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...."

Stone throwing

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

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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)