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Tuesday, February 1 2005Palestinian girl's death[UPDATE: See the HonestReporting communique on this topic.] [UPDATE: PA police have arrested a Palestinian suspect in this shooting.] A 10-year old Palestinian girl was killed by gunfire yesterday in a schoolyard near the Rafah/Egypt border. Her death was the pretext for a volley of Hamas mortar fire shortly thereafter. The Jerusalem Post reports that the IDF denies shooting the girl, claiming that Palestinians returning from the haj in Mecca fired celebratory gunshots in the air, and one of those bullets struck her. But this AFP headline asserts the IDF killed the girl, relying on a UNRWA spokesman: Palestinian schoolgirl shot dead by Israeli troops in Gaza Israeli denials are buried deep in the AFP report. The Independent notes both claims but the balance is against Israel. Note this snippet's first two words: Plainly embarrassed Israeli military sources said they knew of no shooting in the area… Fair Reuters coverage: A Reuters correspondent visiting the blood-stained schoolyard said it did not appear that Israeli soldiers some 600 meters (yards) away could have seen into the compound from their position behind high walls. Other reports such as these from AP and The Guardian noted both sides' claims fairly enough.
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» The lies Jazeera told me from Soccer Dad CommentsSo what's new? Blame Israel has to be the first port of call. My only surprise is that it was not called a massacre. Forgive my scepticism. IDF speoks person is PART of the problem: They never speak in clear voice. Instead of saying "we are sorry" "we are not sure" "we are investigating" they should have said the plain truth: Israel did not do it. Let us not foreget: Even after IDF (in half voice) said that they do not think it was Israel soldiers who did it UNRWA had a clear message: Israel did it ! Any death in this conflict is a tragedy but to use the kilings as propaganda is even worse. Last week a three-year-old girl was shot dead in the yard of her Gaza home. Again there was doubt about how she died and yet Ed O'Loughlin of the Melbourne Age daily files reports of her death implicating Israel. This from a newspaper which fleetingly referred to the incident in Sudan where an Arab government fired on and killed or injured 100 black Sudanese in Darfur. This issue came up at dinner today. Once again, the person that brung it up naturally thought that it was the IDF that had shot her, knowing nothing about the man that had been suspected, or the actual distance between any possible shooters on the other side. His version / what he heard, was that it was in some city where the security fence ran between an Arab town and an israeli settlement, and that the IDF had fired from one side... *sigh* Fair and balanced middle-east news coverage, European style. *Sigh* I was just on the Google news and there was absolutely nothing about this. Yesterday at this time (3:40 p.m.), when everyone was chanting that the IDF kileld the girl it was one of their lead headlines. And now....Narry a word. Honestreporting has taken Google to task before, it may be time to do so again. Greetings from Western Australia, where today our daily newspaper ran an article accredited to Knight-Ridder Tribune. A similar item is on link here http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/world/10782060.htm The article blames the IDF for the killing of Noran Deeb, claims that Hamas fired mortars "in revenge" and repeats the UN cliam that the Israeli military indiscriminately fire into Palestinian civilian areas. The damage is done, but I hope that Honest reporting will take the West Austrlian newspaper to task. I'm just wondering whether United Nations official Johan Eriksson who was quoted in Associated Press that "all signs pointed to the Israeli troops" will apologise or resign? Johan Eriksson will stay quiet and noone will say anything. Who would blame him for taking the normal "guilty until proven innocent" stance that any of them take when it comes to Israel. IDF spoksman are idiots. When they first heared about the arrest they should have waited. They rushed with it to the Israeli radio. The Palestinian propeganda officials heared this and immidetly tild the Pal police to deny it. It's not just the IDF spokesmen, Silvan Shalom should be summoning all bureau chiefs to his office and demanding retractions on threat of denial of their accreditation. They did it to the BBC producer who interviewed Vanunu, so why not the rest of them. When they start throwing their rattles out of their prams he can then raise the issue of the staged killing of Muhammad Dura with the French. You know whats also the problem. The silence, the fact that non of these news organizations want to admit they were wrong. They don't even have the decency to come out and put out a report saying that she wasn't killed by the IDF. I sure hope Honest Reporting does some kind of report demanding that news agencies admit that they were and do something to correct their mistakes I checked the stories on this incident and it makes me wonder who, exactly, is really doing the "two-step"? All of the original stories cite the girl being shot in the head by a bullet, as well as a schoolmate wounded. Yet the Jerusalem Post article cited by Honest Reporting only mentions that the IDF did not fire a tank shell at the school, nothing about shooting. Yes, it sounds "fishy". The IDF and Honest Reporting cite a denial of something which was never claimed. And about arresting a Palestinian for "shooting into the air" and killing the girl: How could they determine which Palestinian supposedly shooting into the air killed the girl? I imagine this "suspect" will disappear as