The Age on line edition is carrying this one-sided AFP report headlined on its home page as follows:-
Israeli school slaughter
6:04am Air strike kills 45 taking refuge inside Gaza Strip school flying UN flag, medics say.
The story carries a different headline - Israeli strike kills 40 in UN school. It tells about the deaths of up to "45 people seeking refuge in a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip" (i.e. the school was run by UNWRA - one of the largest employers of Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip) is a totally one-sided version of the incident suggesting this was a callous attack on innocents. This version is typical of AFP fairness and balance in that the 490 word article written by an unamed "journalist" ends with the following 22 words which is the only part of the story that deals with the Israeli side of the story:-
Israel said it would investigate the attacks on the schools. It accuses Hamas of using schools, mosques and residential areas for cover.
For some more balance, let's see what the Jerusalem Post report 30 reported killed in blast at UN school says:-
"At least 30 people were reportedly killed and 53 wounded in an explosion in a UN-run school in the town of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinians. The IDF issued a statement saying the school grounds were used by terrorists to fire mortar shells at the troops. According to the IDF, among the dead were members of a Hamas launching cell, including operatives Immad Abu Askar and Hassan Abu Askar."
And this:
"Defense officials told The Associated Press that booby-trapped bombs in the school triggered the secondary explosions which killed scores of Palestinians on the site."
The fact that Hamas uses schoolyards to fight its wars is nothing new and comes as no surprise. Nor is the fact that the Age has chosen to ignore many reports in the past of this phenomenon. - to its everlasting shame, they're all there in its blank pages. And to make matters worse, it opens its opinion pages to an arch terrorist who has genocidal intent towards the Jewish people - Gaza: the great divide - 1
And to understand the extent of the Age's bastardry in publishing lop sided report after lop sided report on what's happening in Gaza, Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic is a good read - The World's Pornographic Interest in Jewish Moral Failure. For good measure, he also discusses the pornography of Hamas and others using and recycling photographs of dead Palestinian children for propaganda - a practice that continues because so many in the media let them get away with it!
FOOTNOTE: The Australian Newspaper is not afraid to avail its readers of the truth about the Hamas leadership in hiding. Today's reporting on the situation in Gaza by the Oz is a case in point - more later.
Israeli school slaughter
6:04am Air strike kills 45 taking refuge inside Gaza Strip school flying UN flag, medics say.
The story carries a different headline - Israeli strike kills 40 in UN school. It tells about the deaths of up to "45 people seeking refuge in a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip" (i.e. the school was run by UNWRA - one of the largest employers of Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip) is a totally one-sided version of the incident suggesting this was a callous attack on innocents. This version is typical of AFP fairness and balance in that the 490 word article written by an unamed "journalist" ends with the following 22 words which is the only part of the story that deals with the Israeli side of the story:-
Israel said it would investigate the attacks on the schools. It accuses Hamas of using schools, mosques and residential areas for cover.
For some more balance, let's see what the Jerusalem Post report 30 reported killed in blast at UN school says:-
"At least 30 people were reportedly killed and 53 wounded in an explosion in a UN-run school in the town of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinians. The IDF issued a statement saying the school grounds were used by terrorists to fire mortar shells at the troops. According to the IDF, among the dead were members of a Hamas launching cell, including operatives Immad Abu Askar and Hassan Abu Askar."
And this:
"Defense officials told The Associated Press that booby-trapped bombs in the school triggered the secondary explosions which killed scores of Palestinians on the site."
The fact that Hamas uses schoolyards to fight its wars is nothing new and comes as no surprise. Nor is the fact that the Age has chosen to ignore many reports in the past of this phenomenon. - to its everlasting shame, they're all there in its blank pages. And to make matters worse, it opens its opinion pages to an arch terrorist who has genocidal intent towards the Jewish people - Gaza: the great divide - 1
And to understand the extent of the Age's bastardry in publishing lop sided report after lop sided report on what's happening in Gaza, Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic is a good read - The World's Pornographic Interest in Jewish Moral Failure. For good measure, he also discusses the pornography of Hamas and others using and recycling photographs of dead Palestinian children for propaganda - a practice that continues because so many in the media let them get away with it!
FOOTNOTE: The Australian Newspaper is not afraid to avail its readers of the truth about the Hamas leadership in hiding. Today's reporting on the situation in Gaza by the Oz is a case in point - more later.
16 comments:
The Age should remove that atrocity of an article forthwith. It breaks every principle of honest reporting that you'll ever find anywhere.
Strange as it may seem, Al-Jazeera is providing more balanced reporting than the Age which relies on European anti-Semites (Guardian, AFP) for part of its coverage. UN director Ging.
In an interview with Al-Jaz Ging admitted he had "no idea" whether the school had indeed been used by gunmen and fell back to the proposition that an "investigation" was needed to find out the responsible party.
Of course, this is an entirely different proposition than that which the Age article is making.
French newsagencies are nortoriously unreliable when it omes to reporting facts on this conflict. French TV has been airing photos billed as damage from Cast Lead which are actually from 2005.
I suppose it's another case of never letting the facts get in the way of a good story.
Let me get this right. Hamas booby traps a school and its bombs kill its own people including its own terrorists and the Age blames the Jews.
F*ck them!
Over at the Age's sister newspaper in Sydney there's a report on the same story from Paul McGeough who is no friend of Israel judging by a few of his recent articles where he tried an "analysis" of the situation.
