Recent Posts Previous Posts
January 20, 2010
Press inserts misleading headlines over KBRM letters
The Press recently reopened its letters column to what it calls ‘the debate’, following news reports of John Minto's protest against an Israeli tennis player. On Jan 12 a KBRM letter was published with a headline that did not reflect what was in the letter. This led to two letters that attacked the writer for ‘over-simplifying’. On Jan 13 another KBRM letter was published with a headline that charged Minto and his friends with anti-Semitism, a claim that wasn't in the letter. The next day The Press printed a letter that called the claim ‘ridiculous and predictable’.
It almost seemed that the two headlines were meant to invite attacks. The writers submitted the following rebuttals:
____ accused me of being simplistic and overlooking facts in regard to ‘the need for Palestinians to just accept Israel.’ The trouble is, I didn't say that — that was the headline inserted over my letter. What I said was, ‘If Gaza wants to end the Israeli 'oppression', all it has to do is accept the existence of Israel’. This is a true statement. If Gaza gave up its attacks and its aim of destroying Israel, there would be no need for Israel's partial blockade (the only act of supposed ‘oppression’).
As for overlooking facts, Mr _____'s statement that the Palestinians, ‘even Hamas’, have accepted the existence of Israel is not a fact, as the residents of Sderot can well testify. Besides these continuing attacks, there is the Hamas charter and recent statements by Hamas officials reaffirming their goal of destroying Israel. (read more)
January 15, 2010
KBRM runs new advert
On the first anniversary of the Gaza War, KBRM ran a new advertisement, ‘Gaza: One year on, truths still missing.’ This was done after a corresponding article was rejected by every newspaper. One of the highlights of the advert is a new analysis of civilian casualties that provides strong evidence discrediting the Palestinian report and validating Israel's:
...According to the Palestinian report, 65% of those killed in Gaza were civilians, while an Israeli report said the number was about 30%. In this case an inconsistency in the Palestinian report — a smoking gun, so to speak — tells us which report is accurate. In the Palestinian report, among ages under 12 and over 60 the number of males and females killed were about equal, as would be expected for innocent people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. However among the ‘fighting age’ group (15-59), 1079 males were killed and only 92 females! No reasonable person could believe that these additional 987 men just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. If we make the reasonable assumption that they were either fighters or supporting the fighters, the civilian casualty rate becomes 30% — the same as Israel's report!! This is a lower rate than was achieved by Allied forces in WWII — and in WWII the enemy didn't hide among civilians. As an international expert on anti-terrorist operations said, ‘The IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.’(read more)
An unreported boom in the Middle East
When the Wall Street Journal article about Palestinian prosperity (Dec. 14 post) was not picked up by any newspaper, a Kiwi who now lives in what is called the West Bank decided to write his own first-hand account. It came as no surprise that this also was not published by any NZ newspaper and therefore in order to provide the public with the missing truth the entire article is reproduced here.
The only sort of boom from the Middle East that New Zealanders usually read about these days is the sound of exploding bombs and armed conflict. Each of these ‘booms’ is usually portrayed in the media as Israel's fault, while the terrorist organisations perpetrating the terror are usually portrayed as innocent victims. Given the steady diet of negative reporting about Israel, one can hardly be surprised that the average New Zealand reader, listener or viewer believes the worst about the Jewish State in its ongoing struggle to protect itself.
However, there is another sort of boom taking place that is not so widely reported — perhaps because it shows Israel in a positive light and does not fit the stereotype perception of the ‘poor Palestinians’. I am referring to the economic boom that is happening in West Bank areas... (read more)
December 21, 2010
KBRM appeals about Press letters
Following five instances in which The Press failed to allow adequate rebuttal in its letters column to false and defamatory charges against Israel and KBRM, an appeal was lodged with the NZ Press Council, as follows:
We believe that if a newspaper prints false and defamatory charges, they have an obligation to see that the charge is rebutted. This is the essence of our complaint. Even in the letters column, where editors are granted great leeway, Principle #12 calls for fairness, and fairness surely requires that false and defamatory statements be corrected. If a letter or cartoon (which are also given leeway) contains false and defamatory charges against a person, a nation, or an ethnic group, we believe the newspaper has an obligation to see that the charge is refuted. When the false attacks are against Israel, the only Jewish nation in the world, and groups like KBRM who try to fight lies about Israel, they are of special concern because they feed the fires of a growing anti-Semitism (see Bigotry Box) (read more)
Should KBRM broaden its scope?
