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<font size=3>Children In The Crosshairs<br>
Media Silent On Evidence Of Israeli Targeting Of Youngsters<br><br>
<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/19348" eudora="autourl">
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/19348<br><br>
</a>November 05, 2008 By David Cromwell <br><br>
<br>
On the afternoon of Thursday 28 February, 2008, a group of Palestinian
boys were playing football on some open ground near their homes in the
Gaza Strip. At around 3.20pm, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at the
boys, killing four of them instantly and seriously injuring another
three. The four dead boys were Omar Hussein Dardouna, aged 14, Dardouna
Deib Dardouna, aged 12, Mohammed Na'im Hammouda, aged 9, and Ali Munir
Dardouna who was just 8.<br>
<br>
Palestinian human rights fieldworkers investigated the circumstances of
this attack by Israeli forces. They concluded there was no Palestinian
resistance in the area at the time and that the boys "must have been
clearly visible to the [Israeli] aircraft that fired the
missile."<br>
<br>
Similar cases abound. A new study by the Palestinian Centre for Human
Rights reports that 68 children died in Gaza between June 2007 - June
2008 (PCHR press release, October 21, 2008;
http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2008/2008/43-2008.html).
Over the same period, 12 children were killed by Israeli forces in the
West Bank. The report highlights the "deliberate targeting of
civilians, including children". (Palestinian Council for Human
Rights, 'Blood on their hands. Child killings by the Israeli Occupation
Forces (IOF) in the Gaza Strip. June 2007 - June 2008', October 22, 2008,
p. 4;
<a href="http://www.electronicintifada.net/downloads/pdf/081021-pchr-childkillings.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.electronicintifada.net/downloads/pdf/081021-pchr-childkillings.pdf</a>
) <br>
<br>
Since the Second Intifada, which began in September 2000, Israeli forces
have killed 859 children in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The child
death toll rose dramatically during the first six months of 2008, mostly
as the result of a large-scale Israeli military operation in the Gaza
Strip. The massive assault, code-named 'Operation Winter Heat', was
launched on February 27. The Israeli military killed more children (47)
in the Gaza Strip during the first four months of 2008 than during the
whole of 2007 (32 children). A total of 110 civilians were killed during
'Operation Winter Heat' in February-March 2008. (See our earlier Media
Alerts: 'Israel's Illegal Assault On The Gaza "Prison"', March
3, 2008,
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/08/080303_israels_illegal_assault.php;
and 'Israeli Deaths Matter More', March 11, 2008,
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/08/080311_israeli_deaths_matter.php)<br>
<br>
The website Remember These Children reports that 123 Israeli children
have been killed by Palestinians and 1,050 Palestinian children have been
killed by Israelis since September 29, 2000.
(<a href="http://rememberthesechildren.org/about.html" eudora="autourl">
http://rememberthesechildren.org/about.html</a>)<br>
<br>
Most children killed in recent years in the Gaza Strip have died as a
result of bombardment, surface-to-surface missiles, or missiles fired
from aircraft. The Palestinian human rights investigation notes that
Israel has "consistently bombed either inside or extremely close to
densely populated residential areas, including schools and areas in close
proximity to schools." It uses "disproportionate and excessive
force across the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories], without regard
for civilian life, including the lives of children." <br>
<br>
But the report is even more damning than that. It concludes that Israeli
forces "deliberately target unarmed civilians, including children,
as part of their policy of collective punishment of the entire
Palestinian civilian population." <br>
<br>
The human rights investigation also concludes that:<br>
<br>
"There is also strong and consistent evidence to suggest that
[Israeli forces] deliberately kill Palestinian children in reprisal for
the deaths of Israeli civilians or members of the [Israeli forces], which
amounts to a war crime." (PCHR, op. cit., p. 46)<br>
<br>
According to international humanitarian law, children are to be afforded
special protection during international armed conflicts. This includes
military occupation such as exists in the Palestinian territories under
Israel. Legal protection is provided by the 1949 Fourth Geneva
Convention, as well as by the 1989 United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC). Israel signed the CRC in 1991.<br>
<br>
Protection was strengthened by the (CRC) Optional Protocol on the
Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. The Protocol reaffirms
"that the rights of children require special protection" and
condemns "the targeting of children in situations of armed conflict
and direct attacks on objects protected under international law,
including places that generally have a significant presence of children,
