Love of the Land: Johann Hari: Back With a Vengeance

Johann Hari: Back With a Vengeance

Honest Reporting
Media Critiques
15 March '10

The Independent's columnist returns with another biased op-ed full of distortions and historical revisionism.

The Independent's Johann Hari will always be remembered as the columnist who compared Israel to excrement. Rather than answering the various libels and misinformation contained in his articles, Hari accused HonestReporting and others of attempting to curtail his freedom of speech when he was quite correctly and legitimately held to account.

So Hari shouldn't be surprised if his latest offering in The Independent (and reproduced on The Huffington Post) is enough to trigger yet more outrage.

Historical Revisionism

Perhaps Hari should start by consulting a credible history book as demonstrated by his faulty description of events in the region:

Their [the Palestinians'] story is so rarely explained without disinformation that it still seems startling when it is stated plainly. Until 1948, the Palestinians were living in their own homes, on their own land – until they were suddenly driven out in a war to make way for a new state for people fleeing a monstrous European genocide. They lived huddled and dazed in the 20 per cent of their land they were allowed to keep. They hardly fought back: they wept and dreamed of return. Then in the 1967 war, even these small strips were conquered with tanks and platoons.

In fact, the Palestinians were not living on their own land until 1948 - the land was part of the British Mandate and before that, the Ottoman Empire. There had never been a Palestinian state. The modern-day State of Israel was legitimately created by a vote in the United Nations and rejected by the Arab states who attacked it from all sides. The Palestinian refugees were created as a direct result of a war of aggression carried out by those Arab states and the Palestinian residents themselves. In addition, the 1967 war was also one of self-defense on the part of Israel, which indeed conquered more territories as a result of Arab aggression.

(Read full article)

Love of the Land: Johann Hari: Back With a Vengeance

Love of the Land: 10 Significant Articles From the 'Noughties' Decade

10 Significant Articles From the 'Noughties' Decade

Honest Reporting/Backspin

03 January '10

(This is a "Honest Reporting" treasure trove and well worth time to go through.Y.)

Certain articles, blog posts, cartoons and videos from the past decade continue to stick out in mind. I haven't forgotten them, because they say a lot about the media and the kinds of issues HonestReporting dealt with during the "noughties."

Ranking their importance is useless; each had its own kind significance for better or for worse, so I'm listing the content in chronological order. This is totally subjective, so post the items that stand out in your mind in the comments section. I'd like to see everyone's take.

1) Retraction Required
After 9/11, Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz obtained a copy of a now-famous Reuters memo. News chief Stephen Jukes told his staff not to use the word "terror."

We all know," he wrote, "that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter and that Reuters upholds the principle that we do not use the word terrorist . . ."

The moral ambiguity Jukes expressed was endemic of a wider problem in the mainstream media, so I'm glad Kurtz put Jukes and his his views on the record. As Kurtz's original article is in the Post's paid archives, I'm linking instead to John O'Sulli

(Read full list)

Love of the Land: 10 Significant Articles From the 'Noughties' Decade

HONEST REPORTING - Stop the Spread of the Swedish Blood Libel

Stop the Spread of the Swedish Blood Libel

The false accusations of organ harvesting continue to spread.

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet's August 2009 story (translated into English in full here) accusing the IDF of harvesting Palestinian organs caused an uproar. Donald Bostrom, the author of the offensive piece, duly demonstrated his utter lack of any basic journalistic standards when he said: "But whether it's true or not - I have no idea, I have no clue." On top of this, the story was further undermined as one of the Palestinian families interviewed said they never told any reporter that their son was missing organs.

With the credibility of the story in tatters one might have expected the outrageous accusations to have a limited shelf life or to disappear altogether. However, the Swedish blood libel is a textbook case study of how what starts as an article published in a language read by few from a country of limited international influence can turn into a poison that spreads much wider.

