palestine, like all other peoples and states in the region and the world, in a framework of confidence, mutual respect and good neighborliness with their surroundings.
Finally, we reiterate our thanks to you, Mr. President, for inviting us, and for giving us the opportunity to address this august Forum. We wish you success and good luck in realizing the noble aims of this meeting. We express our sincere hope and firm desire to have the honor to invite you all on a very close day, God be willing, to convene your Forum in Holy Jerusalem, the capital of the independent State of Palestine.
Peace be with you all
Arafat made this speech less than 24 hours after Israeli FM Ben Ami declared at a press conference at Taba that "peace in our time" was just a matter of weeks away. While Minister Shimon Peres, who shared the stage with Arafat at Davos, declined to defend Israel at the meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Barak reacted to Arafat's presentation by announcing that he would not meet with Arafat before the elections in Israel on February 6]
Here is the Davos text as reported by CNN. It bears no resemblance to the speech actually made by Arafat at Davos. (Source:
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CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Mike Hanna contributed to this report:
Arafat followed Peres' comments by speaking in English, which the Palestinian leader does not do often. "We will continue together," Arafat said, shaking Peres' hand as the audience applauded.
Despite Peres' and Arafat's return to using the phrase "partner in peace" for each other, the Palestinian Authority president did issue an angry denunciation of measures he said Israel was taking against the Palestinian people.
"I wouldn't wish an Israeli child to live a single hour of the lives that Palestinian children are now having to live, suffering under repression and bombardment," Arafat said.
Arafat blamed "extremists in both camps" for blocking Israel and the Palestinian Authority from reaching a final peace agreement. "It is these extremists who murdered Yitzhak Rabin. These same extremists are now resorting to violence against us, against all of us.
"We have extremists, too, in our own camp, in our own ranks," Arafat said. "Of course, there are extremists everywhere, all over the world ... Despite this we are defending ourselves against these extremists."
Rabin was assassinated November 4, 1995, by an ultra-nationalist Jew who was opposed to the then-prime minister's land-for-peace agreements with the Palestinians.
Peres also denounced so-called extremists on his side who might take up arms against Palestinians.
"We have extremes," Peres said. "We don't let extremes use rifles."
Israeli Child Points to CNN Bias (18.10.2001)
This note contains an excellent, heartfelt letter written by an Israeli 8th grader. He expresses his concern about biased reporting by CNN, and BBC regarding the murder of Tourism Minister Zeevi. Particularly, look at his second to last paragraph.
Please consider writing your own letter to CNN and BBC, and attach the child's letter if you like. One of our members (J. Pearl from California) has written a sample letter for us. If you have received this letter from a friend, please register with us at
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BBC Contacts
www.bbc.co.uk
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CNN Contacts
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Sample Letter:
Dear CNN reporters,
The letter below, from an 8th grader in Jerusalem, has reached me through the e-mail. I would like to urge you to take it seriously.
This letter, despite its childish style and possibly adult touch, points to some subtle truths that you, in the media, have been guilty of. For example, there is a difference between saying "in revenge for ..." and reporting the facts "claimed by PFLP to be in revenge for..." Also, your network has never reported your being coerced by the PA into not showing their continuing expressions of glee over the NY attack. Such nuances and/or omissions do not add credibility to your network.
Respectfully,
Dear BBC, CNN, SKYTV,
I am writing to you all since you have so much power with the electronic media today. I am an 8th grader, 13 years old in Jerusalem, Israel. My friends were killed in the summer when they were having pizza in Jerusalem by terrorists of the Arabs. My cousin, Natasha, was killed by Arab terrorists in Tel Aviv when she was waiting in line to dance in a disco during the summer too. My uncle was blown up in the World Trade Center in New York by terrorists where he worked on the 83rd floor of one of the towers. My greatgrandfather, David, was burned in Auschwitz.
I cannot understand why you keep referring in today's newscasts about the murder of our Tourism Minister Zeevi by terrorists as a revenge from the Israeli army's killing of a chief terrorist, Mustafa, during war actions. Minister Zeevi was an elected politician. He was a head of his party. He would be like a member of the House of Commons or the US Congress in the 'Western' world. He might have had different political views than most of your leftleaning reporters who depend on Arab money gifts from the Palestinians here to give their biased reporting, but he was a member of the government's cabinet.