Even McGeough, in his SMH report (while still quite jaundiced) doesn't dare traverse the boundary line between one-sided reporting and racist diatribe which this piece of utter filth and lies from the Age represents.
When Reuters posted this story - Gaza headmaster was Islamic Jihad "rocket-maker", the Age turned its head the other way.
Now, it's interested in what happens in a Gazan school?
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSL05686115
Today's Age report is sheer and blatant antisemitism. Shame on the Age - an AGEnt of Hamas propaganda.
According to Associated Press:
"An Israeli military statement said it received intelligence that the dead at the girls school included Hamas operatives, among them members of a rocket launching cell. It identified two of them as Imad Abu Askar and Hassan Abu Askar.
Two residents who spoke to an AP reporter by phone said the two brothers were known to be low-level Hamas militants. They said a group of militants - one of them said four - were firing mortar shells from near the school.
An Israeli shell targeted the men, but missed and they fled, the witnesses said, refusing to allow their names to be published because they feared for their safety. Then another three shells landed nearby, exploding among civilians, they said.
Palestinian militants have frequently fired from residential areas in the past."
Ibrahim Barzak and Steve Weizman -
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_PALESTINIANS?SITE=WSAW&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
It seems that someone at the Age has come to his/her senses and removed the offending on-line article.
It would be appropriate for the Age to recant and publish the whole truth but, at least for now, it has removed the obnoxious blood libel against the Israeli people.
That's bullshit Anonymous 1:20. Therey're running a much worse blood libel at the moment - which
Israeli strikes kill 48 in school refuges
"Israeli forces blazed into towns across Gaza today, striking Hamas targets but also hitting three United Nations-run schools in attacks that killed up to 48 people and led to urgent new calls for a ceasefire."
Not a word about the schools being infested with Hamas operatives, no mention of the confirmed Hamas dead and captured, no mention of the shooting from the schools and no mention of the eyewitness accounts of Palestinains in the Reuters report.
As someone else said, it's sheer bastadry. The company I work for will never advertise again with this corrupt bunch of anti-Semites.
even if it is true that hamas was using the school in gaza as cover, does that make it a legitimate target? Were are our jewish values?
Dear Mr. Ittay,
Where is it said (apart from the mischievous, reckless and unsubstantiated claims made by the Hamas, the Age and AFP) that the IDF targetted schoolkids?
The facts are clear that the IDF targetted the Hamas and that the IDF fired back at Hamas gunmen near the school. Unless you have proof otherwise you have no right to comment on "values", Jewish or otherwise.
Ittay,
Even Jason Koutsoukis, in today's article - No militants in bombed school, UN director says [http://www.theage.com.au/world/no-militants-in-bombed-school-un-director-says-20090107-7bzo.html] confirms Israeli claims that it wasn't targetting the school. He says' "Three tanks shells exploded just outside the school grounds, causing pandemonium inside." Israel says the Hamas gunmen were firing from the vicinity of the school and it fired back at them.
There are laws and rules of war and those rules make the gunmen initiating fire from near the school fully responsible, particularly if it's true that most of the deaths were a result of secondary explosions of munitions being stored inside the school.
As Gulliver stated, there is no proof that the IDF targetted the school and there's no indication that it acted recklessly in this situation. Soldiers are entitled to act to save their lives and the lives of their comrades when fired upon.
If you have proof otherwise, then please produce it because it seems to me that the making of the unsubstantiated allegation that Israel treated the school as a "legitimate target" is a gross violation of at least one of the very core Jewish values.
Gulliver and Wilbur, even Arutz 7, the most right wing zionist news source says "An IDF investigation has found that Hamas fired mortars from the UNRWA school which was hit by an IDF bomb Tuesday.After the terrorists fired mortar shells from the school in Jebaliya , the IDF retaliated, killing Hamas terrorists as well as civilian adults and children who were used as human shields."
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/129286
UNRWA has stated that 14,000 people are taking shelter throughout Gaza in 14 of it's buildings, including this school. UNRWA provided the IDF with GPS coordinates of each of these locations before the war. This fact has been reported in 100's of news stories on the topic.
Given this information, my question still stands. If there are terrorists hiding in a school, is it a legitimate target?
Wilbur Post writes "There are laws and rules of war and those rules make the gunmen initiating fire from near the school fully responsible."
My question is, do you think this "rule of war" is in accordance with jewish values as you understand them?
Screw the Palestinian Kids what about the Israeli Kids ..
Why are you wasdting your time with this Ittay person Wilbur?
According to the Associated Press, two Palestinian residents said "they saw a small group of militants firing mortar rounds from a street near the school, where 350 people had gathered to get away from the shelling. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal."
Hamas used civilians as human shields and even the most moral army in the region (which the IDF is) can't entirely avoid what happened in Gaza yesterday.
Hamas is culpable both legally and morally.
(Iris)
I've just posted more on the school incident
http://theblankpagesoftheage.blogspot.com/2009/01/investigate-unwra-999-certain-it-has.html
Ittay, I'm not interested in what Arutz Sheva says although I note that it doesn't support your claim that the IDF targetted the school.
International law regarding dealing with assymetric fighting is inadequate but I do agree that the gunmen initiating fire from near the school are fully responsible in this instance.
Post a Comment