such as schools and hospitals." Israel signed the Optional Protocol
on 14 November 2001 (PCHR, op. cit., p. 14), but it endlessly tramples
the legal agreements to which it is a signatory.<br>
<br>
Finally, the PCHR report notes that Israel has consistently failed to
investigate Israeli killings of unarmed civilians, including children. On
the rare occasions that official investigations are launched, these have
been conducted by the Israeli forces themselves. The persistent result is
a whitewash, and a travesty of justice. <br>
<br>
And while Israel continues to kill unarmed civilians with impunity, the
international community has failed to intervene effectively to exert
pressure on Israel to stop killing Palestinian civilians, including
children. These killings ought to be publicly condemned by the
international community who, as High Contracting Parties to the Fourth
Geneva Convention, are obliged to act immediately in order to protect all
unarmed civilians from Israeli attacks. <br>
<br>
As the PCHR observes:<br>
<br>
"The lives of Palestinian children are as sacred as the lives of
children from Israel, Europe or anywhere else in the world."<br>
<br>
<br>
Minimal Response From A Protective Media<br>
<br>
The report from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights was shocking. Guy
Gabriel, an adviser to the London-based Arab Media Watch, told us that
the group "is a credible organisation with a lot to commend it, and
is better placed than many - in terms of location, resources and support
- to inform the wider world about the situation in Gaza." (Email,
October 31, 2008). Journalist John Pilger commented: "The
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is, in my experience, a highly
credible statistics gathering body." (Email, October 27, 2008)<br>
<br>
This credible human rights group, then, had produced compelling evidence
of a persistent pattern of deliberate targeting of Palestinian civilians,
+including children+, by the Israeli military. Surely this would have
been headline news everywhere. <br>
<br>
Sadly no. In the entire British press there was a giant, gaping hole in
coverage.<br>
<br>
The only exception we could find was a short, 400-word piece in the
Guardian on the day of the report's publication: Rory McCarthy,
'Palestinian group says Israel killed 68 children in Gaza in year', The
Guardian, October 21, 2008;
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/21/israel-palestinian-children" eudora="autourl">
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/21/israel-palestinian-children<br>
</a> <br>
As McCarthy pointed out:<br>
<br>
"A prominent Palestinian human rights group says it has found
evidence that 68 children were killed in the Gaza Strip in the 12 months
to June this year as a result of 'disproportionate and excessive lethal
force' by the Israeli military."<br>
<br>
This was welcome coverage. But, crucially, there was no mention of the
military policy of deliberately targeting civilians, including children.
In his report, McCarthy said he was unable to obtain any response to the
study from an Israeli official (it was a Jewish religious holiday). He
then inserted the standard Israeli disclaimer:<br>
<br>
"[Israel] has in the past repeatedly defended its military actions
in Gaza, saying it does not intentionally target civilians, and noting
that Palestinian militants frequently fire from civilian
areas."<br>
<br>
On October 27, 2008, we emailed McCarthy and praised him for reporting
the publication of the study. We then pointed to the study's central,
repeated message - backed by multiple eye-witness testimony - that Israel
deliberately targets civilians, including children. We asked why his
Guardian article had omitted this core conclusion. McCarthy did not
respond to our email, nor to a second sent on October 29.<br>
<br>
As for the "balanced" and "impartial" BBC, the
corporation appears to have performed its usual role of protecting the
powerful. Judging by the PCHR report's apparent absence from headline BBC
news coverage and the BBC's website, the corporation has buried the
report's findings. As far as we could determine, the same shameful
silence characterised ITN and Channel 4 News.<br>
<br>
By contrast, Al Jazeera aired a three-minute segment on the report that
included a moving interview with a bereaved mother. There was also
disturbing footage of injured and traumatised children, one of whom had
seen his father killed by an Israeli missile (Al-Jazeera, October 22,
2008; http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=PTzQOsO32ro). In the Al Jazeera news
piece, Hamdi Shokri of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
emphasised:<br>
<br>
"We have clear evidence to suggest and to say that there were
patterns of deliberate killing and deliberate targeting of
children."<br>
<br>
We emailed Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East editor, on October 26,
2008. We asked him why the BBC had done so little, if anything, to bring
this damning human rights report to the public's attention. Why had the
BBC failed to expose a deliberate Israeli practice of targeting children?