All day your reporters are talking about Zeevi's assassination in Jerusalem as if he was a terrorist like the ones who killed my friends and cousins and uncle over the past few months. Mr. Zeevi was a former general and military hero. He turned to politics in 1988 when he was first elected to the Knesset, our US type of Congress here.
I wish that when I grow up I could be a reporter for one of your networks. I would not talk or lie like your reporters do today that Mr. Zeevi's assassination as a politician was in response to the terrorists who murder. Mr. Zeevi did not send out his assistants to kill Arab kids in discos and pizza parlors. Mr. Zeevi did not send out terrorist pilots that worked for him to fly into the World Trade Center to kill 6000 civilians.
I hope that you don't throw out this letter even though I'm only in 8th grade. I know that killing terrorists is OK. Isn't that what Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair are doing today over in Afghanistan? They are not killing or bombing civilian politicians with differing views.
So in the future,if your reporters continue to lie and give deceitful news about the murder of a member of my government's cabinet and compare it to the killing of terrorists in Gaza and Ramallah by my country's army during wartime, I will take my whole 8th grade class and picket outside your offices here in Israel. I know that this does not scare you as much as those Arab terrorists who threatened your reporters' lives last month when your reporters wanted to release the video footage of Arabs in the West Bank demonstrating in joy on Sept. 11 for their king terrorist Bin Laden, but at least we 8th graders can demonstrate about the truth and not the lies of your media.
I have to go back to my class now and turn off BBC, CNN, and SKYTV before I get too toxic with your falsehoods and anti Jewish rhetoric.
M. Davidson
8th grader, Israel
Aftermath of the filming of the infamous Ramallah lynching
Judy Lash Balint, WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM -- Journalists and the Palestinian Authority have what might euphemistically be called a strained relationship.
The independent Committee to Protect Journalists (link below), which monitors abuses against the press and promotes press freedom around the world, reports: "In the nearly seven years since the Palestinian National Authority assumed control over parts of the West Bank and Gaza, Chairman Yasser Arafat and his multi-layered security apparatus have muzzled local press critics via arbitrary arrests, threats, physical abuse and the closure of media outlets. Over the years, the Arafat regime has managed to frighten most Palestinian journalists into self-censorship."
There's no reason to suspect that foreign correspondents -- who were notoriously hounded in Beirut 20 years ago by the PNA's forerunner, the PLO -- are not exercising the same kind of self-censorship today, compromising fair and objective coverage of the current situation.
Still, the most effective clamp on the truth is the peer group -- the homogenized ideology of the press corps where independent thinking continues to require courage and fortitude. In a region where the media has in many ways shaped the conflict, the combination of fear and lockstep thinking on the part of its protagonists does not bode well for its resolution.
Ramallah: never the same
The lynching of two Israeli reservists in Ramallah last October proved to be a watershed in coverage of the new intifada. Up until that point, most Western journalists traveled wherever they wanted to in their quest to convey the essence of Arab violence and Israeli reaction.
Sky TV News reporter Chris Roberts says that at the outset of the violence, the PA welcomed reporters with open arms.
"They wanted us to show 12-year-olds being killed," he explains. But after the lynch, when PA operatives did their best to confiscate and destroy tape of the grisly event and Israel Defense Forces used the images to target and arrest the perpetrators, Palestinians have sometimes vented their hostility toward the U.S by harassing and intimidating Western correspondents.
"Post-Ramallah, where all goodwill was lost, I'm a lot more sensitive about going places," Roberts admits.
Even people like Ahmed Budeiri, a bright, 20-something Arab stringer for ABC-TV, acknowledges that Ramallah was "really dangerous for foreigners," after the lynch.
According to firsthand reports, a Polish television crew was surrounded by Palestinian security forces, beaten and relieved of their film of the lynching. But most of the TV cameramen were Palestinians. Given PA intimidation of Palestinian journalists, it's not surprising that almost all of them, except for one working for the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera and another shooter for the independent Italian station, RTI, meekly handed over their film.
