Israeli security forces apprehend child near Temple Mount, April 6, 2001. (Reuters)

Child throws stones at line of Israeli police near Temple Mount, April 6, 2001. (Reuters)

	The Journalists & the Palestinians Fiamma Nirenstein
	Aish.com
	CAMERA
	Palestinian Media Watch
	The Electronic Intifada

The picture is very moving, showing the pain and panic of a child trapped in horrific circumstances. Palestinians and their sympathizers, who understand the power of the image, have been spreading the picture around the world, through the media and via e-mails.

But there is another picture, one that completes the story. On the same day, a few minutes before this picture was taken, Reuters photographer Natalie Behring captured the same Palestinian child in her lens. Only now the child's pants are still dry, as he raises his arm to throw a stone at a line of Israeli policemen.

Viewing only the first photograph obviously does not give one a complete picture of the story. Like the photographs, the stories emerging from Israel today are not always balanced or complete in their coverage.

As Italian journalist Fiamma Nirenstein writes in The Journalists & the Palestinians, "the information coming out of Israel these days is heavily influenced by the political imagination of the reporters and columnists and cameramen who have flocked to the scene from the four corners of the earth to cover this latest installment of violence in the ongoing Middle East conflict." And that imagination can lead to questionable, and often unbalanced results.

Aish.com highlights objectivity and the media
Aish.com, the website of Jewish outreach program Aish HaTorah, has an ongoing series of columns on its site entitled "Objectivity and the Media." In each column, a specific article from the international press is discussed, and examples of unbalanced and incorrect reporting are pointed out.

A recent column referred to an article published in Harper's Magazine in January that dealt with the Palestinian Question. Though the Harper's article is actually an "opinion piece," Aish.com charges that its extensive use of blatant propaganda does not belong in any respectable publication.

In one example, the article completely disregards Israel's historical claims to the Holy Land.

"The authors refer to Ariel Sharon's visit to the Moslem "Haram al Sharif" -- yet make no mention of this as Judaism's single holiest site, the location of the two Holy Temples and the focus of Jewish yearning for millennia."
From Harper's Magazine and the Palestinian question

Previously the Aish.com series also highlighted a similar description in a CNN report from January, which referred to the site "known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, the third-holiest site in the Islamic world." Aish.com points out that CNN omits any reference to the Temple Mount's "3,000 years as the Jewish capital and Judaism's single holiest site."

CAMERA takes on the BBC
Also actively involved in opposing media bias and misinformation is CAMERA, The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. CAMERA is a non-denominational, educational organization devoted to promoting accurate and balanced coverage of Israel and the Middle East.

According to CAMERA, "Public opinion ultimately shapes public policy. Defamatory news coverage threatens U.S.-Israel relations and Israel's security. Additionally, by fostering false impressions of Israel and Jewish heritage, media distortion fuels anti-Semitism, an affront to all fair-minded Americans."

Andrea Levin, Executive Director of CAMERA, claims "In the global effort to promote themselves as innocent victims of heartless Israeli aggression, the Palestinians have no more stalwart champion and cheerleader than the BBC."

In an Eye on the Media column published in the Jerusalem Post at the beginning of April, Levin takes the BBC World Service to task for its reporters who "regularly ignore, distort and invert the facts about the six-month mini-war launched by the Palestinian Authority in September 2000."

They assail and bait Israelis who attempt to describe the war. They devote lengthy programs to up-close-and-personal interviews with Palestinian fishermen, children, mothers and medical specialists who paint a one-sided picture of grievance and outrage against Israel, obscuring the singular role of the PA in initiating and sustaining the violence with Palestinian militias, guns and explosives.
From The BBC goes to war

Levin concludes that with its misrepresentations and blatant anti-Israel bias, the BBC "seriously violate[s] the norms of journalism and the high standards which the network purports to espouse."

Palestinians also mark media's lack of objectivity
Palestinian activists frequently raise charges of a lack of objectivity in media reporting as well. The Palestinian Media Watch website regularly points out those articles and editorials in the international press which, in its opinion, are unbalanced in their coverage of the Intifada.

In March, Palestinian Media Watch called its visitors' attention to reporting in the New York Times.

"The New York Times' double standards were in full display today - no holes barred. The title says it all: "Palestinians Kill Baby Girl in West Bank" -- not even "Israeli sources say"! This is not journalism - this is simply tabloid!"
From Protest double standards in the New York Times

Another site on the Palestinian side is The Electronic Intifada. The Electronic Intifada project is "a focused network of pro-Palestinian activists with a history of Internet and media activism. The project aims to focus on just one aspect of the struggle, the war in the media for a representation of the Palestinian point of view."

It is interesting to note that there is agreement on both sides regarding the existence of a "war in the media." The solution to unbalanced, biased reporting is the same on the Aish.com, Palestinian Media Watch and The Electronic Intifada websites. Readers are encouraged to write directly to the various newspapers, voicing their approval for articles that favor their point of view and expressing outrage at examples of one-sided reports.

Without the involvement and reactions of readers to the often unbalanced reporting of Intifada-related events, the full picture of what is happening would never get properly told.

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