Kiwis for Balanced Reporting on the Middle East
July 22, 2010
NZ media ignore luxury mall opening in Gaza
Although the New Zealand media have followed international trends in reporting that Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip is hampering rebuilding efforts and creating a humanitarian crisis, they failed to notice the recent opening of a newly constructed, well stocked shopping mall in Gaza. This prompted a KBRM member to write to seventeen New Zealand newspaper editors, asking the following question:
If the Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza is as effective as Hamas, George Galloway, and the international media would have us believe, where on earth did the Gazans get the building materials required to construct a large shopping mall, never mind the items that are for sale? Surely if the Israeli and Egyptian blockade restricts the importation of building materials into Gaza to the extent that ordinary Gazans cannot rebuild their homes and hospitals, it would be impossible for a well-stocked shopping mall to exist in the Gaza Strip.
As the new left-wing lobby group, ‘Kia ora Gaza’ raises funds to send a group of New Zealand activists to join a flotilla aiming to "break the blockade" of Gaza, I wonder if they have done their homework about the true state of the ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Gaza? Yes, there is poverty in Gaza — there is also abject poverty in some parts of Israel and Egypt — but to liken Gaza to a ‘concentration camp’ and to bewail Israel's refusal to supply Gazans with materials that can be turned into kassam rockets is becoming ridiculous, in light of the opening of the latest shopping mall in the Gaza Strip. This story is an ‘inconvenient truth’ about the Middle East that has not been told in this country...
That the people of Gaza are being used by their Hamas government to apply international pressure on Israel is undeniable and understandable, since Hamas seeks nothing less than the complete annihilation of the Jewish state and its Jewish citizens. That the international community and media would collude with such a government in its effort to bring down another nation is immoral, to say the least.
When one considers the plight of the truly poor and displaced in war-torn Africa, in ‘developing’ India, and in earthquake-devastated Haiti, to describe life in Gaza as a ‘humanitarian crisis’ is a gross over-statement. For western nations to ignore the desperate living conditions of the world's truly poor in order to concentrate on a politically manufactured and manipulated ‘crisis’ reveals a deep moral confusion. If the likes of the Kia Ora Gaza ‘humanitarians’ truly want to help the down-trodden and oppressed, perhaps they could lobby China and North Korea to release their political prisoners, or help combat child slavery and redeem the millions of women and children trapped in prostitution in the developing world, or perhaps help in the reconstruction of Haiti.
If the New Zealand media truly want to inform the New Zealand public of international current affairs, they should report all sides of a story, not just the most convenient or fashionable one. I do hope that the story of the Gaza mall will be seen and heard in this country, as it reveals some of the social complexity of the conflict in the middle east and the need for an impartial and honest media to tell the whole story. If the media truly want to demonstrate a social conscience, they could tell the story of child labourers and political prisoners who slave their lives away on our cheap imported goods.
The letter was not published and only two of the seventeen papers contacted acknowledged receipt of the letter. The following links and article give more information about the newly opened Gaza Strip mall.
www.tomgrossmedia.com/
www.huffingtonpost.com
As an everyday person and member of the general public, aren't you tired of being lied to? This past Saturday night the Gaza Strip had a grand opening for its new shopping mall called ‘Strip Mall.’ As the world continues its chastising of Israel, the nation that uprooted its citizens and got at least one rocket per person it uprooted in return for its sacrifice for peace, Gazans including the over 10,500 that received Israeli medical treatment in 2009 can enjoy the new goodies of the ‘Strip Mall.’ This Sunday morning, EU's Senior Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton called for Israel to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip. On her last visit this past March 18th she was in such a hurry to get to Gaza that she didn't visit nearby Netiv HaAsara where a Gaza qassam rocket murdered Manee Singmueangphon, a thai worker. On this visit when she was so overwhelmed with seeing all the terrible sites of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, was she able to stop in to check the opening day sales at the ‘Strip Mall?’ This past Saturday as the Gaza ‘Strip Mall’ opened Sky News reported on the ‘still dire’ situation in Gaza. The article reads, ‘The blockade has meant that only basics like flour, rice and sugar have been allowed into Gaza from Israel.’ Isn't it funny how one does not see any of these items in the joyous pictures of the Gaza ‘Strip Mall’ grand opening? UNRWA President John Ging,said on the day of the Gaza ‘Strip Mall’ grand opening said that the people of Gaza, ‘Can't afford to buy cans of Coca Cola from Israel.’ But they can afford new clothes, luxury hair products, and children's toys at the new Gaza ‘Strip Mall?’ Is John Ging kidding me? The UN gave nearly $200 million in aid to Gaza in just the six months following Operation Cast Lead. It only gave $10 million in aid to Haiti following the devastating earthquake- Wyclef Jean should be campaigning in Geneva not just on The Huffington Post. To what humanitarian crisis are these international ‘aid’ ships sailing to? Does the Libyan warlord dictator Qaddafi, who sent a ship this past week, own a store in the Gaza Strip Mall?’ As an everyday person and member of the general public aren't you tired of being fed these lies about Gaza. If you're not, take a day off and go shopping at the new Gaza Strip. - Jacob Shrybman