From: Ali Abunimah
To: atc@npr.org
Subject: Misrepresenting massive assault on "Khan Yunis" as "the first"

April 11, 2001

Dear NPR News,

That NPR could describe Israel's attack last night on the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the occupied Gaza Strip as "the first major ground assault into a Palestinian-ruled area in nearly seven months of fighting," demonstrates the extent to which its reporting is out of touch with the daily terror and bombardment experienced by Palestinians. This description was in the introduction to Jennifer Ludden's otherwise adequate report on those events in All Things Considered today.

Last night's attack on Khan Yunis which killed two and injured dozens was almost a mirror image of an Israeli assault on the same refugee camp which occurred in the pre-dawn hours of December 13, 2000, lasting until after 8 am, and resulting in the deaths of four Palestinians and dozens of injuries--a toll higher than last night's deadly assault. The December 13 attack was reported by Reuters, the BBC and other services at the time. And even some of the other media services that reported it have forgotten it happened.

In a December 13 press release, the Gaza-based human rights group PCHR described that night's events, a description which closely resembles what occurred last night and what Ludden described in her report:

"PCHR s field officers reported that this morning, at approximately 1:45, a bulldozer, some tanks and dozens of troops of the Israeli occupation forces moved from Al-Tuffah roadblock towards the refugee camp of Khan Yunis in order to demolish a number of Palestinian houses, 150 meters away from military posts of these forces. Hundreds of Palestinian citizens confronted the Israeli occupation forces, which fired artillery shells and heavy and medium bullets at Palestinian civilians and houses. The incident developed into an armed confrontation in which some members of the Palestinian National Security Forces participated. Fighting lasted until 8:00 local time this morning. The bulldozer of the Israeli occupation forces was able to reach a number of houses and partially demolished them." (Ref: 200/2000, December 13, 2000)

Michael Brown, a U.S. citizen who was living in Gaza at the time witnessed the December 13 events and wrote of them:

"There was sporadic shooting that night at around midnight. I went to bed around one and slept soundly until there was an incredible barrage of incoming Israeli fire directly into the refugee camp. Approximately 28 Palestinian civilians were injured that night. I saw some of the injured children the next morning at the hospital. Palestinian families were fleeing in the dead of night under heavy fire. I remember an old man coming to the door of his home and vomiting. Palestinian medical personnel were pinned down under heavy shooting and unable to get to the front to render assistance. A friend of mine pulled back two dead men himself and came away bloody and in shock. Palestinian young men were running directly toward the source of the shooting and toward where the Israeli military was trying to demolish homes on the outskirts of the camp. No report I read the next day gave any sense of the widespread fear that gripped people there that night."

It now appears that these events have been airbrushed out of history--if they were ever even acknowledged, so that once again an old Israeli terror tactic is labelled as "new" and the lived experience of Palestinians is once again forgotten and rendered invisible.

Even if we are only talking about Khan Yunis, last nights' attack was not the "first major ground assault." But anyone who remotely aware of the daily shelling with tanks and heavy machine-guns of Palestinian refugee camps, neighborhoods and cities would never make such ridiculous statements.

Sincerely,

Ali Abunimah
http://www.abunimah.org