In short, why can't the BBC do better in its coverage of the occupied
territories? Bowen did not respond.<br>
<br>
Greg Philo, of the world-renowned Glasgow Media Group, recently
commissioned YouGov to ask a sample of 2,086 UK adults whether they
thought that more news coverage should be given to the Israeli point of
view, or more to the Palestinians, or equal for both. Nearly twice as
many people thought that the Palestinians should have the most as
compared with the Israelis, but the bulk of the replies (72%) were that
both should have the same. A staggering 95% of the population were
unhappy with the main news output of the broadcasters. (Philo, 'More
News, Less Views', September 30, 2008;
http://www.gla.ac.uk/centres/mediagroup/MoreNews.html)<br>
<br>
Routine silences and omissions in coverage of the Middle East are
symptoms of a deep-rooted bias that suppresses public awareness of the
true gravity of Israel's human rights abuses. Rarely, if ever, do we hear
of the "indiscriminate beating, tear-gassing, and shooting of
children", as documented in a thousand-page study from Save the
Children. The average age of the victims was ten years old; the majority
of those shot were not even participating in stone throwing. In 80 per
cent of cases where children were shot, the Israeli army prevented the
victims from receiving medical attention. The report concluded that more
than 50,000 children required medical attention for injuries including
gunshot wounds, tear gas inhalation and multiple fractures. <br>
<br>
In 1989, a bulletin from the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights,
titled 'Deliberate Murder', reported the targeting of Palestinian
children in leadership roles. Israeli army and snipers from "special
units" had "carefully chosen" the children who were shot
in the head or heart and died instantaneously. Other evidence, from
Israeli human rights groups and the Israeli press, point to extensive use
of torture, such as severe beating and electric shocks, against detainees
including children. (Mike Berry and Greg Philo, 'Israel and Palestine -
Competing Histories', Pluto Press, London, 2006, pp. 86-87)<br>
<br>
Amnesty International has also reported that groups of Palestinian
civilians, including children, appear, "on many occasions, to have
been deliberately targeted". Israeli soldiers themselves have
admitted that they have deliberately shot and killed unarmed civilians
including children (Ibid., p. 116). Indeed, for many years, Amnesty has
documented and condemned Israeli violations of human rights against
Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories. Most of these violations
are grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and are therefore war
crimes. (Ibid., pp. 60-61). <br>
<br>
<br>
Israeli Terror: Not Terror, By Definition<br>
<br>
In his 2002 documentary, 'Palestine Is Still The Issue', John Pilger
interviewed Dori Gold, then Senior Adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister.
Pilger asked why Israel fails to condemn its own leaders for their
terrorist acts in the same way that they condemn terrorist acts against
Israel: <br>
<br>
John Pilger (JP): When those Israelis, who are now famous names [Menachem
Begin, Yitzak Shamir and Ariel Sharon], committed acts of terrorism just
before the birth of Israel, you could have said to them, nothing
justifies what you've done, ripping apart all those lives. And they would
say it did justify it. What's the difference? <br>
<br>
Dori Gold (DG): I think we have now, as an international community, come
to a new understanding. I think after September 11th the world got a
wake-up call. Because terrorism today is no longer the mad bomber, the
anarchist who throws in an explosive device into a crowd to make a point.
Terrorism is going to move from the present situation to non-conventional
terrorism, to nuclear terrorism. And before we reach that point, we have
to remove this scourge from the Earth. And therefore, whether you're
talking about the struggle here between Israelis and Palestinians, the
struggle in Northern Ireland, the struggle in Sri Lanka, or any of the
places where terrorism has been used, we must make a global commitment of
all free democracies to eliminate this threat from the world. Period.
<br>
<br>
JP: Does that include state terrorism?<br>
<br>
DG: No country has the right to deliberately target civilians, as no
organisation has a right to deliberately target civilians. <br>
<br>
JP: What about Israeli terrorism now? <br>
<br>
DG: The language of terrorism, you have to be very careful with.
