Israel Matzav: An open letter to BBC reporter Katya Adler

An open letter to BBC reporter Katya Adler

An open letter from Maurice Ostroff to BBC reporter, Katya Adler

October 16, 2009

Dear Katya Adler,

I was intrigued by your report on the UNHRC resolution today which, although basically factual, nevertheless misinformed your viewers by omitting highly relevant FACTS.

Firstly, you mentioned that Mahmoud Abbas initially asked for postponement of the resolution "presumably" (sic) due to US pressure. But if your viewers are to be kept properly informed, they need to be told too, that some reliable sources "presume" different reasons. For example Al-Ahram hinted at bribery, suggesting that Israel had threatened the PA with refusal to license the new Palestinian mobile phone company, Wataniya, which is partially owned by one of Abbas's sons.

The Arab Monitor (October 2) was more blunt. Under the headline "Palestinian Authority sells human rights issue for Wataniya company's interests," it reported that "in the run-up to the current UN Human Rights Council meeting, Israel squarely blackmailed the PA, threatening to withhold frequencies for Wataniya altogether and indefinitely, unless the Palestinian delegation retract[ed] its endorsement of the Goldstone Report."

And in Al-Ahram's view, the most likely reason for the PA decision may have had to do with an Israeli threat to release records of conversations between Israeli and PA officials, in which the PA pleaded with Israel to pursue the war on Gaza to the end and crush Hamas.

Secondly, you led your listeners to believe that Israel alone is blockading Gaza. I believe that intellectual honesty would require that you keep your public fully informed by disclosing that Israel is only one party to the blockade. The other is Egypt. In fact, Israel's blockade is best described as partial, in view of the the continuing supply of electricity, water, food and medical supplies to what is virtually an enemy state, while Egypt's blockade is tighter.

As this is an open letter it will be publicized and I would appreciate a considered response that will be publicized in the same manner.

Sincerely
Maurice Ostroff

Heh.

I believe that Israel has tapes of Abu Bluff urging the IDF to crush Hamas. It's no secret that he was quite happy about Operation Cast Lead while it was going on. The blockade thing is obviously true.

I've discussed the phone company thing before, but I can't be sure it's reliable.

Israel Matzav: An open letter to BBC reporter Katya Adler

Love of the Land: BBC: Downplaying Sderot's Suffering

BBC: Downplaying Sderot's Suffering

Honestreporting.com
Media Critiques
14 October 09

Katya Adler's report pays lip service to the plight of Israeli schoolchildren.

As part of its Hunger to Learn series, the BBC's Katya Adler "meets children in Gaza whose schooling has been repeatedly interrupted by conflict." Undoubtedly, Palestinian children have suffered as a result of difficult conditions in Gaza. However, Adler's report demonstrates typical BBC bias:

• The report implies that Israel deliberately bombed a primary school during the recent Gaza conflict. Israel's motivations for taking military action are subtly questioned: "Israel says this is in response to rocket and mortar fire by Gaza militants, aimed at Israeli citizens." Does the BBC believe it possible that Israel took military action in Gaza simply for the sake of it?

Indeed, while Israel does not deliberately target schoolchildren, the same cannot be said of Palestinian terrorists who have deliberately launched rocket attacks at specific times when Israeli children are travelling to their schools, considering it an achievement if a rocket lands (as they have done on numerous occasions) on schools or kindergartens.

• Adler discusses the mental scars of Gazan children due to Operation Cast Lead, referring to psychological and social problems and difficulty concentrating. While this may be the result of Israel's three-week operation, the same descriptions could be equally applied to the Israeli children of Sderot who have suffered from 8 years of rocket attacks from Gaza.

According to a 2008 NATAL study (Center for Victims of Terror and War), between 70% to 94% of Sderot children suffer from symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder while 28% of children are diagnosed with PTSD. About 30% of Sderot adults are also diagnosed with PTSD.

