Bad journalism?

Haaretz wrote:

A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years.

When the order comes into effect, tens of thousands of Palestinians will automatically become criminal offenders liable to be severely punished.

The IDF answers:

1. The new military order was signed 6 months ago.

2. There are no changes to the repatriation system or the authority/means to repatriate illegal residents in Judea and Samaria. The only difference is that now the process includes a judiciary review.

3. The decision to establish a judiciary committee to review the administrative process of repatriation was taken in response to the Israeli High Court of Justice (בג"ץ) decision that there should be judicial oversight.

4. Any illegal resident who stands to be repatriated will be brought before the judicial committee within 8 days of receiving the order, they will have the right to legal council, and will be able to appeal the judicial decision to the high court.

5. When making decisions about whether or not to repatriate an individual, the administrative and the judicial committees consider family ties.

6. Currently there are very few illegal Palestinian residents in Judea and Samaria - over the past several years, as a goodwill gesture to the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli government has approved an amnesty for nearly all of the 32,000 illegal residents whose names were submitted to the population registry by the Palestinian authorities.

7. Since the beginning of 2010, there have only been 5 Gazans who have been repatriated to Gaza.

8. The current system allows Israeli authorities to arrest, detain and deport illegal residents (specifically those who came in on a tourist visa and decided to stay) - these are the same powers that every sovereign nation in the world possess. The establishment of the Judicial Committee to oversee the process is the only change.

But the damage has been done and now the misinformation is being spread (by Haaretz) - as usual - all over the internetz... Journalists, please... give all the info and be sure that what you state is completely true (to your best knowledge).

Remember and respect the Code of Bordeaux!

A Gaza child "killed by Israel" miraculously comes to life

How propaganda forces disturb news articles. From Elderofziyon (commentary is his):

"From Ma'an, March 30:

A child was shot and killed east of the Yasser Arafat International Airport in Rafah on Tuesday, medics said.

Muawiya Hassanein, director of ambulance and emergency services in Gaza, said Muhammad Zen Ismail Al-Farmawi, 15, was shot dead near the southeasterly border by Israeli forces, while local sources who wished to remain anonymous said the death may have been an internal matter.

Hassanein said ambulances had been unable to retrieve the body because of ongoing clashes in the area, while an Israeli military spokesman said he had no knowledge of the incident.

DPA adds witnesses to those who claimed the boy was killed:

A 15-year-old Palestinian boy was killed Tuesday near the border area between the south-east Gaza Strip and Israel, witnesses and security sources said.

Witnesses said that Mohamed al-Farmawi, 15, of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah was shot dead by Israeli troops after he approached the fence along the border with Israel, which lies east of the town.

Gaza emergency chief Mo'aweya Hassanein told reporters in Gaza that medical teams and International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) coordinated with the Israeli army to collect the boy's body.

Multiple witnesses and Gaza officials all agree that the boy was killed and even that his body was recovered. You can't do better than that, can you?

Apparently, you can. From Ma'an today:

Palestinian teenager reportedly killed by Israeli forces has returned home alive and well, his family said Friday.

It turns out Al-Farmawi was among 17 Palestinians detained by Egyptian forces shortly after the infiltrated the Egyptian side of Rafah via one of Gaza's numerous underground smuggling tunnels. The detainees, among them 12 minors, were returned to security forces at the border on Friday.

Relatives expressed "overwhelming happiness" that their son was unharmed during the violence, our correspondent reported from Rafah.

Just more evidence that the veracity of Gaza "witnesses" and Hamas officials is approximately zero. Not that this will stop reporters and NGOs and UN fact-finding missions from believing them the next time they lie, and the time after that, and the time after that...."

Amazing LIFE pictures of Israel 1948

I already mentioned before the LIFE archives, which you can access through Google. Today, I came across this weblog which shows (some of?) the collection LIFE has of Israel in 1948.

See:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

See also:

Israel in 1960

And I could not help, but notice the following question relating to the post:
Micky Schwarz 09.20.2009 at 10:00 am

Where are the Jewish refugees from Jerusalem today? Have they ever been recognized as refugees by the UN? And their descendants in second, third and fourth generation, are they recognized as refugees?

which got an excellent reply by Sheila Raviv 09.27.2009 at 3:48 am:

Many families still live in Jerusalem, some even returned to their former homes but are considered “settlers” and occupiers for doing so. Jewish refugees have never been recognised as such by any organisation except after WW2; not the refugees from Arab occupation of Jerusalem nor those who fled persecution from Arab countries and found refuge in Israel. At one time we refused to call them refugees since they were considered as coming home but this apparently back fired since neither their refugee status nor their homecoming were recognised!