Nasser Atta, a Palestinian producer with the ABC News network, was outside the Ramallah police station with a camera crew as the bloody scene unfolded. Appearing the next day on ABC's "Nightline," he told host Ted Koppel that crowd members had assaulted his team to stop them from filming the action.
"I saw how the youth tried to prevented [sic] -- prevented my crew from shooting this footage. My cameraman was beaten," Atta said.
A British photographer, Mark Seager wrote in London's Sunday Telegraph Oct. 22: "I was composing the picture when I was punched in the face by a Palestinian. Another Palestinian pointed right at me, shouting 'no picture, no pictures,' while another guy hit me in the face and said, 'Give me your film.' One guy just pulled the camera from me and smashed it to the floor."
Most reporters acknowledge that the PA openly confiscated TV footage and still photos of the lynching. But some, like Canadian Broadcasting Company's Neil Macdonald, asked PA Security chief Jibril Rajoub about the matter and were told that no tape was seized.
Others, like the New York Times' William Orme, came to their own conclusion that while the mob that attacked journalists did include some uniformed Palestinian police officers, "no one is suggesting that it was PA policy. It was not an official order."
The film that did escape the clutches of the PA police made its way to TV screens around the world in an unorthodox way. According to Gideon Meir, deputy director general for public affairs at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the Israeli Embassy in Rome was able to secure the video from the independent Italian RTI TV station, and within six hours of the gruesome event, the images were received in Jerusalem. The Italians released it without charge, said Meir.
TVNewsweb, a website for TV editors and correspondents, reported the transmission of the footage a little differently.
"Two tapes are spirited away and reappear in Jerusalem one hour later. Al-Jazeera's tape is offered for sale at US$1,000 per minute, but it's shot shakily from far away and lacks impact. The RTI tape is extremely graphic.
"RTI's Israeli tape editor, who was at the scene, gives her eyewitness account at a Jerusalem press conference organized by the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Government Press Office. RTI eventually makes the tape available to the agencies in Italy and the gruesome pictures lead most evening newscasts."
Meanwhile, veteran Italian TV reporter Riccardo Cristiano had just been released from the hospital where he spent more than a week recovering from injuries he received when he was beaten up in Jaffa while covering the riots started by Israeli Arabs. Cristiano's nose was broken, his cheek gashed, and he almost lost the use of his right eye.
The Italian government TV channel reporter went back to work the day before the lynching. According to CBC's Macdonald, Cristiano, "a very pacifist guy," was traumatized by the Jaffa attack. When he received death threats the day after the Ramallah events, presumably from Palestinians who mistakenly associated his TV channel with the damning lynching footage, Macdonald says Cristiano penned a letter in English to a Palestinian journalist friend at Al Hayat Al Jedida newspaper, assuring the colleague that his station had nothing to do with the filming nor would he ever violate journalistic ethics by transmitting film to an embassy or government office.
On Monday, Oct. 16, a version of the letter appeared in Arabic on the front page of the paper. Cristiano lost his Israeli press credentials and was recalled to Rome. The RTI correspondent was spirited out of the country for her own safety after the Israel Defense Force used freeze-frames of her film to nab six of the perpetrators in undercover raids.
This reporter traveled to Rome to meet Cristiano last December. The tall, gray-haired and mustachioed, soft-spoken man acknowledges he's a leftist, but in his quest for justice for those whom he perceives as oppressed, he feels he's following in the footsteps of his father, renowned Italian artist Paolo Cristiano.
The senior Cristiano was a member of the Italian resistance who spent three years in a series of Nazi death camps. He weighed 60 pounds when he returned home. Riccardo says his father is mortified by those who accuse his son of being anti-Semitic.
"The only thing he wanted to do when he came to visit me in Israel was visit Yad Vashem," Riccardo quietly said. Recently, Cristiano met with the head of the Jewish council in Venice to explain his actions and gain his support.
The Al Hayat letter became a significant political issue in Italy because Cristiano worked for the government station, and his letter was perceived to have endangered the life of a reporter from the independent channel operated by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy's center-right opposition. Berlusconi's party is critical of support for the Palestinians on the part of the government-controlled media.
Over the course of several interviews, Cristiano was careful to talk only about what has happened to his life in the intervening months, not the details of his controversial letter. Even though he does not have a job, he is technically still employed while he awaits a disciplinary hearing that will determine his future as a journalist. His October letter was unauthorized, and he can't afford to be accused of another unauthorized action such as an interview explaining his actions.
