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Thursday, February 28, 2008

Israeli murder of children treated as casual "deaths"

Four children, one just a baby, have been murdered by the Israeli army. I know because I just watched the news in several TV channels and one of them happened to mention it, emphasizing always that several militants had been killed as well and that Palestinians have been firing rockets lately - as to give a pretext to the Zionists.

BBC News and Al Jazeera (they are not that different, actually) treat the murder as secondary headlines, both more interestedin the agreement reached in the Kenyan political crisis. But what really calls my attention is that BBC uses the verb "to die" (Four children die in Gaza strike), like if it was an accident and not a deliberate murderous attack, and that the author of the massacre is not even mentioned, at least in the headlines. Al Jazeera is somewhat more specific: they use the verb "to kill" and the authors are mentioned in the headline (Children killed in new Israeli raid) but the tone is equally casual anyhow: the subject is the "killed children", not the killer, which is treated as some sort of circumstance. "Children killed in aquapark accident" would sound almost the same.

Instead try this: Israel kills four children in raid, for instance. Or Children killed by Israeli raid. I have yet to see a media, at least a mainstream media, that writes with such objectivity.

None of the media had any sort of body count of the last year clashes or anything of the like available. Generally speaking, Al Jazeera seems to be more neutral anyhow, because the BBC and other Western media are way too pro-Zionist, almost by instinct.

Time to re-read Noam Chomski maybe.

5 comments:

Manju Edangam said...

Indian newspapers have used "kill" to describe those deaths. But I guess it is by instinct and because of higher scrutiny.

Manju Edangam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Manju Edangam said...

On second thoughts, after reading BBC report, it appears BBC has shown more consideration for the children (and they have used "kill" in the report) compared to to that Indian newspaper.

Manju Edangam said...

But I guess it is by instinct and because of higher scrutiny.
Please read...
But I guess it is by instinct and not because of higher scrutiny.

Maju said...

I was actually thinking in removing the post because, after writting it, I though I was maybe going a little hysterical, after all.

Still the "Children die" sentence is way too casual for what can'tbe considered but as a war crime. And I'm glad they have corrected it.