Is the press acutally biased against Israel, or do Israel supporters complain unfairly? Here are three examples - one recent, two old - of photographs which paint different pictures at first encounter than they do after more details are known. If you ask why should the press be biased against Israel, click here for a possible answer.
For insight as to why peace is so elusive in this area -- click here.
REUTER'S CREATIVE PHTOGRAPHS OF THE WAR IN LEBANON
Here is the photo from Reuters that was filed on August 5, 2006.
Note this detail from the left plume of smoke:
There is a repeating pattern in the smoke. Anyone who has played with the cloning tool of photo editing software such as Adobe will recognize this pattern as due to careless copying of part of a picture and superimpositing the copied area on to a second part of the picture. The cloning tool is wonderful for removing electrical wires from otherwise pristine scenes, but it can also be used for propaganda purposes like the above. As of today, I see no acknowledgement on Reuter's webpage of this goof.
Here is the article from the Jerusalem Post.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525816599&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Reuters news agency admitted on Sunday that one of its photographers had digitally altered a photograph of an Israeli attack on Lebanon on Saturday, showing more smoke than was actually present.
The photograph, as initially published, showed an aerial view of Beirut after an IAF attack, with two large pillars of smoke rising over the city. The caption read: Smoke billows from burning buildings destroyed during an overnight Israeli air raid on Beirut's suburbs.
The agency has since withdrawn the photograph, issued an apology and released the unaltered picture. Its public relations department said the photographer had been suspended until the investigation was completed.
Reuters was notified of the alteration by American bloggers who noticed repeating patterns within the smoke plumes, indicating that part of the image was duplicated several times.
The scene was photographed by Adnan Hajj, who had also photographed the aftermath of the Israeli attack on Kana last week, in which the Lebanese initially claimed 58 fatalities, but could later only confirm 28.
ISRAELI POLICE BRUTALITY??
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The left hand picture was taken in Jerusalem, near the Temple
Mount, by Evelyn Hockstein, a Reuters photographer, on Friday, April 6, 2001.
A Palestinian child was caught by Israeli policemen, and, in his fear
- he wet his pants.
Undoubtedly, this picture is very moving, and everyone can share the pain and panic of the child, that led to such an embarrassing moment. The Palestinians, who truly understand the power of the image, spread this picture worldwide, through the media and e-mails, but - they did not show the other picture. At the same day, on the same place, a few minutes before the above picture was taken, another Reuters photographer, Natalie Behring, had taken the picture in the right hand panel (please notice the child in the center of the pic): |
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MORE ISRAELI POLICE BRUTALITY??
 |
The father of the bloodied youth in this picture wrote to the
New York Times:
"Regarding your picture on page A5 (Sept. 30) of the Israeli soldier and the Palestinian on the Temple Mount - that Palestinian is actually my son , Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago. He, and two of his friends, were pulled from their taxicab while travelling in Jerusalem, by a mob of Palestinian Arabs and were severely beaten and stabbed.
That picture could not have been taken on the Temple Mount because
there are no gas stations on the Temple Mount and certainly none with Hebrew
lettering, like the one clearly seen behind the Israeli soldier attempting
to protect my son from the mob."
"I was in a taxi on the way to the [Western Wall] and we got stoned... I gave a scream, … and I said Shma Yisrael, because I thought it was all over... After they let go of me, I ran - even though I had a knife in my leg … up the hill where there were soldiers by the gas station …. But I [had been] beaten for around 5 or 6 minutes with a rock on the top of my head, … stabbed in the back of my leg and kicked and punched all over my body." "[When I saw the mis-captioned AP picture] I was extremely, extremely upset. People see a picture of a youth and they think that it's a Palestinian being beaten by Israelis, it changes their world view and makes them think that it's the Israelis beating up the Arabs. … It was Totally the opposite." This mislabeled picture was published in the N.Y. Times, the Boston Globe (on the front page no less), and who knows where else. |
Actually, one cannot blame the press for not reporting accurately the conflict between Israel and the Palestineans. It could be dangerous to a reporter's health to be honest, as this article (http://www.msnbc.com/news/581969.asp?cp1=1) (link no longer available) from Newsweek shows. I've edited the article for length. Check yourself to be sure I have edited it fairly.
