Accessories Before and After the Fact

The youngest victim, three month old Hadas Fogel who the Age shamelessly branded "a settler".

For more than ten years the Melbourne Age has treated its readers with news from Israel and Palestine slanted in favour of the Palestinian narrative.

Despite having a bureau chief based in Jerusalem for almost all of that time, there has been a clear reluctance by the likes of Ed O'Loughlin and Jason Kotsoutkis, not to mention "star" reporter Paul McGeough to cover the incitement to violence that is daily routine in the Palestinian media and in the mosques in the Palestinian territories ... and when I refer to Palestinian media I mean official state controlled organs of the Palestine Authority in the West Bank and of Hamas in Gaza.

There has however, been no such reluctance to publish anything critical about Israel and its leadership (nor should there be as long as such reports are factual and accurate which, sad to say, they are often not).

There are many who hold the that such incitement to violence leads to terrorist attacks such as the one perpetrated yesterday in the Israeli settlement Itamar when a family of five including three young children was massacred by Palestinian terrorism. Further, that the cover up by the media of the incitement to violence such as the murders perpetrated yesterday gives succor to groups such as the BDS and Israel Apartheid movement here and to the terrorists themselves.

How has the Age treated this massacre?

It humanises the murder by terming him "a Palestinian" and dehumanises the dead victims by describing them as "settlers".

Palestinian kills Israeli settler family

A Palestinan has killed five Israelis in an attack on a West Bank settlement.

The victims being mere "settlers" so no harm done by doing away with them. The brutal killing of five members of one family while they sleep is not to be described as "terrorism", nor even the work of a "militant" - just a Palestinian like the ones the BDS and Apartheid Israel people are supporting after the fact.

Here's a description of what really happened - Three Year Old Stabbed in the Heart, Baby’s Throat Slashed

Between 22:20 and 22:30 the terrorists entered the house through the living room picture window, did not notice the 6-year-old boy sleeping on the couch and continued on to the bedroom where they slashed the throats of the father and newborn baby who were sleeping there. The mother came out of the bathroom and was stabbed on its threshold. The evidence shows that she tried to fight the terrorists.

They then slashed the throat of the 11-year old-son who was reading in bed. They did not notice the 2-year old asleep in his bed, but murdered the 3-year old with two stabs to his heart. After that, they locked the door, exited through the window and escaped.

It only gets worse because what are the Palestinians doing - Gaza celebrates; Fayyad condemns terror attack?


A Palestinian man offers sweets to Hamas policemen in the streets of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on March 12, 2011 to celebrate an attack which killed five Israeli settlers at the Itamar settlement near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Well ... they're celebrating the massacre by handing out sweets (a grotesque event that will no doubt escape the attention the Age editors when they put together tomorrow's edition of their newspaper).

"The report of five murdered Israelis is not enough to punish someone," said Hamas Spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri, adding, "However; we in Hamas completely support the resistance against settlers who murder and use crime and terror against the Palestinian people under the auspices of the Israeli occupation soldiers."


And what of the Palestine Authority?

Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said he "clearly and firmly denounces the terror attack, just as I have denounced crimes against Palestinians.

"We are against all types of violence," Fayyad said during a tour in Bethlehem. "Our position has not changed. As we have said many times before, we categorically oppose violence and terror, regardless of the identity of the victims or the perpetrators."

Terrific. Let's twin this brutality with "crimes" against Palestinians. Anyone from the other side ever creep into a bedroom and slit the throats of a three month old baby?

How about ending incitement in your media and in the mosques Mr. Fayyad. Or taking control of Fatah's military wing – the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades – which has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Otherwise, the lot of you including the western media who cover up the reprehensible conduct of the terrorists and those responsible for the incitement to violence are all accessories before and after the fact.