Interestingly, Orme recalls that in a telephone conversation with Cristiano the day the letter appeared in Al Hayat, the Italian reporter verified and even defended its contents, telling Orme that he was concerned for the safety of his staff.
Cristiano's plight does provide a certain insight into the journalistic fraternity of those covering the Middle East. Like the other reporters who were beaten up by Palestinians over the past few months, Cristiano has no rage against their violent tactics. Neither does he expect much from the PA. He relates how his crew was filming a bodyguard of PA Jerusalem Affairs minister Faisal Husseini who slapped someone at a garden party at Orient House, the PA Jerusalem headquarters. Another guard came over and erased the film. Cristiano, the deputy bureau chief, complained. The next day, Husseini sent an apology and all was forgiven.
While Cristiano has obvious sympathy for the Palestinian cause, he is not anti-Israel. He speaks of his special interest in the Armenians and views both Israel and the Palestinians as "nations under trauma."
But until his name is cleared, Cristiano continues to be a fallen man.
"My friends think I'm in this mood because I lost my job in Jerusalem," he said sadly, "but the reality is that I lost my honor and credibility from myself and my heritage."
Pro-Palestinian slant price of access, safety in covering Mideast conflict
Editor's note: Shortly after the outbreak of the current Palestinian "intifada" or uprising, National Public Radio's Jennifer Ludden reported: "Today is a repeat of the last three days ... You've got this Goliath of an Israeli army with guns. In some places yesterday they used armored tanks. There were battle helicopters buzzing overhead. At one point in the Gaza strip yesterday, Israeli soldiers fired an anti-tank missile. All this directed at young kids with stones."
NPR's wildly inflammatory and inaccurate report - the weaponry cited hadn't been directed at kids, the tanks were only a deterrent, the helicopters brought in to rescue an Israeli shot by Palestinians, and the anti-tank missile used against Palestinian snipers firing at Israelis from high-rise buildings - was only a mild caricature what has been typical news coverage of the escalating conflict.
Jerusalem-based writer and journalist Judy Lash Balint, whose articles have appeared in many publications worldwide, including the Christian Science Monitor, Jerusalem Post and Seattle Times, conducted an in-depth survey of on-the-ground journalists in preparing this insightful three-part report. In Part 1, above Balint traveled to Rome to interview Italian TV reporter Riccardo Cristiano about his controversial response to Italian TV coverage of last fall's grisly Palestinian lynching of two Israeli soldiers.
In today's installment, Balint quotes many correspondents who face harassment and worse in their pursuit of information and access in the increasingly dangerous region.
By Judy Lash Balint, WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM -- Extensive interviews with correspondents based here, as well as those who have flown in to cover the ever-widening Mideast crisis, reveal a highly complex journalistic reality that is anything but conducive to unbiased reporting.
Within the Jerusalem-based press corps of several hundred reporters, there are varying degrees of knowledge and understanding of the situation. After the first week of the violence, many media outlets reassigned journalists from other posts to assist their colleagues in Jerusalem. In some cases, these people did have previous experience covering the Middle East, but in most instances, the journalists landed in their bureaus at Jerusalem Capital Studios with little background on the history, geography or political landscape of the area.
To whom do they turn for a crash course on the Israel-Arab conflict?
By and large it's other journalists who provide them with an overview of the lay of the land. Georges Malbrunot, correspondent for France's Le Matin daily paper, for example, calls the BBC his "living Bible." Thus, as Fiamma Nirenstein, the Israel correspondent for Italy's La Stampa newspaper points out, "the extraordinary informal power of the media -- iconoclastic, sporty, ironic, virtually all of one mind," comes into play.
In fact, the best factual reporting from the new intifada has come from the few correspondents with background in the area who jetted in for a few weeks and left before they became tainted with the political correctness required of the resident media set.
Jack Kelley of USA Today, for example, filed a couple of outstanding stories during his limited days in Jerusalem. In one piece, he described his experience riding along in an Israel Defense Force jeep patrolling the volatile Ayosh Junction outside Ramallah. Eyewitness accounts of the violent provocation by Arab youth and the decision-making of the equally youthful IDF troops provided an accurate insight into the challenging situation.
