An Open Letter to the Editors of the Star Ledger, Newark, NJ, Aref Assaf
Re: "Lull in Middle East", 12/26/03 Page 4
Dear Editor:
You have given 'lull'' a new meaning. In the lexicon of Palestine-Israel
conflict, it is now considered a lull period when only Palestinians are killed
by Israelis. Coverage of the conflict has always been one-sided and viewed only
thru the eyes of Israel military censure. I am most disturbed by your choosing
to announce that to attacks in Israel "ended a two-month lull.."
What really happened during the period of "relative calm"? The victims are all
Palestinians, the killer, the Israeli Army:
Week ending Dec. 24, 17 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including a child and
an old man,
Week ending Dec. 17, 10 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 1 woman,
Week ending Dec. 10, 2 Palestinian children
Week ending Dec. 3, 12 Palestinians, including 4 children,
Week ending Nov. 19, 4 Palestinians, including a child and an elderly man,
Week ending Nov. 12, 17 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 6 children and
a woman
Week ending Nov. 5, 1 Palestinian civilian was killed by Israeli forces in
‘Askar refugee camp in Nablus
Week ending Oct. 29, 11 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children,
Week ending Oct. 22, 21 Palestinians, mostly civilians including 2 children, a
woman and a doctor,
Week ending Oct. 15, 10 Palestinians, including 3 children,
Week ending Oct. 8, 6 Palestinians, including 1 child and 1 elderly man
Week ending Oct. 1, 9 Palestinians, including a child.
Total : 120 Palestinians killed during the so called lull - relative calm!
Source: Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR).
This is only the death count! Add to this the thousands of the injured, the
hundreds of arrests and the hundreds of homes demolished and the endless
suffering of an entire people under occupation. Unless your are biased towards
the Palestinians, your reporters must then be blind. Both reasons are most
disturbing, to say the least.
Apparently, death of Palestinians and destruction of their properties and
denying them a normal life is considered an acceptable price for normalcy. Only
when Israelis are killed that volatility, unrest and terrorism capture your
headlines and sub stories.
Israel's total grip on the borders and its restriction of movement of reporters
has created a geographic bias rendering the battlefield, namely the West Bank
and the Gaza Strip off limits to foreign reporters. It is ironic that the only
full time reporter in the area is Amira Haas from the Israeli Haaretz. We would,
however, be given a totally different view of the conflict if you dared to
report even half the stories Haas covers. Under the pretense of security, all
major media organizations utilize Israeli-provided offices inside Israel and
rely exclusively on Israel's military for news about the Palestinians. What is
most dubious about American coverage is its almost total unquestioning of the
Israel's assessment of events.
It is now, for example, considered an acceptable 'collateral damage" when
innocent Palestinian civilians are killed when a two ton bomb devastates their
apartment complex because the Israeli army suspected a terrorist may be hiding
there. When an Israeli is killed, the media interrupts its coverage to air gavel
to gavel story of the life that was lost, the agony of their weeping parents and
relatives. When a Palestinian is killed, you only see "things" such as blown up
cars, buildings as if Palestinians metaphysically exist without families and
friends to mourn their loss also. When Israel confiscates Arab lands and builds
an illegal settlement for Jews only, it is described simply as a "neighborhood".
When an expectant Palestinian mother is denied access to medical service and is
forced to give birth at a check point, the justification is given as a
"necessary" security measure.
Such deliberate and systematic dehumanizing of the Palestinians tragedy is the
result of the media's complicity that does not seek the other side of the story
and does not question authority or those who have the power, and a military
capacity to impact the lives of millions of Israelis and Palestinians..
This widespread behavior is the most pervasive and pernicious ineptitude of the
media in covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It demonstrates not only a
startling lack of professionalism and fairness, but a morally corrupted plateau
that renders the lives of the Israelis as being inherently more valuable than
those of the Palestinians.
American media cannot seem to understand that it is the Israeli
military occupation that is the source of violence and not the Palestinian
response to it. After 36 years of denial of their basic human and political
rights, the Palestinians are the true victims of the Palestine Israel conflict.
We hope that the Editors will summon their sense of justice and fairness and be
guided by the essence of journalism: report all the relevant facts unencumbered
by prejudgment or hidden agenda. The cause of peace, the security of Israel and
justice for the Palestinians are mutually inclusive requirements for a
peaceful Middle East. They will be advanced when we report the horrors of wars
and terrorism by and against both Palestinians and Israelis. Sanitizing
Israel's brutal military occupation is no less reprehensible than the crimes
committed by Israel against the Palestinians people.
Thank you.
Aref Assaf
Denville, NJ
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