As Ha'aretz reports:

Stories appearing on several Ukrainian Web sites claim Israel has brought around some 25,000 Ukrainian children into the country over the past two years in order to harvest their organs. ...

Vyacheslav Gudin told the estimated 300 attendees of the Kiev conference a detailed story about a Ukrainian man's fruitless search for 15 children who had been adopted in Israel. The children, Gudin said, had clearly been taken by Israeli medical centers, where they were used for "spare parts." Gudin said it was essential that all Ukrainians be made aware of the genocide Israel was perpetrating. ...

Many Ukrainian Web sites covered the speeches without putting them into context. In response to a request by the country's Jewish community Ukraine's police force is investigating ZUBR, one of the Web sites that reported the speeches.

Wild conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism are a stock-in-trade of much of the Arab press. So it's not surprising that Palestinian Media Watch documents:

The Palestinian Authority libel that Israel deliberately harvests organs from dead Palestinians has caught on in the Arab world. Last month Egyptian authorities temporarily denied Israeli doctors entry into Egypt to participate in a medical conference. The head of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate explained that this was because they "participated in torture" of Palestinians and because they "are also guilty of stealing the organs of Palestinian prisoners."

The following are the remarks by the head of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate as reported in the PA daily, Al-Ayyam:

"The head of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, Dr. Hamdi Al-Sayed, said yesterday that the decisions of the [Egyptian] medical associations were based on a rejection of relations with Israeli doctors, since they took part in grave abuses against the Palestinian people. He stated, in press releases in Cairo, that the Egyptian Medical Syndicate views any type of normalization with the Israeli occupation as a crime.

In response to the Israeli doctors' protest over Egyptian authorities not issuing them permits to enter Egypt for a medical conference, he said: 'We have no regard or respect for the Israeli doctors because the medical community has condemned them due to their participation in the torture of Palestinian prisoners.' He added: 'The Israeli Medical Association has acknowledged having participated in torture, noting that it had done so with the aim of protecting Israeli citizens.' He stated that the Israeli doctors are also guilty of stealing the organs of Palestinian prisoners, and that 'such people will not be permitted to take part in our medical activities." [Al-Ayyam, Nov. 27, 2009]

PMW documents many more examples of the Palestinian organ theft libel here.

RECYCLING FALSEHOODS

Over the years, HonestReporting has confronted a number of false or exaggerated libels perpetrated against Israel. Some of the worst can be viewed on our interactive Big Lies presentation. Perhaps we cannot prevent the spread of such poison through the Internet and beyond. But it is still incumbent upon us to act as a bulwark and to ensure that the truth and an antidote to the poison appears online to counter the lies.

Such falsehoods take on a life of their own on Internet message boards. Some media outlets save their comments for perpetuity. Sometimes, a comment or post on a message board may even become a valid source through a search engine such as Google or Yahoo.

A look at one example of this may be an indicator of the long-term consequences of the Swedish blood libel.

In a November 2008 story on the confirmation of uranium traces at a Syrian site bombed by Israel in September 2007, the discussion on CNN's message board invariably turned to accusations that Israel was responsible for the uranium.

One commenter posts from an article by Robert Fisk in The Independent from October 2006 that claimed that Israel had used uranium bombs during the 2006 Lebanon conflict. He then asks: "Israel used it [uranium] in Lebanon why should any one be surprised that Israel used it in Syria too."

Likewise, a message board at The Scotsman on the same story included identical quotes from Fisk's libel:

However, the original story by Fisk was thoroughly debunked by HonestReporting after a United Nations agency found the uranium charges to be false. The Independent refused to issue a correction or apology and so this libel is regurgitated on forums such as CNN's with no way to disprove it other than HonestReporting's own rebuttals.

We fear that the Swedish blood libel will be a similar story.

Aftonbladet and The Independent deserve to know the consequences of their irresponsible and fraudulent reporting. Please send your considered comments to Aftonbladet's Editor-in-Chief Jan Helin - jan.helin@aftonbladet.se - and to The Independent's News Desk - newseditor@independent.co.uk - asking them to take responsibility for the false rumors that they have spread and to publish the necessary retractions.