But for most of the American Colony Hotel-based Western correspondents, there are certain "given" assumptions that provide the backdrop for all their coverage. Topping the list is the notion that Palestinians are engaged in a noble struggle for independence and Israeli oppressors are using their might and muscle to stand in their way.
Journalists arrive at this view based both on experiences in their own native lands as standard-bearers for minority rights and other liberal causes, but also as a result of their reliance on local assistance here in Israel. Since very few of the foreign correspondents in Israel are fluent in Hebrew or Arabic, they rely on a network of local sources as well as the service of "fixers" -- locals who can "fix" situations for them. Currently, some 400 Palestinian Authority residents are in possession of Israel Government Press Office credentials.
Much of the current conflict is raging in Area A (under full Palestinian Authority control), so it is not surprising that the fixers are generally young U.S.-educated Palestinians who know how to operate in PA territory and who introduce the journalists to their circle of acquaintances.
Most of these Palestinian "fixers" also know Hebrew, and their GPO credentials generally enable them to navigate quite well throughout Israel without security intimidation.
In contrast to this informal networking on the Palestinian side, correspondents generally get the Israeli point of view from official sources. The Government Press Office -- currently a one-man operation -- is charged with informing journalists of briefings with government officials and coordinating coverage of the comings and goings of the prime minister and the Cabinet. The Foreign Ministry and the IDF spokesman's office provide access to IDF commanders and other top officials.
"We suffer from a deluge of information," notes Washington Post bureau chief Lee Hockstader. Others, like Phil Reeves of London's Independent newspaper, acknowledge that Israel provides excellent entree to senior officials in contrast to more limited and guarded access to PA higher-ups. Chris Roberts of the UK-based Sky TV News service calls the Israeli official PR effort "a well-oiled machine." But there is little Israeli effort to establish personal relationships with journalists to provide them with a non-propagandistic, man-on-the-street view of events.
The effects of this vacuum are easy to discern. When Ted Koppel taped a "Nightline" show at the East Jerusalem YMCA in the early days of this intifada, several smartly dressed, attractive, young English-speaking Arabs made sure they saved a chair for New York Times bureau chief Deborah Sontag. When Sontag arrived, she was greeted with kisses by one of the young women in the group. In contrast, an older Israeli audience member who went over to introduce himself was given a cursory nod by Sontag, absorbed in conversation with her chic friends.
The influence of Arab TV crewmembers is obvious even in the offices of some news outlets. At the ABC-TV studio, for instance, the only map hanging in the office is dated March 2000 and displays the title, "Palestine."
A reporter for a Canadian paper explains how knowledge of Arabic can be a very useful thing. In Beit Jalla last December, the IDF sent a missile into the Church of St. Nicholas, causing little damage. The PA called a news conference there.
In English, the local clergy said, "Oh, this is so terrible. See what the Israelis are doing." In Arabic, they were overheard saying to each other: "That m----- f----- Arafat. Why can't he keep his guns away. He'll get us all killed."
But most journalists speak very little Arabic, so they use Palestinian crews, which creates another problem. The harassment of Palestinian journalists critical of Yasser Arafat is well documented by Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations. The Committee to Protect Journalists wrote in an Oct. 20, 2000 report:
"Major newspapers routinely avoid coverage of issues such as high-level PA corruption and mismanagement, human rights abuses by security forces, and any reporting that might cast Arafat in a negative light. Moreover, the major Palestinian dailies all enjoy cozy relations with the PA, further blunting their editorial edge."
Coercion, abduction and violence by PA security chief Jibril Rijoub's forces is a fact of life for east Jerusalem Arabs. Who knows under what pressure Palestinians working for Western news organizations operate, or to whom they report? In effect, little seems to have changed since Zev Chafets wrote in his book, "Double Vision," about Western journalists' coverage of the Lebanese war of the early 1980s. (Just substitute American Colony for Commodore and Jerusalem for Beirut.)
