From: Ali Abunimah
To: morning@npr.org
Subject: Downplaying Israeli horror in Hebron

October 5, 2001

Dear NPR News,

The introduction to Linda Gradstein's report on Morning Edition today reported that dozens of Israeli tanks stormed into the ostensibly "Palestinian-controlled" section of the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. But there is something missing from the statement that "five Palestinians were killed in a gun battle."

A "gun battle" suggests to me a pitched fire fight between comparably matched forces. What happened in fact was the storming of a civilian neighborhood by a heavily armed military force who fired indiscriminately at residents.

The Haaretz website reports that:

"Palestinian sources said six were killed, among them four civilians, and dozens others were injured. They said that there were probably many other wounded Palestinians, including some dead, but the IDF gunfire prevented the Palestinians from reaching them. The Palestinians say that among the buildings now under IDF control is an elementary school in the Abu Sneina neighborhood. They also said that the IDF had placed a curew on all the areas they had entered." (Friday, October 5, 2001)

Other reports say that at least three of the dead were civilians, killed in their own homes by Israeli fire. The Associated Press reports that:

"Advancing tanks fired machine guns and shells, witnesses said. Palestinian security officials said two of those killed were gunmen. The others were civilians killed by a tank shell, the officials said, requesting anonymity." (Israeli troops move into Palestinian section of Hebron, October 5)

Once again, the Israel government deliberately inflicted mass terror on an entire civilian population allegedly in "retaliation" for Palestinian attacks. AP reported:

"Hundreds of people, many of them in tears, gathered at Hebron's hospital, where the casualties were taken."

Umran Hasan, an eyewitness interviewed on Al Jazira said that at least 35 Israeli tanks took part in the assault, and that the invading occupation forces fired indiscriminately at anything that moved. Al Jazira showed pictures of many civilians writhing in agony being taken into the hospital.

Gradstein's report did not deal with these events, but rather focussed on Sharon's latest prounoucements and three Israeli (not Palestinian) reactions to them. NPR's reporting continues to describe violence which affects Israelis in vivid descriptive terms while that affecting Palestinians is often given short shrift.

Sincerely,

Ali Abunimah
http://www.abunimah.org