Poet masks Israeli ID to win Arab prize

One name sticks out from the list of winners in the prestigious El Hizjra poetry competition intended for Dutch Arabs, which was announced last week -Tuvit Shlomi, press officer for Holland's largest Zionist group.
(...)
Although the competition is intended for Arabs, it is open to anyone. Past winners include renowned Dutch authors such as Abdelkader Benali, Mohammed Benzakour, and Rashid Novaire.
(...)
She is the daughter of a Jewish-Dutch mother and an Israeli father who immigrated to Holland. Her parents met in Israel after her mother immigrated here. The couple then moved to Holland to study and ended up staying. "Winning the competition is an opportunity for me to show that I'ma rooted in the Middle East just as much as the other applicants. That Israel is for me what Morocco is for them," said Shlomi, who had lived in Israel for a year, frequently visits the country and speaks fluent Hebrew.
(...)
The pseudonym which Shlomi selected was Wallada bint al-Mustaqfi, an opinionated 11th century Arab-Andalucian poetess and proto-feminist who spurned the hijab, kept multiple lovers and embroidered fragments of her poetry onto her clothes. "Her message is something well-worth remembering, especially today," Shlomi said.

Read the whole article

Pope in Israel

The Pope is having a hard time in Israel as he has to be extremely political correct and almost every move, saying or silence is being criticized. His words often twisted or misunderstood. Personally I believe that he's not the person who should get political. He's a spiritual leader and journalists and leaders seem to forget that very often, when they almost demand an opinion on certain issues from him. The most spiritual thing the pope did so far was praying at the Western Wall and leaving the following note there (click to enlarge):



Amen.

Egypt blames Hamas - so should the rest of the world

Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said in a Cairo press conference that Egypt had long since warned Israel would respond in this manner, and added that those who did not heed the warning "should bear the responsibility."

He noted that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Hamas as well. Earlier in the day Aboul Gheit said that Egypt had predicted this would be the play of events, "because Hamas did not stop firing rockets into Israel."

Update:

and apparently Hamas is blocking wounded people from going to Egypt. Egypt is waiting at the border with ambulances but no-one popped up. The minister of foreign affairs believes Hamas is blocking the border. Now,.. why would that be? A propaganda trick? Because of the background of the wounded (Hamas-affiliated, perhaps)?

Food for Gaza

"(...) when rockets aren't being shot, Gazans get aid. It is as simple as that, and these facts are documented. Those "peace activists" who pretend to care about Gazans and yet stay silent about the rockets care neither about Gazan lives nor about peace."

Jewish history in Jerusalem in pictures

Found this terrific old photo of Jews praying at the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem (dated at 1896) in the LIFE archives.

And searching further I also found these interesting pictures:

"Arabs Sack The Holy City. Terrified young Jewish girl Rachel Levy, 7, fleeing fr. street w. burning bldgs. as the Arabs sack the Holy City after its surrender during Palestinian Civil war." - Israel, May 28, 1948

"Jewish families waiting outside their homes to be evacuated by Arab troops." - Jerusalem, June 1948.

"Rubble lying in the streets after Arab looting of Jewish homes." - Jerusalem, June 1948

You might wonder why they had to leave their homes in (East) Jerusalem in the first place and why their houses got looted and this part of the city sacked and why these pictures are not spread all over the world....
Soooo, for the sake of neutrality, I'll publish them :)

(note the caption stating Palestinain Civil War)

I'm shocked

How can a lawyer, a woman ffs, say such horrible stuff?

Stone throwing

Stumbled upon this article by Israellycool and thought it necessary to copy:

---

A picture courtesy from Reuters shows AFP’s Palestinian photographer Hazem Bader (R) holding his bleeding head after he was hit by a stone hurled at journalists by Israeli settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron on October 31, 2008. Bader, 42, was taken to a Hebron hospital with his head bleeding. He was given eight stitches to the forehead and was to spend the night in the hospital. He was among a group of journalists who had gone to the house of a Palestinian that was damaged by settlers after Israeli security forces dismantled a nearby illegal Jewish outpost.

Oh, now the foreign press photographers see stones as a dangerous weapon that can seriously injure or even kill people?

Funny, because when the stone-throwers are palestinians, they are portrayed as heroic defenders acting against the odds. And I have certainly never seen a photo and caption such as the above, showing and describing the damage inflicted on an Israeli hit by a palestinian-thrown stone.

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United Nations exposed,... once again

UNWatch is a Geneva based watchdog. They often expose the hypocrisy and biased approach of UN organizations. Yesterday a letter from Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UNWatch, to de Editor was published in Jerusalem Post.

An excerpt which says it all:

(...) First, Falk's UN title [Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, ed.] is deliberately deceptive. The actual terms of his mandate do not address the overall "situation of human rights" in the area concerned. Rather, the Arab-controlled council decided in 1993 to investigate only "Israel's violations of the principles and bases of international law." That means Hamas brutality against Israelis and Palestinians alike is entirely excluded.

Falk's is the only UN mandate that is inherently one-sided, presumptive of guilt and immune from regular review. What kind of person would accept such a biased mandate? (...)

Read it all... (scroll to the third letter from above)