Juan Miguel Muñoz, El País’s correspondent in Jerusalem, has never gone to any great trouble to disguise his loathing for Israel and in this report in today’s edition of the paper he really lets his prejudices show.
The story is about the IDF’s raid in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night in which they destroyed a tunnel that was being dug towards Israel and killed six members of Hamas in the process. The piece is headlined “The Israeli Army breaks the truce in Gaza and kills six militiamen.” Okay, Muñoz was probably not responsible for the headline but it’s entirely in tune with his story. It makes no mention whatever of the tunnel or indeed of any other possible motivation for the raid. If Muñoz’s story was the only one you read about it then you’d have got the impression that it had been launched for no reason or purpose whatsoever, that it was just another demonstration of the inherent aggressiveness and irrationality of Israel in general and its armed forces in particular.
What can have prevented Muñoz from mentioning the tunnel and that fact that the only purpose in digging it can have been to facilitate the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers stationed in Israeli sovereign territory? Might not the construction of such a tunnel reasonably be thought to constitute a breach of the ceasefire in itself? Does he think that preparing to kidnap Israeli soldiers guarding their own territory constitutes a normal and unproblematic activity, unworthy of being brought to the attention of the readers of El País, a newspaper of depth and quality that is read throughout the Spanish-speaking world? How does he get away with writing stories that amount to little more than Hamas propaganda?
You are right about the tone of this article being antisemitic, Eamonn.
I would also like to point out that the headline, whoever concocted it, is meant to show sympathy for the Palestinians:
“El Ejército de Israel rompe la tregua en Gaza al matar a seis milicianos.”
With the killing of six militants, the Israeli army, broke its truce in Gaza.”
Now the word “miliciano” is meant to recall the anti-Francoista militia fighters in the 1936 civil war.
It’s as if some French paper called the Hamas terrorists “maquisards,” which is to say French resistant fighters against the Nazis.
Then, there is the added irony that in the picture of some blindfolded girls (no explanations is given) there is written in Hebrew “it’s forbidden to smoke.”
Even the simplest semiotic analysis would show that this article is meant to show the Israelis as bullies and the Palestinians as poor oppressed volk.
Given that I favor historical explanations for these attitude I would say that the stench of 1492 (the year the Jews were expelled from Spain) is still around.
Israel and Europe: Is the media biased?, Chaim Herzog Institute conference
Andrés Ortega Klein, Columnist and Editorial Writer at El País attended the above conference in February, but obviously the message that got through to El País is get to on with Israel bashing as usual.
http://philosemitism.blogspot.com/2008/11/is-media-biased-israel-and-europe-chaim.html
Speaking of propagand has anyone seen this article in the Jerusalem Post?
“London U. event likens Gaza to Ghetto”
Nov. 7, 2008
JONNY PAUL, JPost correspondent in
London , THE JERUSALEM POST
“LONDON - The situation in Gaza will be compared to that in the Warsaw Ghetto under the Nazis, at a prestigious London university next week.
The Student Union at Goldsmiths college, University of London, is hosting an event on Wednesday titled “From the Warsaw Ghetto to the Gaza Ghetto.”
The event is being organized by the Palestine Twinning Campaign, a student union group that won a vote last February to twin Goldsmiths with Al-Quds University’s campus near Nablus and to offer scholarships to two Al-Quds students.
Speaking at Wednesday event will be Suzanne Weiss, a Holocaust survivor and member of the Toronto-based “Not in our Name: Jews against Zionism,” and academic Ghada Ageel, who grew up in Gaza and now teaches Middle Eastern politics at Exeter University…..”
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225910058557&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
This important story needs its own entry and commentary here Ben, Eamonn!
More on Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto:
Sunday Nov 09, 2008
“The Warped Mirror: Gaza Ghetto gibberish”
Posted by Petra Marquardt-Bigman
http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/Bigman/entry/gaza_ghetto_gibberish_posted_by