THE SILENCE OF THE SHAMS - PART FOUR

THE SILENCE OF THE SHAMS - PART FOUR: CHEAP AND NASTY JOURNALISM

At the end of a week in which the indiscriminate firing of more than 100 missiles at Israeli civilian was allowed to go mainly unreported, Fairfax Media through its Jerusalem bureau chief, takes another cheap shot at Israel this morning with a story about how the poor quality of water affects the lives of Gaza's children under the Israeli blockade of the territory ruled by the Hamas thugs who are perpetrating war crimes by firing those missiles which are the cause of the blockade in the first place.

Gaza's children live and die on contaminated water

Yes. It's true that it's a tragedy that Gaza's children have to suffer filthy water just as it is a tragedy that children in many other third world countries suffer exactly the same thing. Usually, the responsibility for the lack of such amenities rests with the rulers of those countries but, in this piece from Ruth Pollard, Hamas which has governed Gaza since its bloody 2007 junta, doesn't get a single mention. Nor does the fact that at least 27 water and sewerage projects established in Gaza were facilitated by Israel and none by Hamas.

The problem is that Pollard can't resist a few cheap shots in order to sheet the blame principally upon Israel rather than on Hamas which rules Gaze illegally and which spends much of its time, money and effort to build up it's arsenal of weapons to use indiscriminately against Israel's civilians.

Worse still, this maestro of cheap shots, plays hard and fast with the facts in her latest propaganda piece when she comes up with the extraordinary statement that "Israel says it has eased the blockade over the past year and is now allowing in more building supplies and other essentials."

What extraordinary gall to preface that statement with the words, "Israel says" as if the proposition is something that has to be looked upon with extreme scepticism!

That would be funny if it didn't come from a reporter who not long ago lapped up every piece of disinformation given by sources close to Islamic Jihad over the alleged suffering of hunger striking Palestinian prisoners including those who were jailed for terrorism.

Pollard also conveniently ignores the fact that the Palmer Report commisisoned by the UN declared that Israel's blockade of Gaza was in fact legal under international law. Rather, she claims the opposite.

Slack.

We know that things are tight financially for Fairfax Media but surely it can spare her the taxi fare from Jerusalem to the Gaza crossings so that Pollard can see for herself the trucks as they roll the humanitarian aid into Gaza, a territory ruled by racist thugs committed to their genocide? At least then she wouldn't have to tell her readers what "Israel says" or what some UN official claims. She would know for herself instead of producing this extraordinary sham whose final paragraph attempts to draw an equivalence between the war crimes of Hamas and Israel's self defence against terrorism.

And Pollard doesn't need a great deal of funding to be able to work out that only two civilians have been killed to date in the latest round of fighting. One was a Palestine girl killed in Gaza by a Hamas rocket which misfired and the other was an Israeli civilian killed by Hamas rocket fire. The other deaths were four Hamas terrorists and a few others from Islamic Jihad and lesser known Palestinian terrorist organisations. Their pictures and stories are plastered over the internet including a site about their exploits - Hamas details its own rocket attacks.

If only Fairfax had the resources to cover this complex situation fairly and honestly instead of only producing cheap shots and shoddy journalism directed against one of the players in the region while giving a free pass to murderers and war criminals.