Letter to NPR from Ali Abunimah
April 18, 2001
Dear NPR News,
I continue to witness with disbelief NPR's continued failure to
report on extreme Israeli violence against Palestinians. Yesterday
three Palestinian children were killed, the youngest of them ten
years old, by Israeli occupation forces. Israel also bombed a
hospital in Hebron. NPR made absolutely no mention of this in its
morning news or in the lengthy Q&A between Morning Edition host
Bob Edwards and diplomatic correspondent Ted Clark. Jennifer Ludden's
report on All Things Considered yesterday also made no mention of the
dead children and several other serious Israeli attacks on
Palestinians. Meanwhile NPR reports on the few harmless Palestinian
mortar attacks on Israeli territory almost hourly.
Edwards and Clark recounting recent violence included only the
following events:
*Palestinians fired mortars into Israel on Monday night
which, according to Clark "crossed Israel's red lines." (The mortars
hit the ground and caused no damage or injuries)
*Israel shelled and rocketed Gaza and made a brief
incursion into Gaza and left after Secretary of State Colin Powell
criticized ISrael's action as "excessive and disproportionate."
Clark and Edwards once again portrayed Israeli violence as
"retaliatory." They did not mention at all constant Israeli shelling
and rocketing throughout Tuesday night of Palestinians cities and
villages including Hebron and Bethlehem. Clark and Edwards then
engaged in a lengthy discussion of the US role in the conflict which
painted the current US policy as "damage" control and "trying to keep
this situation from escalating into a regional conflict that would
inevitably involve the United States." Neither noted that the United
States cannot currently be described as uninvolved given that it is
actively supplying weapons and UN vetoes to one party in the
conflict. But I realize that the pretense of US impartiality is
necessary for political reasons and NPR is unlikely to challenge
it.
The Associated Press described the serious violence against
Palestinians that NPR has not reported at all as follows:
"three Palestinian boys were killed by Israeli gunfire Tuesday,
Palestinians said. Bara el-Shael, 10, died when Israeli soldiers
opened fire on the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza, relatives and doctors
said. A 14-year-old boy, Hasma Obeid, was killed by Israeli fire near
the Karni crossing in Gaza. In el-Khader, near Bethlehem in the West
Bank, Rami Musa, 16, was killed when an Israeli tank shelled his
home, Palestinians said. The Israeli military said there was an
exchange of fire at el-Khader. Late Tuesday, there were heavy
exchanges of fire near Bethlehem and in the West Bank city of Hebron,
where a Palestinian was wounded." ("Palestinians Say Israel Enters
Gaza," Wednesday April 18 8:16 AM ET)
I am not that pleased with the AP report either which buries the
news of three dead children right at the end. I am certain that had
three Israeli children been injured by a Palestinian attack--let
alone killed--it would have been reported at the top of the news both
by NPR and AP, since this has been both agencies consistent
practice.
UPI reported the Israeli attack on Hebron as follows:
"Six Palestinians were wounded when Israeli tanks shelled two
neighborhoods in Hebron and exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen.
The Israeli army said its tanks shelled the areas after Palestinian
gunmen opened fire on Jewish settlements from Hebron's Abu Sneineh
and Harat al-Sheikh neighborhoods. The Israeli shelling led to an
exchange of fire with Palestinian youths in which six people from one
Palestinian family were injured. One of them, a 40-year-old woman,
was seriously hit in the face and chest. A missile also hit Hebron's
Alia hospital, smashing windows and damaging walls." (Violence
continues after Israeli pullout, April 18, 2001)
The continued double standard and sanitizing of Israel's broad and
continuous assault against the Palestinian people, and obsessive
focus on a few Palestinian attacks, and your consistent treatment of
Palestinian lives as worthless and Israeli claims of "self defense"
and "retaliation" as sacred has indeed crossed all red lines of
honesty and responsibility.
Sincerely,
Ali Abunimah
http://www.abunimah.org
