From: Ali Abunimah
To: nprnews@npr.org February 12, 2002

Dear NPR News,

When on Sunday two Israeli soldiers were killed by Palestinian fighters near the town of Bir Saba ("Beersheva") in the al-Naqab desert of southern Israel, NPR news bulletins reported the event almost every hour, and referred to it frequently on Monday in connection with Israeli revenge bombardments of Gaza City.

Today, by contrast, Israeli occupation troops attacked and raided the Palestinian town of Halhul, near Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, and yet I have heard no mention of this at all. According to AFP and other services, a Palestinian police officer, Tarek Hindawi, 22, was killed by Israeli forces who raided the village, took prisoners, destroyed buildings and damaged cars.

This kind of daily murder and mayhem by the occupation forces seems not to be reported by NPR unless it can be "balanced" by some report of a Palestinian misdeed. This gives a very skewed picture that suggests that Israelis and Palestinians are victims of violence at a similar rate, when in fact, Palestinians are far more likely to be killed or injured than Israelis, while facing a situation of total siege that no Israeli faces.

NPR needs to pay strict attention to fairness in its reporting, which includes treating Israeli and Palestinian victims according to the same standards.

Some of NPR's recent longer reports, such as Peter Kenyon's examination of the effects of Israel's endless and incredibly brutal occupation, and Linda Gradstein's report on growing Jewish opposition to the war crimes being carried out by Israel have been better than other recent fare.

Your reporting would be well served by not having both of your reporters in West Jerusalem, but apparently you have decided that it is better to report on the conflict largely from outside the region where most of it is actually taking place.

Sincerely,

Ali Abunimah
http://www.abunimah.org