May 04, 2004
RATE HATE
Take a look at this display in a Melbourne window. It reads:
Since the creation of Israel in 1948
200,000 Palestinians have been killed
5,000,000 refugees have been created
21,000 square kilometers of land have been annexed
385 towns and villages have been destroyed
200,000 settlements jave been built
300 billion military dollars have been spent
100+ WMDs have been manifactured
65 UN resolutions have been ignored
Who’s paying for this? Well, if you’re a City of Melbourne ratepayer ... you are! Silent Running has the full story. Meanwhile, James Lileks notices competing news values at Al Jazeera and the Jerusalem Post. Here’s how the Post describes the murder of a pregnant mother and her four daughters by terrorists:
A pregnant mother and her four daughters were shot dead on Sunday by terrorists ...
Seems straightforward enough. And here’s Al Jazeera’s description of the same crime:
Two palestenian fighters were killed when they opened fire on an Israeli vehicle near the entrance of a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, killing 4 Israelis.
The BBC’s influence is becoming more apparent by the day. CNN producer Mike Schwartz, however, deserves massive praise:
Yisrael Medad, former director of Israel's Media Watch, reported that a source from the Gush Katif Regional Council called him and explained the heroism of CNN's Mike Schwartz, the producer for the CNN crew in Israel: "He saved Jewish lives today," the source explained.
As the events were described to Medad: "Two convoy cars of CNN were travelling behind Tali Hatuel's car when the terrorists continued to fire at every direction and at every car. Mike Schwartz of CNN decided to block the crossing of more cars into the crossfire of the terrorists with his CNN bulletproof car along with his camera crew who were on their way to Gush Katif to cover the referendum results. Ten cars of other citizens of Gush Katif who were returning from precinct watches were 'stopped' by Mike Schwartz and his CNN crew cars."
Also: let's hear it for Russell Crowe!
Posted by Tim Blair at May 4, 2004 01:17 AMASs a lawyer, admittedsly only of the West Australian variety, I can't help feeling there is some legal way of dealing with these anti-semitic scumbags un Melbourne.
Posted by: sue at May 4, 2004 at 02:12 AMThat link isn't the real Al-jazeera. Not that the real al-jazeera article was much better.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/122254F8-A8EE-4C44-AF90-9CBD6DB73A0D.htm
Posted by: orion at May 4, 2004 at 02:15 AMIsraelis? Not settlers? Al-J is doing better than much of the western media in that article.
Posted by: Andjam at May 4, 2004 at 03:01 AMHow long can that display in the window exist without graffiti? Have you SEEN Melbourne?
Posted by: AuSkeptic at May 4, 2004 at 04:16 AMSome statistics omitted from that sign that I'd consider highly relevant:
* number of Israeli Jews killed during the same period
* number of attacks on Jews and their snagogues in Europe which are "caused" by anger at the policies of a state to which the said Jews are linked, not by citizenship or residence, but by race and religion
* number of Jews attacked or killed by Christians whipped into an anti-Semitic frenzy after watching Passion of the Christ
* number of Palestinian civilians deliberately targeted for killing by Israeli troops
* number of Israeli civilians deliberately targeted for killing by Palestinian suicide bombers and other "activists"
A comparison of these stats would be very instructive, I'd say.
Posted by: Uncle Milk at May 4, 2004 at 11:24 AMHeres the letter I wrote to Melbourne City Council:
-------------------------------
I was recently walking past 24 Flinders St, and I saw an extremely offensive anti-Israel window display that was paid for by the city of Melbourne. There was a full window display with the Jewish symbol, below which are a number of vicious lies and distortions.
The words read:
Since the creation of Israel in 1948
200,000 Palestinians have been killed
5,000,000 refugees have been created
21,000 square kilometers of land have been annexed
385 towns and villages have been destroyed
200,000 settlements have been built
300 billion military dollars have been spent
100+ WMDs have been manufactured
65 UN resolutions have been ignored
The claims above are all exagerated and created to place blame on Israel. Less than a thousand Palestinian civilians have been killed in the conflict with Israel, but there is no mention that Jordan's King Abdullah slaughtered 10,000 Palestinians in September 1970. The "refugees" that were created are not refugees but descendants of refugees. 700,000 Palestinains fled from Israel in 1948 when the surrounding Arab armies invaded. Historians suggest only 5% of them were forced to leave, the rest left voluntarily.
The "settlements" that were built do not number 200,000 - the land in dispute is roughly 10% the size of Tasmania. Human rights groups usually classify a single mobile home or caravan as a "settlement" to make the statistics reflect poorly on Israel.
Israel is the only free democracy in the region but is subject to more harsh criticism than any of the Arab dictatorships. The UN resolutions that were passed against Israel have a trend of being anti-Israel and were passed by a majority of Arab states.
Please have somebody remove this anti-semitic material from public view at once and have the responsible individuals punished. Australia is a multi-cultural society where racism and religious discrimination should not be tolerated for one moment.
Good work, Jono, but I'll bet you it'll be round-filed.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 4, 2004 at 12:58 PMHopefully there'll be a nice big rock through it soon.
F***ing leftie scum
Posted by: Michael at May 4, 2004 at 07:01 PMGiven the bad press Crowe's been getting, it's good to see news like that about him. Sorry, but I really liked "Master and Commander."
Posted by: John Nowak at May 4, 2004 at 11:29 PM