The International Media And Its Selective Attention Disorder

An interesting post over at Honest Reporting:

Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh wonders why the MSM isn’t interested in media repression and torture when the perpetrators are the Palestinian Authority. 

In June, an Al-Jazeera crew investigating the death of a Palestinian prisoner apparently tortured was stopped at a PA (Palestinian Authority) checkpoint where a videotape was confiscated and erased. 

Yet foreign journalists and human rights activists working in Israel and the Palestinian territories either chose to ignore the story or never heard about it simply because it was lacking in an anti-Israel angle. One can also imagine how the media and human rights organizations would have reacted had a Palestinian died in Israeli prison after allegedly being tortured.

 

 

 

 

It’s up to those of us who want a fairer approach to Israel in the media to spread word of incidents like this.

Palestinian Boy Murdered By His Own Family – For ‘Collaborating’ With Israelis

Yep, once again, the Palestinian Arabs show their true colours. This story concerns a family that slaughtered one of their own – purely on the basis that he may have ‘collaborated’ with Israel. And yet we’re supposed to believe that these same people want peace with the Israelis? Anyone with a semblance of understanding knows damn well that if and when a Palestinian state becomes a reality, it will just be one huge base from which Hamas and its supporters will attack Israel even more often.

Here’s the Jerusalem Post on this pitiful story:

“A Palestinian family has killed its 15-year-old son in the West Bank after accusing him of “collaboration” with Israel.The boy’s body was discovered near Kalkilya on Wednesday.

The Palestinian Authority security forces announced that they have arrested a number of the boy’s family members in connection with the killing.

The victim was identified as Raed Wael Sawalha.

PA security sources said the suspects confessed to the killing, claiming that they decided to kill Sawalha  because of his alleged connections with the Israeli authorities.

A preliminary investigation launched by PA security forces revealed that Sawalha had been brutally tortured before he was hanged to death.

Gen. Adnan Damiri, spokesman for the PA security forces in the West Bank, said the perpetrators were all members of the boy’s family, including the father, uncle and cousin.“

How the Palestinian Authority Looks After Holy Sites

Yet again, Joseph’s Tomb, in Nablus, has been vandalised. Covered in swastikas and other anti semitic emblems, to be specific. Visitors expressed their concern on Wedesday upon discovering the desecration:

“We saw a drawing of a Star of David with a boot stamping on it on one wall,” said David Ha’ivri, a spokesman for Samaria Regional Council chairman Gershon Masika, who was one of the visitors. “Putting your foot on something is the ultimate insult in the Arab world,” added Ha’ivri. “It is sad that is the way they treat a holy site. But nobody was particularly surprised.”

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Ha’ivri said that in the past year, since Masika was elected head of the regional council, there had been regular monthly visits to the tomb coinciding with the new Jewish month. “Every time, we bring white paint to cover up the graffiti,” said Ha’ivri.

The tomb  is surrounded by territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority. In October 2000  Palestinians attacked a small Border Police contingent stationed next to the gravesite. Yusuf Madhat, one of the policemen, was killed after the IDF relied on the PA to evacuate Madhat, in keeping with the Oslo Accords.

A yeshiva called Od Yosef Hai (Joseph is Still Alive) was ransacked, and holy books were burned. Hillel Lieberman, a yeshiva student who tried to reach the site on Rosh Hashana by foot, was also killed.

The yeshiva was then moved to the neighboring settlement of Yitzhar. Until recently visits to the tomb were made clandestinely by Breslav Hassidim, against IDF orders.

Now, the Yitzhar-based organization Shechem Ehad (shoulder to shoulder) organizes monthly visits to the tomb. On Wednesday night, over 500 visitors were transported into the area in bullet-proof vehicles and under heavy IDF protection.

Nathan J. Diament, director of public policy at the Orthodox Union, issued a statement decrying the vandalism and calling on “all people of good will to join us in condemning such acts of desecration of holy sites.” “We also call upon all people of good will, especially those in positions of responsibility in the American, Israeli and other governments who, in their sincere desire to pursue a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, consider plans which would have Israel relinquish sovereignty over other Jewish holy sites – most notably in Jerusalem – to view this as not the first, but another warning that this is what happens when such holy sites are not secured by Israel,” the statement said.