Over the lifetime of this blog I have frequently been highly critical of the BBC bias and recommend highly the Biased BBC blog.
I have been less critical of the Guardian bias (because I so rarely read it) but nevertheless recommend the CiF Watch blog.
Now I’m delighted to note that Reuters, so often noted for fauxtography, repeating unchecked Palestinian claims as fact and yes, bias has a blog devoted to it as well: Reuters Middle East Watch. Definitely worth keeping an eye on it.
RMEW* exposes errors, bias, and propaganda in Reuters Middle East Reporting. It is not a “blog” as such but rather an open, public,evidentiary database documenting Reuters’ violations of its own Trust Principles, Handbook, and generally accepted standards of professional journalism.
The next two recommendations are not media specific but concern the retelling of stories, over-and-over again. This isn’t a charge of plagiarism although that happens nor the ubiquitous filling in space with background straight from Wikipedia. It relates to repeating stories one year to the next. How often can shed a tear for the last Christian shepherd? Why does it sound so familiar? Perhaps In Bethlehem, shepherds watching their flocks by night are a dying breed from 2010 gives a clue?
A rebel group of Jerusalem-based reporters has reacted to the decade-long tradition of Bethlehem holiday stories by refusing to accept any holiday cheer this season. Refusing editors’ requests for “Christmas in the holy land” tales of Palestinian woe and tourist shows, the group has announced it will refrain from filing any articles until an actual news event occurs. “We are doing this for the good of our readers. Who, if they have any memory whatsoever, will recall that we have written the exact same Bethlehem story for the past four years,” said a spokesman for the group. He continued that the decision was also financial, hoping to save the dying newspaper industry the cost of commissioning a new piece when they could just rewrite the previous versions. One journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, said the rebel group was trying to quell more extreme elements who called for a torching of all olive-wood products made in Bethlehem, and the expelling of shopkeepers who whined excessively.
Finally and not unrelated. It’s not just text that gets recycled. It’s also photographs. Watch Video documents photojournalism ‘machine’s’ coverage of East Jerusalem and West Bank below. Among other things it confirms my opinion that at least part of the reason Israel/Palestine is so obsessively covered is the ease that journalists can pretend to be covering wars with very little real danger or inconvenience that might come from real combat photography.
Incidentally, Illia Yefimovich from the embedded video is also the photographer who captured the famous stone thrower knocked over by car shot. I blogged about it in Set-up,stoned and skittled. With what you have seen here, what version do you believe: photgrapher just happening to be on the spot or photographer arranging a ‘scene’ that will sell?
Around about this time, when Christmas and Hanukka fall at about the same time (this year the eight days of Hanukka and the twelve days of Christmas actually overlap) the arguments about whether Hanukka is the Jewish Christmas rise anew. There’s a mea culpa here. As a child in culturally Christian Australia I happily pocketed the Hanukka gelt† and Christmas presents from the various service organisations my parents belonged to, without guilt.
Anne Frank - Palestinian?
The Christmas-Hannuka connection did get me thinking, however. Why, if the Destroy Israel Lobby, BDS, Arab money, some Christian groups, the ‘extreme’ ‘Left’ etc. has co-opted Christian iconography to attack Israel, don’t they co-opt Jewish imagery from this festival. They have already appropriated Holocaust imagery without embarrassment. An Internet search will find Anne Frank the Palestinian and young Palestinian victim of the Warsaw ghetto with arms upraised.
The Hannuka story would on the face of it be an ideal addition to the Palestinian narrative. A small group of ‘indigenous’ citizens take on the might of a foreign occupying army – and win. Can’t you just imagine Arafat as Judah the Maccabi? Can’t you just imagine the Palestinian hero in a keffiyeh, as Simon stabbing elephants? Surely there’s some way of fitting the ubiquitous Hanukka menorah into the story‡?
So why don’t they do it?
Are you surprised that I have several theories?
Denying any Jewish connection to this land is more important than yet another piece of imagery. The Hanukka story, combined with supporting historical evidence is yet more proof of Jewish connection. Only Muslims and Christians are permitted. At least Christians are until no longer necessary for PR.
The name is a problem. I always knew him as Judah or Yehudah but even Judas (as in the Apostles) is problematic. Sounds too much like Judea. This is solvable of course. Most of the Old and New Testament prophets have their Arabic equivalents.
Jewish holidays are simply too unfamiliar - regrettably even for the Jews.
Chanukkah Candlelight, Pana Nichuirc, A Girl, A Blog & Life In-between!!!, Saturday, December 17, 2011
The Syrian Greek King Antiochus IV Epiphanes*
† Literally Hanukka gold. It can mean gifts but is just as likely to be round pieces of cheap chocolate covered in gold-coloured paper to resemble coins.
‡ After much searching I did find a menorah as the cannon on an Israeli tank.
* Coin of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. English: Left: Head of Antiochus IV. Right: Zeus Nikephoros enthroned. Greek inscription reads Antiochus, image of God, bearer of victory
The Festival of Lights is with us again. Plenty of friends are coming to light the first candle and I have been allocated my traditional sous-chef role of grating, slicing and dicing. Blog following if I have some time, today.