Terrorism means deliberately targeting civilians, in a kind of warfare.
That's what the terrorism against Israeli schools, coffee shops, malls,
has been all about. Israel specifically targets, to the best of its
ability, Palestinian terrorist organisations. <br>
<br>
JP: All right, when an Israeli sniper shoots an old lady with a cane,
trying to get into a hospital for her chemotherapy treatment, in front of
a lot of the world's press for one, and frankly we'd be here all day with
other examples, isn't that terrorism? <br>
<br>
DG: I don't know the case you're speaking about, but I can be convinced
of one thing. An Israeli who takes aim - even an Israeli sniper - is
taking aim at those engaged in terrorism. Unfortunately, in every kind of
warfare, there are cases of civilians who are accidentally killed.
Terrorism means putting the crosshairs of the sniper's rifle on a
civilian deliberately. <br>
<br>
JP: Well that's - that's what I've just described. <br>
<br>
DG: That is what - no. I can tell you that did not happen. <br>
<br>
JP: It did happen. And - and I think that's where some people have a
problem with the argument that terrorism exists on - on one side. Your
definition is absolutely correct, about civilians. And those suicide
bombers are terrorists. <br>
<br>
DG: If you mix terrorism and counter-terrorism, if you create some kind
of moral obfuscation, you will bring about not just a problem for Israel,
but you will bring ab - bring about a problem for the entire western
alliance. Because we are all facing this threat. <br>
<br>
As John Pilger concluded:<br>
<br>
"It's hard to see the difference between what the Israelis call
'counter-terrorism' and terrorism. Whatever the target, both involve the
killing of innocent people." (John Pilger, 'Israeli Terror',
http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=143; 'Palestine Is Still The
Issue' documentary can be viewed here:
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=1259454859593416473; Dori Gold
interview starts at around 34 mins:32 secs)<br>
<br>
Today, Dori Gold "spends his time traveling around the world raising
awareness about the situation going [sic] in Israel and the fight over
Jerusalem [and] is available for speaking engagements, fundraisers and
corporate events."
(<a href="http://www.bookthebest.com/profile/dori_gold" eudora="autourl">
http://www.bookthebest.com/profile/dori_gold</a>)<br>
<br>
We asked John Pilger for his response to the new study from the
Palestinian human rights group and the report's effective burial by the
corporate media. He told us:<br>
<br>
"That this shocking report has been virtually ignored across the
mainstream media, with the exception of the Guardian, is a striking
example of the media's two classes of humanity in Palestine. There is
first class humanity, worthy of meticulous, often emotive coverage; these
are the Israelis, including those guilty of great crimes, such as Ariel
Sharon. And there is second class humanity, unworthy of even
acknowledgement of their brutalising let alone the epic injustice done to
them; these are the Palestinians. No, 'second class' is too high. They
are third and fourth class victims, for not even the suffering and murder
of their children is considered human enough to warrant reporting."
(Email, October 27, 2008)<br>
<br>
We are reminded of British historian Mark Curtis's term,
"Unpeople", to describe those on the receiving end of the
West's policies, actions and massive firepower. For those unfortunate
individuals in the crosshairs of Western violence, their human
aspirations, hopes, dreams, loves and lives are simply of no value. <br>
<br>
<br>
SUGGESTED ACTION <br>
<br>
The goal of Media Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and respect
for others. If you do write to journalists, we strongly urge you to
maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone. <br>
<br>
Rory McCarthy, Guardian reporter <br>
Email: rory.mccarthy@guardian.co.uk<br>
<br>
Siobhain Butterworth, readers' editor of the Guardian<br>
Email: reader@guardian.co.uk<br>
<br>
Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor<br>
Email: jeremy.bowen@bbc.co.uk<br>
<br>
Helen Boaden, director of BBC News<br>
Email: helenboaden.complaints@bbc.co.uk<br>
<br>
David Mannion, ITV News editor in chief<br>
Email: david.mannion@itn.co.uk<br>
<br>
Jim Gray, editor of Channel 4 News<br>
Email: jim.gray@itn.co.uk<br>
<br>
Please send a copy of your emails to us <br>
Email: editor@medialens.org<br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
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