Wrote Chafets: "In conformity with the PLO-dependent security system, Western reporters ghettoized themselves and became, in effect, accomplices to their own isolation and supervision. They clustered around the Palestinian-run Commodore (Hotel) where they knew their movements, contacts and outgoing communications would be monitored. Some of those with separate offices in the city found that they needed local Palestinian employees in order to establish contacts and guide them through the complexities of life in Beirut. These assistants were, in many cases, subject to the discipline of the PLO; and if the organization was circumspect in its dealing with most of the foreign reporters, it could afford to be far less so in its demands on its fellow Palestinians or Lebanese Moslems. Even reporters aware of the fact that their local employees might be a conduit to PLO intelligence were loath to give them up; in many cases, such people were an invaluable buffer."
One of those reporters detained by the PLO in Beirut in 1981 left Lebanon in a hurry a short while later, after publishing an article confirming the harassment of journalists in Beirut. John Kifner is still a New York Times correspondent. Kifner arrived in Jerusalem for a short stint in December, covering the current intifada. Despite his extensive experience with the PLO, Kifner declined to be interviewed for this article, citing "touchy personnel issues" with Times bureau chief Sontag, who happened to be out of the country at the time of the request.
Some journalists simply dismiss concern over PA attempts at censorship. Acknowledging "famous incidents to suppress stories" here, The Independent's Reeves nevertheless notes that: "Everyone does this. The Brits did it in Northern Ireland."
Others categorically deny that intimidation by the PA takes place at all. Speaking for the Foreign Press Association, the New York Times' William Orme (Sontag's husband) says that he knows of no documented incidents of official PA harassment or intimidation. The physical attacks against journalists were all street violence perpetrated by individuals who are acting out their feelings against Americans, Orme states.
The head of the Foreign Press Association doesn't necessarily agree. In an article in Haaretz (Oct. 19), FPA chair Howard Goller says that, speaking generally, one could say that there are many pressures on foreign journalists.
"On certain occasions, Israeli soldiers or PA representatives have tried to stop us from filming certain events," Goller confirms.
Orme's remark is eerily reminiscent of NBC editorialist John Chancellor, who observed at the height of the Lebanon War in 1982: "There is no censorship in Beirut. ..." This despite the murder by the PLO of seven foreign journalists in West Beirut between 1976-1981, according to Edouard George, then-senior editor of Beirut's French-language daily L'Orion Du Jour, and the departure from the city of several Western journalists because of PLO threats.
The wire services that provide reporting to papers around the world have not been immune from PA heat, either. A few months ago, the Palestinian Union of Journalists jumped into the act. A letter signed by the PUJ appeared in the PA daily Al Hayyat, condemning the Jerusalem Associated Press bureau's coverage of the conflict. The letter threatened that if the bureau did not change its coverage, the group would adopt "all necessary measures against AP staffers." Jerusalem AP representatives refuse to discuss the matter.
According to one member of the Jerusalem press corps, the Reuters bureau in Gaza, staffed largely by Palestinian journalists, was closed down briefly. It seems that PA attempts to stifle media criticism are successful due to the intertwining of Western news-gathering organizations with Palestinians subject to the long hand of the PA.
Just a few days after the January executions in Nablus (Shechem) of two Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel, Palestinian security service agents arrested a photographer who filmed one of the two grisly events without PA authorization. Only three photographers working for the PA were allowed to cover the execution. Other reporters and cameramen were barred from the police station where the execution took place. The detained photographer, Majadi el-Arabid, works with both foreign and Israeli news agencies.
Despite these tactics, Orme rejects out of hand the comparison with PLO tactics in Beirut, calling that period "a completely irrelevant episode." Equating the PLO in Beirut with the PA today is "inaccurate," Orme claims.
"There, they were a guerrilla army fighting a war and might have had reason to block access to the press. Here, we're talking about certain areas under Israeli military control and other areas under PA control, so there are formal government entities." Palestinian threats against journalists are analogous to settlers who threaten TV crews too, he argues.
It is misleading to suggest that there is a PA policy of intimidation, Orme concludes, citing the "hundreds of complaints" his organization has received about Israeli government handling of the press -- everything from limited access to shooting of reporters to the restrictions against Israeli nationals being allowed into certain areas. In contrast, "only a handful" of journalists have filed complaints against the PA.
"There is no self-censorship," either, Orme states categorically.
