Soccer Dad: Of "settlers" and "sources"

August 7, 2007

Of "settlers" and "sources"

Two events in Israel and Gaza have shown a difference in the way news organizations report from the Middle East.

One was the forcible eviction of Jews by the Israeli government from the marketplace in Hevron; a marketplace that was cleared of Jews in the past during the riots on 1929 and 1935. The other was the mis-firing of a Palestinian rocket at Israel from Gaza that landed early and killed two Palestinian children.

In the latter case the results are portrayed in the most sympathetic of terms.

Palestinian relatives mourn ... (AP)
Palestinian mourners ... (AP)
A Palestinian boy watches the funeral of two Palestinian children ... (Reuters)

But when the scene switches to Hevron
A Jewish settler woman ... (AP)
Israeli soldiers forcibly remove a young Jewish settler boy ... (AFP)
A young Jewish settler cries ... (AP)

I suppose I shouldn't be outraged so much. In a number of the cases the term "settler" is used as an adjective rather than as a noun. The real outrage is in that third picture, which shows a boy - no older than 13 - who is described simply as a "settler." He is a child, a boy. But AP only considers him a "settler." The term "settler" (as applied to Israelis) should be retired. It is accusatory, dismissive and dehumanizing. (When Tali Hatuel and her daughters were massacred, they were described in a press account as a "settler family." It was as if they were not people, not worthy of life.)

But there's another problem with the story of the children in Gaza who were killed by the errant rocket.

Elder of Ziyon found the Ma'an account.

Ma'an reported

A leader within the Palestinian resistance commented on Ma'an's report of the death of the children. He said "the investigation of the resistance revealed that the explosion resulted from an unexploded rocket, launched by the Israelis."

He added "the rocket was found by the children and while they were playing with it, it exploded and caused the disaster."

How did AP (h/t Meryl Yourish) report it?

Witnesses said a group of children stumbled upon a homemade rocket or a mortar shell and began playing with it. The device exploded, injuring all seven children, two of whom died later of their wounds.

In other words the "investigation" of Ma'an became "witnesses" in the AP version. I'm skeptical that the witnesses really exist because as Ha'aretz reported

A Qassam rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing an eight-year-old boy and his six-year-old sister, and injuring five other children.

The rocket, fired at Israel, fell short and hit the children's house in the village of Beit Lahiya. No group claimed responsibility.

So there was no "rocket" or "shell" that children started playing with. Ha'aretz goes on to report

The Associated Press had earlier quoted witnesses as saying the blast was the result of the children playing with a homemade rocket or a mortar shell that they had stumbled upon.

Of course it's unlikely that there were witnesses. Either the AP was quoting liars or they were relying on a Hamas official who was identified as "witnesses." But why wouldn't AP consider that the children had been killed in an inadvertant rocket strike? Well, Ma'an provides the answer

The source vehemently denied any Palestinian resistance activity in that area at the time.

And the virtue of Hamas officials is such that they'd never lie and deny that terrorists who were trying to kill Jews had inadvertantly killed two of their own.

I realize that the importance of the use of certain words may be dismissed as subjective. Fine. But the bigger problem is that it looks like AP relied on an unreliable news source and passed it off as news.

media bias, gaza, hamas, terrorism, israel.