soon as the uproar about the shooting dies away and groups like "Honest Reporting" have confused the issue about IDF responsibility. lol, Jeff! You're trying so hard:) For the record: It's not about clearing the Israeli army of a charge which had never been made - a way of saying "she wasn't shot by a tank shell (but we killed her with a bullet)". This is apparent not only from HR's report but also from one report by Reuters. Regarding the Jerusalem Posts reference to a tank shell, I do recall some reports claiming it was a tank shell (or its fragments) that killed the girl. As to the man who was arrested by the Palestinians. How they know it was him is beyond me. They were clearly embaressed when news of the arrest became common knowledge. This is completely against their interest. Somebody quickly announced that he was indeed arrested for firing celebratory gunshots, but he claimed this doesn't mean anyone suspects his shots hurt anyone:) Does that make sense to you? In the PA, masses of people fire such celebratory gunshots. It's a custom. Nobody would just get arrested for it. On the other hand, Israel had already immediately told that Palestinians had been firing just such gunshots at the time the girl was killed. So lets see. Israel's army compound is not 'nearby' as had been described by Palestinians but is actually 600 meters away and seems to not even have a direct line of sight (or fire) of the yard where she was killed. The Israeli army immediately said that its soldiers had not fired anything but that Palestinians had been firing celebratory gunshots. The Palestinians, naturally, denied this. Meanwhile, they arrested someone for just such celebratory gunshots. Tough to figure out what happened, huh? And your response? Your pathetic attempt to contort things in an effort to blame Israel and to 'support' the Palestinians? It's to point out that the Jerusalem Post article refers to there not being a "tank shell". lol. You're a disgrace to logic and to truth. Some ideology... you can see a timeline of the news stories on while yet within the heart. I'm quite astonished at the result of my feedback to the BBC! Basically they believe what the PA says. Subject: RE: Feedback [NewsWatch] It appears that the reports of an arrest by Palestinian police in Regards
From: Major Disturbance COMMENTS: I hope the BBC will be retracting, correcting, or otherwise Please see PA arrests suspect in girl's murder Margot Dudkevitch, THE JERUSALEM POST The Palestinians arrested a suspect in Monday's murder of Nuran Dib, on The man reportedly fired shots into the air; one of those shots hit the The suspect is being questioned regarding the shooting. The IDF said on Monday night that following an initial investigation, it Palestinians had originally claimed that the girl was killed by shrapnel The Palestinians used the supposed killing as a pretext to resume firing During the day Monday, soldiers positioned in posts located along the The officials said that at the time the girl was killed, officials at
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4222595.stm Jeff, Links that refer to "tank fire": http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/i/1107/1-31-2005/20050131033015_14.html http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=120022005 http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2005%20News%20archives/January/31%20n/A%20School%20Girl%20Shot%20Dead%20by%20an%20Israeli%20Tank%20in%20Rafah.htm Is that enough or should I find some more BTW, I have heared the wounded girl being interviwed on Al-Jazeera. Her words were: "I was wounded by a tank misile". It is obvious by now that someone told her what to say. More tanks: http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=6798 and how come the photogrphers are inside the operating room ? More important than her life and infections is the propeganda value !!!!! The BBC doesn't necessarily believe the Palestinians, they just want to echo the same propaganda. In theory, if Israel has one version and the Palestinians have a different one, the BBC should have some special reason for declaring that one side is telling the truth. They give no such reason. I can recall just off the top of my head, countless examples of the PA's lies. Their credibility is close to zero. Not only that, but in this particular case there are special reasons for believing Israel. 1. Reuters' reporter testified that the 'nearby' Israeli army compound is actually some 600 metres away and seems to not even have a direct line of vision (and thus does not have a line of fire). 2. A Palestinian (sorry, don't know who) in trying to refute Israel's claim, ended up admitting that indeed a Palestinian has been arrested for firing such shots around that period that she was killed. He claimed that it has nothing to do with the girl's death and that these celebratory gun-shots didn't hurt anyone. BBC might as well be run by the Palestinians. They're at it again. This is no surprise. They've done much worse in the past. Looks like the BBC are sending a standard response to everyone, I got exactly the same : Sent : 02 February 2005 15:51:42 Regards So as if we didn't know, we now have an admission in black and white that they will accept anything the PA says as truth, but won't report anything that the PA deny. Whereas however much Israel denies something they will still report it. Any UK lawyers out there who can take this to Michael Grade ? Melanie Phillips sums it up when she says, “The media who perpetrate this outright inversion of the truth truly have blood on their hands.” Read the whole piece: http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/001032.html Post a comment[Comments are held for approval before appearing.]
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