HonestReporting. com

Israel Matzav: Honest Reporting's annual Dishonest Reporter award

Honest Reporting's annual Dishonest Reporter award

Honest Reporting is taking nominations for its Dishonest Reporter of the year.

HR is taking nominations for the Dishonest Reporter Awards. The current leaders: 1) Aftonbladet: For its Swedish blood libel 2) Haaretz: For fumbling soldiers’ testimonies 3) The Guardian: For "investigating" IDF crimes in Gaza 4) NY Times: For using anonymous sources on Israel-US settlement understandings 5) Nidal Rafa: For unprofessionally heckling Danny Ayalon on film.

I vote for Aftonbladet. For outright dishonesty they cannot be beat. In no other case was the story so blatantly made up.

Israel Matzav: Honest Reporting's annual Dishonest Reporter award

HonestReporting - Christian Science Monitor: Erasing Jewish Rights

Christian Science Monitor: Erasing Jewish Rights

Walter Rodgers goes far beyond a simple debate over settlements.

Rightly or wrongly, the settlement issue continues to dominate headlines and op-ed columns. Settlements are by no means a consensus issue both inside and outside of Israel and the debate surrounding them is part of a legitimate public discourse.

An op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor by former CNN Jerusalem bureau chief Walter Rodgers, however, presents a distorted and one-sided argument that goes beyond the settlement issue, touching instead on the very legitimacy of Jewish rights to the land of Israel.

Here, we deconstruct some of Rodgers' more egregious statements.

• "Does any serious observer of the region believe that Israel's appetite for land – owned and occupied for generations by Palestinians – is going to abate?"

Considering Walter Rodgers spent 5 and half years living in Jerusalem, his grasp of history is evidently very weak. Rodgers ignores continuous Jewish habitation dating back over 3,000 years while exaggerating Palestinian claims. This, despite the fact that no independent Arab or Palestinian state has ever existed on the land that is now Israel and the Palestinian territories.

In addition, how can Rodgers accuse Israel of an uncontrollable "appetite for land" while ignoring Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005?

• "Just weeks ago, the Israeli government evicted two extended Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, clearing the way for more houses for Jews in traditionally Palestinian neighborhoods."

Once again failing to add context, Rodgers fails to mention that the two Palestinian families were evicted for non payment of rent following a long and drawn out legal dispute. Instead, Rodgers prefers to imply far more nefarious motives behind Israeli actions which were the result of Israel's court system and not the government as Rodgers charges.

• "Israeli settlements have become a kind of concrete kudzu to Palestinians. The Fatah party recently renewed its commitment to resisting them, holding that "the Palestinians have the right to resist the Israeli occupation by all possible means.""

Is Rodgers suggesting that threatening violence and a return to suicide bombings and terror is understandable or acceptable due to the existence of settlements? The extremist language employed by Fatah at its recent convention did not apply specifically to settlements but to all Israeli presence in the West Bank and beyond.

Rodgers appears to be undisturbed by Palestinian threats of violence but excessively concerned by building taking place within pre-existing settlements. This willingness to excuse or look the other way when Palestinians threaten or carry out violence is symptomatic of a double standard in the media and diplomatic processes.

• "Further, religious and ultrareligious Jewish settlers insist they have divinely bestowed title to the land. Few passages in the Bible are more frightening to Arabs than Deuteronomy 11:24:

"Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.""

Attributing biblical passages to imply Israeli designs on vast tracts of the Middle East far beyond the borders of Israel or even the West Bank is a staple of Arab conspiracy theories. We seriously doubt that Arabs are genuinely frightened by this biblical passage, which has never been adopted as a policy by any Israeli government.

