"Israel: Palestinian Car Rams Israelis in Jerusalem," A10 (World Briefing), Tuesday, 9/23/08
By Isabel Kershner
The article briefly describes an attack perpetrated by an Arab resident of East Jerusalem against a group of Israeli soldiers. He attempted to run them over outside the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem, using his BMW vehicle as an instrument of death. 19 were wounded.
It is important to note that the article published online was not the piece published in the newspaper that day. The newspaper piece is an abbreviated version, which does not include the context included in the larger article. The lengthier piece details how this was the fourth attack carried out by an Arab resident of East Jerusalem since March, two of the others also employing vehicles to maim Israelis. It is unclear why the New York Times opted for the abbreviated piece. The context would have been useful for the reader.
A troublesome point of the article is the construction of the opening sentence: "A car owned by a Palestinian rammed a group of Israeli soldiers and civilians..." This sentence structure removes the agency from the perpetrator, when in fact it was the Palestinian who rammed the Israeli soldiers/civilians with his car, not the car that did the ramming. This somewhat sloppy construction further removes the individual from the action, and from corresponding accountability.
I would also question why the perpetrator was labeled as Palestinian. I believe it was quite clear that it was an Arab resident of East Jerusalem, which would have been more accurate.
These litte things add up...
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Good point about the Palestinian car. I doubt that the NYT even verified the car's ownership. It was probably second-hand information.
ReplyDeleteAlso of note, the headline is telling: "Israel:". We can't deduce on our own that a Palestinian (or more accurately as you pointed out, "Arab") car plowed into Israelis. There's no investigative journalism. It's just something that the Israelis told us.
I like your comment regarding the title of the article. This sort of doubting of the truth, especially when corroborated by Israeli sources, is emblematic of left-liberal coverage of Israel.
ReplyDeleteHere is how it works:
1) When Israeli sources (such as the IDF, police, government) confirm an event/information, that confirmed truth then becomes some sort of unconfirmed "rumor" by the left-liberal media. It doesn't seem to matter that Israel is a democracy held accountable to the rule of law.
2) When Palestinian sources, governed by the authoritarian PA and Hamas, which have little respect for the truth and a great incentive to mislead, provide unscientifically confirmed information, these rumors/uncorroborated information is then elevated to truth. If the Palestinians said this individual was killed by settlers or the IDF, it is then elevated to truth even though it may be far from the truth.
All in all, this turns journalistic standards and egalitarian treatment of all peoples into a joke. Hah!