-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=147713
}}}>Begin
Wednesday, April 03, 2002 Nisan 21, 5762
Israel Time: 09:06 (GMT+3)
Last update - 02:34 02/04/2002
Media
The war looks different abroad - and maybe so do the facts
By Aviv Lavie
A Palestinian raising his hands as he steps forward in Ramallah on Saturday -
another step into the gray area between fighting and reporting on it.
(Photo: AP)
At the height of the newspaper wiretapping scandal, when the pages of the two daily
tabloids were turned into a battlefield of insults and distortions lacking any basic
journalistic standards, there were those who proposed that the only way to save the
newspapers' honor would be to leave the reporting in the hands of outside news
agencies. Lately, it appears to be time to raise the idea again - for coverage of the
Israeli- Palestinian conflict.
A journey through the TV and radio channels and the pages of the newspapers
exposes a huge and embarrassing gap between what is reported to us and what is
seen, heard, and read in the world - not only in the commentaries and analytical
pieces, but also in the reporting of the dry facts.
Israel looks like an isolated media island, with most of the reporters drafted into the
cause of convincing themselves and the reader that the government and army are
perfectly justified in whatever they do. Some have actually been drafted - Yedioth
Aharonoth has started running a regular column by its reporter, Guy Leshem, who
reports with determination from the heart of the West Bank, straight from his military
reserve service. This is another step in erasing the line between the defense
framework and the editorial framework that is supposed to report and criticize.
An Israeli citizen interested in a more complex picture of reality has to rely on the
remote control and the computer mouse. "I've been here many years but I don't
remember such a dark period in the Israeli press," complained one foreign
correspondent, who indeed has been here many years. But even if he slightly
exaggerated, it's not a totally unrealistic assessment.
The defense minister stuck to his word and absolutely prohibited sending Israeli
reporters along with the army into Ramallah. The result: The Israeli media has no
information about what is going on in the town.
Reporters and commentators get most of their information from the army, and a few
also use Palestinian sources whom they regard with great suspicion. Many reporters
believed the army was closed off to them for a few days, but as time goes by, they
have been proven wrong. Since the journalists aren't on the ground to see firsthand,
the soldiers become their eyes, which explains the huge difference between what is
reported and broadcast to us, and what the rest of the world sees, particularly the
Arab world.
On Arab TV stations (though not only them) one could see Israeli soldiers taking over
hospitals, breaking equipment, damaging medicines, and locking doctors away from
their patients. In one interview, a doctor was whispering on a phone, explaining that
he had to lower his voice lest the soldier in the next room cut off the conversation.
Foreign television networks all over the world have shown the images of five
Palestinians from the National Security forces, shot in the heads from close range;
one was apparently the manager of the Palestinian Authority orchestra. Some of the
networks have claimed they were shot in cold blood after they were disarmed.
The entire world has seen wounded people in the streets, heard reports of how the
IDF prevents ambulances from reaching the wounded for treatment. The entire world
has heard Palestinian residents saying they can't leave their homes because "they
shoot anyone in the streets." The entire world has heard testimony by Palestinian
families who have been imprisoned in their homes for 72 hours, in some places
without electricity or water, and the food is running out. There are also reports of
vandalism and looting.
Maybe it's all mendacious propaganda (though in some cases, the pictures speak for
themselves) but Israeli journalists have no way to investigate to find out the truth,
whether to deflate the stories, or confirm them. In the absence of that kind of
reporting, instead, over and over, we hear the worn out mantras about how "the
civilian population is not our enemy," and reports on how the army takes such strict
care not to harm civilians.
Israelis love to compare the American hunt for Osama bin Laden in the mountains of
Afghanistan to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At least on one level, Israel indeed
managed to create a parallel: since Thursday night, the IDF has created an
Afghanization of the Ramallah area. First, the Israeli media was neutralized, and then
the IDF Spokesman "recommended" to the foreign press that it leave the city,
making clear that those who remained would be doing so at their own risk. Some
reporters feel the IDF has opened war against them, not Yasser Arafat.
On Saturday, a TV France 2 team tried to reach Ramallah. At first they tried going
through Psagot, and they ended up at the Qalandiyah checkpoint. When they were
forbidden to pass, they pulled out their equipment to photograph the checkpoint. Just
so there would be something to show. It's allowed. But one of the soldiers - a
reservist, according to the crew - ordered them to stop. They told him that he had no
right to prevent them from filming and asked him to produce a written order from the
Central Command that proved the area had been designated a closed military area.
He had no such order. Instead, he began shouting at them and throwing things at
them. Finally, when they turned their backs and began to go back to their car, a bullet
sliced through the air between the cameraman and the reporter, Shaul Anderline.
Anderline is an Israeli citizen, who has lived here many years. In the wake of the
incident he sent a vehement complaint to the IDF Spokesman. The IDF Spokesman
said the "affair is being investigated." Unofficially, IDF officers regard the
incident as
serious. In the last few days, two journalists have been shot in Ramallah, joining a
growing list of reporters who have been wounded since the intifada broke out. The
intentional shooting at Qalandiyah weakens the Israeli argument that the reporters
were accidentally shot.
Journalists are also civilians, and in these days of blood, when the stomach turns
and emotions work overtime, it influences even those whose profession requires
them to be cool-headed and clear-minded. Unfortunately, those who want to find a
model for just the opposite can turn to Friday's Ma'ariv headline - "With a mighty fist
and an outstretched arm" (quoting the Pesach seder's evocation of God smiting the
Egyptians). But that headline writer can look to some of the American tabloid press,
which right after the Twin Towers attack ran headlines like Wanted Dead or Alive
over pictures of bin Laden (sometimes with the "Alive" crossed out).
Both in New York and Tel Aviv, when journalists cease collecting facts and asking
questions, and instead turn to beating the war drums - yesterday, Ma'ariv editor
Amnon Dankner ran a front page article devoted to smashing, killing, trampling and
destroying - it's time to say good-bye, at least in the meanwhile, to a free press.
After the war, in a week or two, or a month, or maybe much longer, reporters will
have to confront the things they wrote and said. Or maybe they won't. The archives
are full of dusty folders full of the articles that appeared before the Yom Kippur War,
and those extolling the consensus around the invasion of Lebanon. Nobody has yet
really paid for what was written then, and already a new bill is mounting.
© Copyright 2002 Ha`aretz. All rights reserved
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