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<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4924.shtml" eudora="autourl">
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4924.shtml<br>
</a>Are Israeli lives worth more than Palestinian?<br>
Press Release, <i>Arab Media Watch,</i> 7 July 2006<br><br>
<img src="cid:6.2.5.6.2.20060707094024.02ac5678@freedomarchives.org.0" width=483 height=329 alt="[]">
<br>
A Palestinian carrying the body of a murdered boy after Israeli mobile
artillery fired shells at Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip July 6,
2006. (<a href="http://www.maanimages.com">MaanImages</a>/Mohamed
al-Zanon)<br><br>
Arab Media Watch expresses its concern at the amount of coverage given to
Israel's killing yesterday of almost two dozen Palestinians, including
civilians, compared with the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier on 25 June,
as well as the continued portrayal of the current crisis as being
triggered by the kidnapping.<br><br>
Comparing the initial report of each incident in the British national
dailies, the <i>Daily Mail,</i> the <i>Guardian</i> and the <i>Sun</i>
devoted more words to the kidnapped soldier than the Palestinian deaths,
with the <i>Times</i> devoting around the same amount of coverage. The
<i>Daily Express</i> and <i>Daily Star</i> report nothing today on
yesterday's deaths.<br><br>
The <i>Mail</i> devoted 4 times as many words to the kidnapping (661,
compared with 167), the <i>Sun</i> devoted just 79 words to the killings
(105 for the kidnapping), and the <i>Guardian</i> devoted more than twice
as many words to the kidnapping (826, compared with 393).<br><br>
The <i>Times</i> devoted 514 words to the kidnapping and 553 words to the
killings, though the headline today says nothing of the deaths
("Israeli tanks roll back into abandoned
settlements").<br><br>
Furthermore, the media is continuing to portray the current crisis as
being triggered by the kidnapping, which is not the case.<br><br>
Besides the issue of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails
(including women and children) that the Palestinian kidnappers have been
trying to highlight, and the well-documented humanitarian crisis caused
by Israel's near-total control of the Gaza Strip (despite its withdrawal
last September), Israel has been shelling the territory ever since,
intensively so for weeks before the kidnapping.<br><br>
This caused
<a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=18941&Cr=Middle&Cr1=Palestin">
UN monitor John Dugard to state</a> that "there has been a
substantial deterioration in respect of human rights," and UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan to remind Israel "to respect
international law."<br><br>
On 12 April, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
<a href="http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/docs/UN/OCHA/ochaSR_Gaza120406.pdf">
reported that</a> Israel had "fired more than 2,300 artillery and
tank shells into the Gaza Strip since 29 March, more than 150 shells a
day." It added that "the continuous firing of artillery shells
and launching of…missiles are causing immense psycho-social strain on the
Gaza population, especially on children. There are also additional risks
from unexploded shells.<br><br>
In April,
<a href="http://www.btselem.org/english/press_releases/20060411.asp">five
human rights organisations (three Israeli and two Palestinian)</a> said
that "the massive artillery fire causes disproportionate harm to the
civilian population...subjects Israeli army officers and soldiers to war
crimes charges," and constitutes "a blatant violation of the
Basic Rule of the laws of armed conflict whereby civilians and civilian
objects must be distinguished from military objectives. The fact that
Israel is confronting illegal firing of Qassam missiles at its own
civilian population does not legitimize disproportionate responsive
measures, which will knowingly lead to civilian casualties."
<br><br>
From the start of June to the kidnapping of the soldier on 25 June, 49
Palestinians were killed and 170 injured, including women and children,
according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, causing great concern
among human rights groups and threats of revenge from militant
groups:<br><br>
"We have decided to tell the occupier 'no more truce from today' in
response to the bloodletting of our women, our children and our elderly.
We will not suffer your repeated crimes in silence."<br><br>
Furthermore, the tank base from where the soldier was kidnapped is one of
the locations from which Israel has been relentlessly shelling the Gaza
Strip, and just one day earlier, Israeli commandos had raided Rafah and
captured two brothers, Mustafa and Osama Muamar.<br><br>
"All of this is well known but did not make it to the front
page," wrote
<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060627.LETTERS27-6/TPStory/?query=lavie">
Naftali Lavie</a>, who served in an Israeli tank unit near Kibbutz Kerem
Shalom, in Canada's <i>Globe and Mail</i> newspaper. "Can it be that
Palestinian lives are nothing, Israeli lives everything? That Palestinian
captives are nothing, Israeli captives everything?"<br><br>
<br>
<i><a href="http://www.arabmediawatch.com">Arab Media Watch is an
independent, non-profit organization set up in 2000 to monitor and
analyse the British media's coverage of Arab issues.</a></i> <br><br>
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