From: Ali Abunimah
To: wesun@npr.org
Subject: Outrageous distortions and omissions

April 15, 2001

Dear NPR News,

I am astonished and outraged by the Q&A between host Liane Hansen and reporter Jennifer Ludden on Weekend Edition Sunday, today, about Palestinian-Israeli violence.

Recounting the violence of the past 24 hours, Hansen listed the following events in this order:

*A bomb reportedly exploded near an Israeli army checkpoint in the West Bank causing no injuries.

* Two small pipe bombs exploded in Tel Aviv, lightly injuring an Israeli man.

*An Israeli soldier was killed by a Hizbullah attack "in Northern Israel."

* Israel "retaliated" against the Hizbullah attack by shelling and bombing southern Lebanon with no reported injuries.

It is absolutely outrageous that there was no mention of a major assault by the Israeli army on Rafah refugee camp in occupied Gaza Strip on Saturday April 14, which injured at least 35 Palestinians, some seriously, and terrorized thousands of others. Another 15 houses were destroyed in the Israeli attack.

According to the Associated Press at least another 40 Palestinians were injured today, Sunday, by Israeli gunfire by live and rubber-coated metal bullets. Again none of this made it into NPR's summary of the "violence."

The fact that NPR made no mention of this shows once again that a lightly injured Israeli is considered far more newsworthy than dozens of Palestinians. The lightly injured Israeli was also mentioned in the 9 AM news bulletin, with no mention of a single injured Palestinian. To add insult to injury, Hansen stated that "this weekend's violence is relatively mild."

Well, this is how Reuters reported Saturday's: attack on Rafah:

"Flexing its military muscle, Israel sent two bulldozers -- backed up by three tanks -- 100 meters into Palestinian-controlled territory in Gaza to demolish buildings which the army said gunmen used as cover to attack its soldiers. The operation in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip was the second incursion in less than a week into an area Israel handed over to full Palestinian control under interim peace deals. Heavy fighting ensued and the director of the local hospital said at least 35 Palestinians were wounded, including a 16-year-old youth whose leg was blown off by a tank shell. No Israeli casualties were reported. A headquarters of Palestinian military intelligence and 15 houses were destroyed, witnesses said." ("Israel Flexes Muscles in Lebanon, Gaza" Saturday April 14)

Furthermore, Hansen's description of the killing of the Israeli soldier as having taken place in "northern Israel" is wrong. The Hizbullah attack took place in the Chabaa farms area on the border. Lebanon maintains that this area is part of Lebanon, while Israel maintains that it is part of the territory it occupied from Syria in 1967. So by no account can it be described as "northern Israel."

The rest of Hansen and Ludden's conversation was organized around Hansen's questions about whether the Palestinians are doing enough to "stop the attacks." The fact that NPR reported selectively on the violence, carefully censoring out all the reports of the serious violence against Palestinians, supports the Israeli propaganda that Israel is the principal victim. It is only in this distorted context that Hansen could obsess about whether Palestinians are doing enough to "stop the attacks."

I cannot understand if this appalling reporting is a result of impenetrable ignorance, malice, sloppiness or latent racism which views non-white Palestinian lives as inherently worthless. Certainly it is not the first time NPR just ignores violence against Palestinians while assiduously reporting on violence affecting Israelis. While today you reported twice within a few minutes on one lightly injured Israeli, Morning Edition on Friday made no mention at all of a 14-year old Palestinian boy and a 34-year old farmer both shot dead by the Israeli army, of a 7-year old schoolgirl shot in the face in her school, and of a car bomb placed by Israel in the center of Ramallah which had it not been sucessfully foiled by the Palestinian Authority might have killed or injured dozens.

Whatever the reason for this consistent pattern there is no possible or plausible excuse for it. You should examine your reporting and your consciences.

I challenge someone at NPR to have the courage to come forward and explain what I just heard, if she or he can.

Sincerely,

Ali Abunimah
http://www.abunimah.org