When KBRM was created, its mission was to combat anti-Israel bias in the NZ media and to present ‘the missing truth’, as do other groups like CAMERA (www.camera.org) and Honest Reporting (www.honestreporting.com) . As KBRM has grown, there have been suggestions that it broaden its focus to include biased reports about other countries, like Iraq. After a spirited discussion among the Action Group (our ‘Board of Directors’, so to speak), it was decided to stick with the original mission, for reasons expressed in the following letter that was part of the discussion:
I do not think that the reporting about Iraq, Pakistan or Afghanistan is biased or unbalanced in the way the media reporting about the Arab-Israeli conflict is biased. The Allied ‘invasion’ of Iraq is controversial because it was literally a foreign, multinational military force invading a sovereign nation in order to bring down that nation's government, however good, bad or ugly that government was. The basis for the initial ‘invasion’ (Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction) may have been overstated or entirely fabricated.
I think that the bias against Israel is different and unique in that it comes not from the media, but from the UN, from Arab and Islamic states, Islamist organisations and ‘left-wing’ political organisations (such as Trade Unions); it is consistently applied across all media (TV, radio, print and internet ); it is intense and is totally focussed on undermining Israel's right or ability to exist, and it is becoming universal — there is little debate allowed about Israel's right to exist.
It is also unique in that it focuses its scrutiny and criticism on one tiny nation, while turning a blind eye to the misdeeds and injustices committed against Israel and perpetrated by other nations around the world. (read more)
Palestinian prosperity ignored by NZ newspapers
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by a former Jerusalem correspondent tells of a startling discovery during his latest visit to the West Bank and Gaza. With the help of the Israeli Government, he wrote, great progress has been made in rehabilitating and invigorating the economy and raising living and health standards in areas that are usually portrayed as depressed and down-trodden. The Israeli expertise and assistance are given and accepted in a spirit of co-operation, tolerance and goodwill, with Israel's Prime Minister saying real peace can only come when the life of the ordinary person in the street is improved and Palestinians are able to live in dignity and peace.
The author also posted photos from an Arabic website that provide pictorial evidence of this prosperity.
(Right: Pictures of a new shopping mall in the West Bank town of Jenin)
This website was examined by a KBRM member fluent in Arabic, and the text is consistent with these pictures of prosperity — without, however, any anti-Israel statements that are usually made when addressing the outside world. This member has seen first-hand how Palestinian patients are cared for and cured in Israeli hospitals — a recent example being the five Gazans suffering from Swine Flu who were transferred to Israeli hospitals for treatment.
The article was sent to six major NZ newspapers in the hope that the editors would want their readers to see the ‘other side of the story’. It was not printed in any. (read more)
One-sided reporting in the Sunday Star-Times
The Sunday Star-Times featured an article ‘Mosque attack escalates conflict over settlements’. This article typified the anti-Israel focus of many reports in NZ newspapers. The burning of a mosque in the West Bank by a Jewish extremist was reprehensible, but by focusing only on Israeli actions as ‘sources of tension’ and even including an unrelated Reuters photo of an old Palestinian woman with armed Israeli soldiers nearby, the SST failed to describe more fundamental sources of tension. The following letters were submitted to the SST by KBRM members:
The article about the burning of books at a mosque (December 13, p. A17) exemplifies the way NZ media present only one side of the Middle East conflict. In this case, non-violent attacks by ‘Jewish extremists’ and the demolition of homes built illegally were reported as ‘sources of tension’. Of course right-thinking people, including most Israelis, felt revulsion over the mosque attack, but...
Where are the articles about how Jewish extremists who commit acts of violence are brought to justice, while Palestinian terrorists who kill Jews are hailed as heroes or martyrs?
Where is the story about the young Jewish woman stabbed by a terrorist while standing at a bus stop last Saturday?
Where are the stories about the almost-daily attacks on Israelis from Gaza and the West Bank?
Where is an article about the inconsistency between the Palestinian desire to keep the West Bank and Gaza Jew-free while 1.4 million Palestinians live in Israel with equal rights?
Where is the story about the real source of tension: the refusal by Palestinian groups to recognise the right of Israel to exist?
With this kind of one-sided reporting, it is no wonder that many New Zealanders have anti-Israel feelings. (read more)
