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PMWATCH
- Jan 22, 2002
Time and again, day in and day out, without let up, and in spite
of our relentless protests, AP, Reuters, Knight Ridder, CNN,
NPR, and all the major media outlets, insist, as if either hypnotized
or simply out of spite against elementary common sense and glaring
reality, that the best way to describe Israeli actions is by
using the world "retaliation" or "retaliatory".
I have myself written dozens upon dozens of letters to
newspapers, individual journalists and editors, sat down for
hours with foreign desk editors and challenged them to explain
why they insist on framing Israeli actions PRECISELY as official
Israel wants them to be framed, that is as mere reactions, retaliations,
i.e., as
acts of self defense, when the acts themselves –- demolishing
homes, bombarding buildings, blockading whole towns and villages
-- are patently perpetrated to PUNISH WHOLE POPULATIONS, and
I have yet to receive one coherent honest answer from any journalist,
any editor: they are either embarrassingly silent or they react
by promising to be more vigilant next time.
Well,
this has been more than a year that we have been asking for
improvement, or at least for an explanation as to why Israeli
actions are always described as acts of self-defense, and
to date, and nothing has transpired.
And
what is fascinating is that when Palestinians react, their
acts are almost NEVER described as "retaliations"
-- even when the perpetrators themselves call their action
a "retaliation" and even when they record a video
in which they link their act specifically to a particular
Israeli action: an assassination, a home demolition, etc.
At best, we are told that the Palestinians acted to exact
"revenge" -- another code word betraying the underlying
racist subtext: Israelis are rational and measured; they "retaliate"
in self-defense. Palestinians are hot-headed and unable to
contain their passions and emotions: they engage in their
usual tribal acts of revenge, in the best bedouin tradition.
SO
-- ENOUGH! Enough
of this sloppy journalism. Enough of casting the aggressors
as the victims, again and again, every single day, brainwashing
the American reader, day after day, with the implicit message
– sometimes in BOLD HEADLINES – about Israeli “retaliations”.
ENOUGH!
Below
is an interface that will shoot off your letter to all the
news outlets out there: AP, Reuters, Knight Ridder, CNN, and
other media outlets. Please
make your voice heard and tell them -- ENOUGH! No more lazy
descriptions of Israeli actions as simple "retaliations".
ENOUGH the racist double standards.
Please
mobilize and ask your friends to join in a campaign to shake
the media out of its comfortable trance. Fill
your personal information, add your comments, and then click
send.
Ahmed
Bouzid
President
Palestine Media Watch
http://www.pmwatch.org
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