By Joshua Hammer
NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL
June 11 issue - It began in a concrete-block house in a sandy alley in Rafah, a hardscrabble Palestinian town ... an hour into the discussion, our translator, Ali, was summoned outside for a talk with the commander. When he returned moments later, he was ashen-faced. "There is a bad situation," Ali said. "We've been kidnapped." Ali handed us a typed press release in Arabic, apparently prepared by our abductors well ahead of time, that explained we were being detained to protest U.S. and British government support for Israel. ... the commander told Ali, we would be held until "the Western media took notice." Sealed inside our tiny room, we wondered how effective the Fatah Hawks would be in getting their message out. In the end our detention lasted only four hours. There were handshakes and apologies after we were permitted to call our editors and several news services ran stories about the incident.
The message is clear -- report what the Palestinians want reported or risk a detention which may last for years, as did some of the kidnappings in Beirut.
A second example is reported in the Jerusalem Post for September 12, 2001, the day after the terror attack on the USA.
(14:00) Report: Armed Palestinians threatened photojournalists
Reports indicate armed Palestinians trapped foreign photojournalists inside a Nablus hotel late yesterday while thousands took to the streets in celebration of the terror attacks in the United States.
The journalists were reportedly forced to remain confined in the hotel, guarded by armed Palestinians - both in uniform and wearing civilian clothes - while the festivities continued in the streets.
At least one photographer who did manage to capture images of the celebrations was told his life would be in danger if the pictures were eventually published.
'Peace with Israel is not to be found in PA schoolbooks' (from the Jerusalem post -- http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/11/23/News/News.38647.html (link no longer available)
By Margot Dudkevitch
JERUSALEM (November 23) - Hostile Palestinian attitudes toward Israel as expressed in their schoolbooks have not improved at all in the last four years, according to the findings of a new survey conducted by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP).
After reviewing 58 textbooks being used in the Palestinian Authority school system for the years 2000-2002, the CMIP found no mention of Israel - which is perceived as a usurper or occupier - or its right to exist. Neither is there any mention of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, nor any reference to the land of Israel, its cities or villages, on maps, said CMIP vice chairman Yohanan Manor.
CMIP was founded by Manor and Andre Marcus in 1998, with the mission of encouraging tolerance and mutual respect between nations and people. The organization has focused on textbooks as indicators of the views and values societies wish to instill in their youth and future generations.
In its findings, presented at a press conference this week in Jerusalem, the organization declared,"the concept of peace with Israel is not to be found anywhere in the Palestinian schoolbooks... the State of Israel is not recognized but referred to such as the lands within the 'Green Line,' 'interior,' or '1948 lands.'
"The textbooks state that] Palestine stretches from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and Jerusalem is presented as belonging to Palestinians alone. There is no reference to Jewish holy places - holy places in Palestine are exclusively Moslem and Christian, and are often presented as Moslem holy places which the Jews have attempted to 'Judaize,'" said Manor.
The struggle for the liberation of Palestine, he said, is presented as a military one, and those arrested and incarcerated in Israeli jails for acts of terrorism against Israel are described as "prisoners of war." In addition, the Arab citizens of Israel are referred to as "the Palestinians of the interior."
The organization noted that the Palestinians deleted the Hebrew inscription that appears on the stamp, displayed in Palestinian textbooks, that stems from the Mandate Government of Palestine and in its original form bore inscriptions in Arabic, Hebrew, and English.
Manor noted that while there is minimal reference to Jews and their historical connections to Palestine, there is no attempt to supply Palestinian schoolchildren with even the basic knowledge or understanding of Jews and Judaism. Many references in the textbooks refer to Jews in a negative manner and portray them as greedy, barbaric, and tricky, and insinuate that they do not honor agreements and treaties like the Moslems.
The National Education Homework for Grade 7 states: "Mention the attitude of the Ottoman State toward the greedy ambitions of the Jews regarding Palestine."
Another textbook, also for 7th-graders notes "the attempts to Judaize some of the Moslem religious places such as the Mosque of Abraham [the Machpela Cave] and the Mosque of Bilal Bin Rabbah."
The Western Wall is referred to as the al-Buraq Wall, and is referred to as "the Jews' attempts at controlling the al-Buraq Wall."
There is also no reference in the textbooks to international and bilateral treaties and accords that have determined the allocation of water and land by mutual agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Grade 11 textbook The Palestinian Society - Demographic Education says Palestine "suffers from... dangerous and destructive problems such as the robbery of land where spoils have been distributed by occupation among the settlers, the military bases... and the robbery of ground and surface water of which nothing has been left, except for drops for domestic consumption or agriculture."
Zvi the Fiddler wants your comments.
Revised 8/06