In contrast, one Hebrew-speaking British newspaper correspondent who requested anonymity noted that the self-censorship exercised by reporters in the Middle East today is understood and tacitly accepted by the home offices of their news bureaus.
"They turn a blind eye to it because they know they couldn't function at all without the help of the locals," he said.
The British journalist cited a November incident illustrating his point. Western TV crews who filmed West Bank protests against Egyptian President Mubarak were forced to turn over their film to Palestinian security forces at a checkpoint while Egyptian intelligence officials looked on. According to the British source, the incident went unreported. This same reporter claims that Palestinian police have confiscated BBC footage in Bethlehem and explains that many Western TV reporters exercise self-censorship in PA-controlled areas in order not to run into confiscation problems.
Journalists who have been physically attacked by Arabs are obviously even more acutely attuned to where they go and what they say. Chicago Tribune reporter Hugh Dellios suffered a severe beating in Jerusalem's Old City on the eighth day of the riots. Dellios and a colleague from the Toronto Star who was with him that day now "think good and hard about where we're going."
Dellios reckons that the treatment he received was because he was singled out as a Westerner in the angry crowd milling about looking for targets.
"Some women started screaming, 'He's an American,'" Dellios recalls. "They knew we were journalists, but they suspected that I was an Israeli provocateur."
This same suspicion was directed at Wall Street Journal Middle East correspondent Steven Glain. Twice, while covering the riots from the rooftops of Jerusalem's Old City, Arab youths asked Glain if he was Jewish.
Veteran Canadian Broadcasting Company foreign correspondent Neil Macdonald tells of a recent incident in Nablus (Shechem) where he was surrounded by a group of young Arab rioters who suspected the journalist and his crew were Israeli undercover forces.
"I'm a 6'6" WASP," Macdonald says. But the gang persisted, even after his Palestinian fixer vouched for his journalistic credentials. Demonstrating his close ties with local Arab leaders, Macdonald called a Nablus politician who sent someone from his office "to make them disappear." A similar event occurred a few weeks later in El Khader, a known Hamas stronghold, where "10,000 very angry people" were attending a funeral.
"The Fatah activists were getting pretty nervous and aggressive and kept on asking 'who are you?'" Macdonald recounts.
The CBC correspondent has completed two and a half years of a four-year stint here. He claims that the threats don't impact much on his coverage, but he relates several anecdotes of physical violence against other journalists. He's learned a little Arabic, not much Hebrew. Asked what is the greatest constraint on full coverage of the intifada, Macdonald says it's the danger of being caught in the crossfire.
"I don't trust that the IDF won't shoot me because I'm a reporter," he declares. "I think of the IDF as a democratic institution but that's not to say there aren't people from Kiryat Arba (a suburb of Hebron) in the IDF."
Editor Arrested for Defying Arafat (2.1.1996)
The Jerusalem Post reports (31 December) that Maher Alami, editor of the Palestinian Arabic newspaper Al-Quds, was released Saturday night by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat after spending the week in prison in Jericho. Arafat had Alami arrested on Christmas Eve because he ran a story praising Arafat on page eight of the paper rather than page one.
Arafat had ordered Palestinian editors to give front-page placement to the story, which compared Arafat to Caliph Omar Khattab, an Arab ruler who conquered Jerusalem in the year 638. Alami said the front page was already full with a large photo of Arafat and many election advertisements.
Arafat and his aides routinely give instructions to Palestinian editors, Palestinian sources say. No Palestinian paper, including Al-Quds, reported Alami's arrest.
Media coverage elections for the PA (2.1.1996)
The Jerusalem Post also reports (31 December) that media coverage in the Palestinian self-rule elections is heavily biased in favor of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and the candidates of his faction, Fatah. For example, Samiha Khalil, a left-wing feminist from Al-Bira, is Arafat's only opponent for president of the self-rule council. Her campaign has not been mentioned once on Palestinian TV or radio, according to the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders. Her press conference the last week of December was similarly ignored. Arafat has meanwhile received over an hour of broadcast time for his campaign.
Link & Sources:
The Jeruslaem Post
CAMERA.org
World-Net-Daily's Article by Joseph Farah
BBC News
Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA)
Committee to Protect Journalists
Middle Eastern Political and Religious History Analyst
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