From: Ali Abunimah
To: atc@npr.org, morning@npr.org
Subject: Palestinians are not "targets"

April 6, 2001

Dear NPR News,

All Things Considered this afternoon reported that Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships had once again attacked "Palestinian targets." This word "targets" stuck in my mind. It is so clean and clinical, so impersonal. It is so much easier to say that Israeli helicopters attacked "Palestinian targets" than to say that Israeli helicopters attacked Palestinian neighborhoods, refugee camps, schools or simply "Palestinians." The word "targets" misleadingly implies that Israeli violence is measured, accurate and hits only those intended to be hit--those who deserve it. Calling something a "target" legitimizes the violence against. After all, what other purpose does a "target" have than to be struck at repeateadly?

The reality is that time and again dozens of innocent civilians are killed and injured and thousands are terrorized as refugee camps like Khan Yunis, or towns like Al-Bireh are pounded almost daily. This is alright however, since someone has decided that they are "targets. So far the "targets" have included 413 Palestinians killed, of whom at least 130 were under age 18.

NPR routinely refers to "Palestinian targets" being struck (I counted at least seven identical usages of this term in recent months, including twice in the past week--Morning Edition on April 4 and Weekend Edition on April1), but there is not one single reference to Palestinians striking at "Israeli targets."

Palestinian violence is always described specifically and Palestinians, in your reporting, attack specific things like civilians, mothers and babies, settlements ("neighborhoods" with names like Gilo, buses, and so on. Yes, these things have happened, but once again there is a double standard in your reporting which impersonalizes and cleanses violence against Palestinians with seemingly military and professional terms like "targets" rendering invisible the enormous, and disproportionate suffering inflicted by a brutal military occupation who few in the US media dare to identify by name.

Sincerely,

Ali Abunimah
http://www.abunimah.org