In addition, over 5,500 patient files have been opened in the Sderot Mental Health Center in light of continuous rocket fire. In the year 2007 alone, 1,117 trauma victim files were opened. Anxiety symptoms among children often include sleeping difficulties, nightmares, sweating, development regressions, wetting beds, and fear of the outside.

• Despite this, nowhere in the online text is any reference to the suffering and trauma of Israeli children whose education and daily lives have also been affected by conflict. However, perhaps in a poor attempt to claim a semblance of balance, Adler interviews two Israeli pupils from Sderot in the second of two short video segments.

Deliberately downplaying the situation in Sderot, Adler says to them:"When you talk to schoolchildren in Gaza they say look at us, so many of us are killed in wars with Israel, whereas in Sderot not many children die, not many are injured, not many rockets are actually fired." Would Adler consider questioning Gazan pupils about their views on rockets fired at their Israeli counterparts?

In fact, some 12,000 rockets and mortars have been fired from the Gaza Strip since 2001 while over 1,000 people have been wounded as a result.

• Indeed, the attitude and presentation between the two videos is striking. Israeli pupils are interviewed in a sterile and quiet school playground environment, pictured talking directly to Adler. In stark contrast, the segment in Gaza is interspersed with dramatic scenes of conflict and destruction to accompany the interviews with Palestinian children. There are plenty of images and footage available of rocket attacks on Sderot but the BBC evidently chose not to use them thus downplaying their effects.

Katya Adler's lip service to balance is yet another example of the BBC's anti-Israel bias.

Perhaps more disturbing is an almost identical video clip adapted from Adler's report for Children's BBC Newsround, aimed specifically at British schoolchildren. Complete with images of the Gaza conflict, there is no attempt to provide context to the military operation other than to say that a school had been bombed by Israel "to protect its own soldiers from attack."

There is no mention of Sderot, Hamas, Palestinian terror or any other details, even in a simple form that might aid a child's understanding of the situation. Instead, young minds will invariably perceive Israel as the bad guy in the story. Yet more pernicious reporting from the BBC - poisoning children against Israel.

You can send your comments to the BBC Complaints website -http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints (for detailed instructions on how to navigate the BBC Complaints website, click here).

Love of the Land: BBC: Downplaying Sderot's Suffering

Love of the Land: BBC Newsnight Plumbs New Depths Of Bigotry

BBC Newsnight Plumbs New Depths Of Bigotry

Melanie Phillips

The Spectator

10 September 09

I have just caught up with a quite disgusting item by Katya Adler, transmitted on Monday evening's Newsnight, on military rabbis in the Israel Defence Force. She presented as deeply shocking the fact that these rabbis are trained officers who carry arms and are now deployed in the front line of combat. Worse still, they actually seek to inspire and fortify Israeli soldiers by using the Jewish religion and the words of the Hebrew Bible! How shocking is that?! No mention of the fact that the British army has military chaplains who are also officers. True, they don’t bear arms – although some chaplains in Afghanistan are now saying they think that should change because it is too dangerous not to when on a battlefield that is far more lethal to them than any other on which they have served: the sole reason the IDF rabbis are armed.

But the really disgraceful element was Adler’s suggestion that that these rabbis were somehow the equivalent of Islamic jihadi fanatics who were transforming the mission of the IDF into ‘holy war’. Jewish religious belief, she implied, was the equivalent of the jihad. This appalling equation of course ignored the crucial difference between the jihad and the wars waged by the Israel Defence Force: that the jihad is aggressive and seeks to conquer, colonise, murder and enslave while the sole rationale for the IDF is to defend Israel against precisely such aggression.

Adler made this leap because to her, all orthodox Jewish religious observance is extreme, right-wing and aggressive; all settlers are orthodox and therefore extreme, right-wing and aggressive; thus all orthodox Jewish soldiers are settlers and therefore they are all extreme, right-wing and aggressive. Every aspect of that is tendentious, distorted, ignorant and bigoted.

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Love of the Land: BBC Newsnight Plumbs New Depths Of Bigotry