From: Ali Abunimah
To: nprnews@npr.org, atc@npr.org
Subject: A quiet day in Gaza

December 14, 2001

Dear NPR News,

Peter Kenyon's news spot in the 4PM Eastern bulletin about Israeli attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip gave a reasonably complete summary of the violence in which Israeli occupation forces and death squads killed at least eight Palestinians.

It was however inaccurate in one important respect. Kenyon described Gaza as having had a "quiet Friday" until Israeli warplanes resumed their attacks on Gaza City on Friday evening.

In fact early this morning, hundreds of Palestinians had a less than quiet day when Israeli bulldozers demolished their homes, making them homeless on the last Friday of Ramadan.

The BBC reported that:

"several hundred Palestinians were left homeless after a series of Israeli military incursions in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Families fled their homes when Israeli tanks and bulldozers demolished more than 30 buildings at the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza."

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1711000/1711622.stm) It is precisely this kind of routine Israeli aggression against civilians that makes life under occupation hell, but which is little undestood in the United States because it is so often ignored in reports.

I detect since yesterday a conscious effort by NPR to report more carefully and accurately about Israeli violence against Palestinians, in contrast to the carelessness of recent weeks, but there is a very long way to go before the scale of it is captured in your reports or before you establish any record of consistency.

Sincerely,

Ali Abunimah
http://www.abunimah.org