Join The Palestine Media Watch AP group

PMWATCH (PMW-AP group) - August 1, 2002 -- With over 1,700 newspaper clients in the US alone, the Associated Press is responsible for writing an enormous share of the news we read every day. What they post as "news" generally appears, verbatim, in hundreds of newspapers nationwide each day.

However, we have yet to find a single AP summary detailing for the same time period a history of Israeli attacks against Palestinians, with accountings for each of the 1,768 Palestinian deaths. For that matter, we have yet to see on the AP any of the following:

• Overviews of the 148 Palestinians killed by Israel's illegal policy of assassination of Palestinian political leaders;
• Checklists describing the circumstances of the wounding of over 7,000 Palestinian children (this is UNICEF's estimate);
• Dated flowcharts accounting for the 2,500 Palestinians permanently disabled by Israeli attacks, 500 of them children;
• Chronologies of Israeli attacks on Palestinian Emergency Medical Personnel & Services, and Israeli Shelling of Palestinian Hospitals;
• Timelines of the 15 on-duty Palestinian doctors and ambulance drivers murdered by Israeli forces, and the 180 Red Cross Emergency Medical Technicians attacked;
• Checklists on the 64 Palestinians who have died due to Israeli prevention of access to medical treatment;
• Charts describing the 167 journalists attacked by the IDF;
• Overviews of the roughly 15,000 Palestinians arbitrarily detained in mass detentions over the last 2 months alone;
• Timelines examining the Israeli shelling and demolition of over 1,600 Palestinian homes. *(all above stats from The Palestine Monitor)

Data for these categories is readily available from various sources, such as:

• The Palestine Monitor
• The Palestine Center for Human Rights
• The Palestinian Crescent Society

And yet, AP chooses to publish chronologies only of suicide bombings, as if the actions of the Israelis were insignificant details not worth keeping track of.

It is also important to note the following:

(1) In the chronology provided by AP, 47% of the attacks they note caused no deaths at all. Should they not also be reporting in a similarly comprehensive manner the daily Israeli attacks on Palestinians, whether they cause deaths or not? Surely the far more numerous attacks on Palestinians cause damage and fright which is no less important than that of any Israeli.

(2) The AP chronology specifically notes that 10 of the 73 attacks occurred in the West Bank or in Gaza. However, about 30 of them occurred in the Occupied Territories. The result of this sloppy reporting is that while 40% of the attacks took place in territories illegally occupied by the Israeli military, the AP gives the erroneous impression that the overwhelming majority occurred in Israel.

(3) The AP chronology does not distinguish between civilian and military casualties, thus giving the impression that all victims were civilians, when in fact a large number of those targeted were armed settlers and members of the Israeli armed forces.

The Associated Press professes to abide by and respect the Associated Press Managing Editors code of ethics. http://www.apme.com/about/code_ethics.shtml , but such sub-par journalism is clearly not in keeping with that code.

The Jerusalem Bureau of the Associated Press has a very large staff and many of them are distinguished journalists who do honor to their profession. Many go to enormous and often dangerous lengths to provide coverage of this conflict. Please be sure to address them with courtesy and respect while you share your concerns.

Please consider giving them a call or sending them a fax at:

New York Headquarters: Tel 212-621-1500 -- Fax 212-621-7523
Washington Bureau: Tel 202-776-9400 -- Fax 202-776-9570

You can also send them an email via the interface below. Your email will be sent to:

• intdesk@ap.org
• info@ap.org

For our latest report on AP, please visit: http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/reports/ap/ap061702.html

Thomas Olson
Director, PMW-AP group
Palestine Media Watch
http://www.pmwatch.org

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23070-2002Jul30.html washingtonpost.com

Israel Attacks Glance

The Associated Press

Tuesday, July 30, 2002; 8:00 PM

JERUSALEM -- Here is a list of the 73 Palestinian suicide bombing attacks against Israelis since the current violence erupted in September 2000, killing 251 Israelis and two foreigners:

Oct. 26, 2000: Israeli outpost in Gaza - no Israelis killed.

Dec. 22, 2000: Restaurant in Jordan River Valley - no Israelis killed.

Jan. 1, 2001: Netanya - no Israelis killed, 60 injured.

March 1, 2001: One Israeli killed in taxi near Mei Ami.

March 4, 2001: Netanya - three Israelis killed.

March 27, 2001: Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood - no Israelis killed.

March 28, 2001: Gas station near Sdeh Hemed - two Israelis killed.

April 22, 2001: Kfar Saba - one Israeli killed.

April 29, 2001: Car near Israeli bus outside Nablus - no Israelis killed.

May 18, 2001: Netanya shopping mall - five Israelis killed.

May 25, 2001: Truck at Carni Junction in Gaza Strip - no Israelis killed.