In stark contrast, the Hamas Charter, basing itself on religious claims, calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, while even the PLO's charter has never been amended to remove this threat. Rodgers may instead wish to ask whether Jews should be the ones fearful of the very real religious and ideological agenda promoted by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the global Jihad movement.

Read All at :

HonestReporting - Christian Science Monitor: Erasing Jewish Rights

Honest Reporting - The New York Times: Just the Facts?

The New York Times: Just the Facts?

A six month study of the New York Times shows a bias toward the Palestinian narrative.

CONTACT THE NEW YORK TIMES PUBLIC EDITOR AND DEMAND CHANGES IN TIMES' REPORTING. SEE RED BOX AT BOTTOM OF REPORT.

• New York Times coverage often supports the Palestinian narrative without placing events in greater context.
• Headlines, eyewitness accounts, and images depicted the Gaza conflict as Israeli aggression against Palestinian civilians.
• Settlements are misrepresented by having images of tiny outposts accompany articles about settlements.
• Issues such as Palestinian incitement are downplayed or ignored.

Read All at :

The New York Times: Just the Facts?

Netanyahu's "Nazi Language"?

Netanyahu's "Nazi Language"?

Incendiary headlines and a cynical op-ed contort the "Judenrein" term.

Comparing Israel to the Nazis or attempting to draw false parallels with the deliberate genocide of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust is a tactic regularly deployed by anti-Israel activists despite being classified as anti-Semitism under the EU's own working definition.

Two recent incendiary headlines illustrate this point by implying that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has adopted "Nazi language," thus contributing to the false and insulting impression that Israelis behave like Nazis:

• Judenrein! Israel adopts Nazi term to back settlers - Reuters
• Netanyahu turns to Nazi language - The Guardian

Read All at :

Netanyahu's "Nazi Language"?

HonestReporting - NBC, Obama & the Lessons of Buchenwald

NBC, Obama & the Lessons of Buchenwald

NBC's Tom Brokaw attempts to lead President Obama into Israel - Nazi comparisons.

In our previous communique, we dealt with the abuse of Holocaust imagery as a method of attacking Israel. False parallels are created between Jewish suffering and the Palestinian situation and, inevitably, Israelis are portrayed as Nazis as part of the effort to delegitimize and demonize the Israeli state.

Was this false parallel inside the mind of NBC's Tom Brokaw when he asked the following question in an exclusive interview with US President Obama at the Buchenwald concentration camp?

Read All at :

HonestReportingNBC, Obama & the Lessons of Buchenwald

Adbusters' Spurious Gaza - Warsaw Ghetto Comparison

Adbusters' Spurious Gaza - Warsaw Ghetto Comparison

A Canadian magazine abuses Holocaust imagery to attack Israel.

Following the recent 22-day conflict between Israel and Hamas, anti-Israel proponents - in politics, the UN, Hamas, trade unions, academia, and in the media - have drawn spurious comparisons of the situation of Palestinians in Gaza to that of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.

The reason the Warsaw Ghetto analogy is used is to trump up libelous claims that Jews who were once the victims of the Nazis during the Holocaust are now the victimizers carrying out the genocide of Palestinians. It should be noted that comparisons of Israeli policy and actions to Nazism fit the European Union's and U.S. State Department's working definition of anti-Semitism.

Read All at :

Adbusters' Spurious Gaza - Warsaw Ghetto Comparison

Terror No Obstacle to Peace? - Honest Reporting

Terror No Obstacle to Peace?

The Independent mysteriously omits years of Palestinian terrorism.

There has been much analysis and a wide variety of opinions expressed in the media following this week's meeting in Washington DC between US President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. The Independent, however, stands out from the crowd with a glaring omission.

In an article by Donald Macintyre, "Israel goes cold on plan for regional peace deal," a list of "obstacles to peace" includes issues such as settlements, Palestinian infighting, Iran, Syria and Israel's own apparent reluctance to publicly endorse a Palestinian state.

Read All at :

Terror No Obstacle to Peace?