Generally Dry Bones iconic comics have pride of place in the right column on Five Minutes for Israel. When I’m short of ideas the changing comic (it’s not loaded automatically) are a sign the site is active. Try again some other day. Today I feature it because whether you accept Kirschen’s idea it shows that the solution being forced on us of either accepting the immediate suicide of the one state solution or the slow suicide of the two state solution are not the only possible options. There are many options.
This is not the space to list them all but consider these:Modern Federation, Confederation, Federacy, Consociation, Unions, Unitary States with Federal Arrangements, and Leagues and Partial Unions. I can’t even define them all. Continue reading Alternatives
I posted a criticism of France 24 for unilaterally recognising Palestine in France 24 desist svp. One criticism of my criticism is that I have become so obsessed in rooting out anti Israelism in the media that I am hearing things that are not necessarily there. When I heard 1PM Palestine I really was hearing 1PM Paris time!
To tell the truth, when I listen I still hear Palestine but the Parisian option is tooreasonable an alternative to ignore.
Complaining to the BBC is usually a complete waste of time†. Still complaining about one false/misleading headline is likely to be easier than complaining about an overall culture of bias against Israel. Please excuse the shorthand nature of the complaint
If the BBC correspondent(s) was not aware of this at time of the incident he/she has aware of it for four days. The BBC has a journalistic responsibility to update the article with this information.
Most of the coverage of UNESCO’s decision to admit Palestine as a full member of UNESCO can be summed up in two points: 1) Israel and America opposed it implying only them and 2) America threatened UNESCO with loss of funding implying coercion by Uncle Sam. Neither point is correct. I’ve tried to add some talking points about why Palestine shouldn’t have been admitted and a depressing prediction for the future. Continue reading UNnecessary UNESCO
See Action item: Starbucks f’s up for complaint addresses.
We object to this Starbucks website: Cartographic Regression I have tried to explain a little why each piece is biased by omission, comission or simply a lie.
Please be fair to Starbucks. In the past they have been attacked for supporting Israel – even if they didn’t. Read about it here and here.
Click on the thumbnails for a screen shot of the Starbucks original.
In 1917(depending on what month) the area we now call Israel was either part of the Ottoman Empire or under military occupation by Allied troops under Allenby. Either way it was not in anyway under control or ownership by the Arabs let alone a group called Palestinians. The borders looked nothing like this created by the victors of World War One when they divided the Ottoman Empire into states.The map that was chosen in the very first frame is the 1923 British Mandate for Palestine to create a Jewish homeland after the British had chopped off three-quarters in 1922 to create the Kingdom of Transjordan. Ironically the Jews called themselves Palestinians. The Arabs called themselves Arabs or Southern Syrians.
If Starbucks had said proposed borders under the UN partition plan rejected totally by all Arabs states and local Palestinians, this map would be less objectionable. For accuracy purposes the state labelled Jordan should be labelled Transjordan. It only became Jordan in 1949 when the army (commanded by British officers) captured the area many refer to as the West Bank.
Israel was formed? Actually Israel was invaded by five Arab armies. The map shows the cease fire lines after Israel successfully drove them out.To call the areas occupied by Jordan and Egypt Palestine is to ignore history. King Abdullah annexed the West Bank to his kingdom and occupied the area for only 19 years until driven out. Egypt suppressed the Arabs in Gaza for the same period. Neither country ever described it as Palestinian.
Actually nothing much has changed. The area that was never under Palestinian control is still not under Palestinian control. Calling it Palestine is a fiction.
It is very hard to show narrow lines, sometimes only roads on such a small scale. Since the Oslo Agreements of 1993 some 80% of the Palestinian population came under day-to-day Palestinian control. This is the first time in history that it can be reasonably argued that there was an Arab Palestine other than an abstract concept. Rather than regressing Palestine has actually grown.
The World Zionist Organization had nothing to do with borders.
The impression that the Jews came from Egypt in 1917 is frankly weird. The mountains are also incorrectly placed.
All Arab leaders, inside and outside Palestine rejected the UN plan resulting in war and invasion not simply riots.
What ever happened to World War One and Two?
Israel had no tanks in 1948
The 78% of Palestine does not include the Kingdom of Jordan, then and now, with an absolute majority declaring themselves to be Palestinians.
700,000 is above the figure of 650,000 normally accepted. About the same number of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa also became refugees as a result of the war.
In 1954 Israel, Britain and France also fought a war against Egypt. Did it slip someone’s memory?
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The Arabs armies also had planes, ships and soldiers. That is how modern wars are fought.
Between 1967 and 1987 Israel and the Arabs fought several wars resulting in the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The Sinai agreement and the resulting border changes would not have happened without it.
The First Intifada resulted in Arabs killing more Arabs than the Jews did. It also had no effect on borders.
Camp David had nothing to do with Lebanon.
The talks did not fail in Camp David.
As well as a timetable for a Palestinian State the roadmap made demands on the Palestinians for an end to violence, something they were not prepared to do.
If you didn’t know different you could assume Israel planned to expel Arabs. The plan was known as the Disengagement Plan. All Israelis, not just the army, left Gaza.This was followed by a short but brutal civil war when Hamas threw out Fatah. This in turn was followed by increasing rocket and mortar attacks on Israel, a declaration of war by Hamas and the operation known as Cast Lead. Palestine’s bid for statehood includes Gaza even though the Palestinian Authority has not control there.
All the pieces of the map together. It is only a screen grab but I include it because hopefully the ridiculous propaganda published by Starbucks will be removed soon.