June 1, 2001: Dolphinarium nightclub in Tel Aviv - 21 Israelis killed.

June 22, 2001: Jeep at Dugit in Gaza Strip - two Israeli killed.

July 9, 2001: Car near Kissufim Junction - no Israelis killed.

July 16, 2001: Binyamina train station - two Israelis killed.

Aug. 8, 2001: Military checkpoint in Jordan Valley - no Israelis killed.

Aug. 9, 2001: Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem - 15 Israelis killed.

Aug. 12, 2001: Kiryat Motzkin - no Israelis killed, 21 injured.

Sept. 4, 2001: Haneviim Street in Jerusalem - no Israelis killed.

Sept. 9, 2001: Nahariya train station - three Israelis killed.

Sept. 9, 2001: Car at Beit Lid Junction - no Israelis killed.

Oct. 7, 2001: Near Kibbutz Shluhot - one Israeli killed.

Oct. 17, 2001: Nahal Oz - no Israelis killed.

Nov. 8, 2001: Baka al-Sharkiyeh, West Bank - no Israelis killed.

Nov. 26, 2001: Erez crossing, Gaza Strip - no Israelis killed.

Nov. 29, 2001: Gan Shmuel bus - three Israelis killed.

Dec. 1, 2001: Double suicide bombing on Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall in Jerusalem - 11 Israelis killed.

Dec. 2, 2001: Bus in Haifa - 15 Israelis killed.

Dec. 5, 2001: King David Street in Jerusalem - no Israelis killed.

Dec. 9, 2001: Haifa - no Israelis killed.

Dec. 12, 2001: Gaza Strip - no Israelis killed.

Jan. 25, 2002: Tel Aviv - no Israelis killed.

Jan. 27, 2002: Female bomber in Jaffa Street in Jerusalem - one Israeli killed.

Jan. 30, 2002: Taibe - no Israelis killed.

Feb. 8, 2002: Mei Ami - no Israelis killed.

Feb. 16, 2002: Karnei Shomron, West Bank - two Israelis killed.

Feb. 18, 2002: Maale Adumim - one Israeli killed.

Feb. 19, 2002: Mehola - no Israelis killed.

Feb. 22, 2002: Efrat supermarket in West Bank - no Israelis killed.

Feb. 27, 2002: Female bomber near Maccabim checkpoint - no Israelis killed.

March 2, 2002: Mea Shearim, Jerusalem - 11 Israelis killed.

March 5, 2002: Bus in Afula - one Israeli killed.

March 7, 2002: Ariel - no Israelis killed.

March 8, 2002: Beit Hanina - no Israelis killed.

March 9, 2002: Moment Cafe in Jerusalem - 11 Israelis killed.

March 14, 2002: Car on a road east of Jerusalem - no Israelis killed.

March 17, 2002: Bus in French Hill in Jerusalem - no Israelis killed.

March 20, 2002: Bus in Kfar Musmus - seven Israelis killed.

March 21, 2002: King George Street in Jerusalem - three Israelis killed.

March 22, 2002: Roadblock near Jenin - no Israelis killed.

March 26, 2002: Near Malha Mall in Jerusalem - no Israelis killed.

March 27, 2002: Hotel in Netanya - 29 Israelis killed.

March 29, 2002: Kiryat Yovel supermarket in Jerusalem - two Israelis killed.

March 30, 2002: Coffee shop in Tel Aviv - one Israeli woman killed.

March 31, 2002: Restaurant in Haifa - 15 Israelis killed.

March 31, 2002: Ambulance station in Efrat, West Bank - no Israelis killed.

April 1, 2002: Car in Jerusalem - one Israeli killed.

April 10, 2002: Bus in Haifa - eight Israelis killed.

April 12, 2002: Female bomber at the market in Jerusalem - six Israelis killed.

April 19, 2002: Kissufim in Gaza Strip - no Israelis killed.

April 20, 2002: Checkpoint near Qalqiliya in West Bank - no Israelis killed.

May 7, 2002: Pool hall in Rishon Letzion - 15 Israelis killed.

May 19, 2002: Market in Netanya - three Israelis killed.

May 20, 2002: Taanakhim Junction - no Israelis killed.

May 22, 2002: Park in Rishon Letzion - two Israelis killed.

May 27, 2002: Ice-cream parlor in Petach Tikvah - two Israelis killed.

June 5, 2002: Bus near Megiddo Junction - 17 Israelis killed.

June 11, 2002: Restaurant in Herzliya - one Israeli killed.

June 17, 2002: Marja - no Israelis killed.

June 18, 2002: Patt Junction in Jerusalem - 19 Israelis killed.

June 19, 2002: French Hill intersection Jerusalem - seven Israelis killed.

July 17, 2002: Tel Aviv Neve Shaanan - one Israeli, two foreign workers killed.

July 30, 2002: Jerusalem - no Israelis killed.