Y-NET reporter slurs non-violent movement

Dimi Reider By Dimi Reider January 1, 2011 | Edit

There’s lies, damn lies, and then there’s the following kind of journalism. As Joseph reports, Jawaher Abu Rahma, who lost her brother Bassam Abu Rahmah to tear gas just 18 months ago, died this morning from tear gas poisoning. The single most important thing about movement both siblings belonged to, and paid with their lives to sustain, is that it is a non-violent movement, of exactly the kind prayed for by liberals wishing for a Palestinian Ghandi or Mandela.

YNET’s Yair Altman reported the response of Mohammed Khatib, a member of the Bil’in Popular Committee, and it seems to fall well within the principles of non-violence:

“We are shocked and furious for Israel’s brutality, which once again cost the life of a peaceful demonstrator. Israel’s lethal and inhumane response to our struggle will not pass quietly. In the dawn of a new decade, it is time for the world to ask Israel for accountability and to bring about an end to the occupation.”

Yet despite reporting the full quote in the piece itself, this is how Altman chose to lead the story on the main page of Israel’s most important news site:

THE PALESTINIANS PROMISE VENGEANCE AFTER ABU RAHMA DIED, ACCORDING TO THEM OF BLOOD POISONING AFTER INHALING TEAR GAS AT A PROTEST AGAINST THE FENCE: “ISRAEL’S LETHAL RESPONSE WILL NOT PASS QUIETLY.”

and lest you blame the duty editor, this is how the report begins:

The protesters against the fence promise vengeance as the army keeps investigating…

Here’s the screenshot:
Y-NET reporter slurs non-violent movement

Although making a pig’s breakfast out of a story is no news for Altman, who previously filed a laughably one-sided report on Palestinians burning brush on their land and presenting them as  “arsonists“, I wonder if he will pause and think how reading this feels to Jawaher’s family and friends. Such a gross, indecent misrepresentation of everything the woman stood for is the journalistic equivalent of spitting on her corpse, and I hope he and his editors know it.

UPDATE: Ynet just changed their headline. You’ll laugh, but the report is still clutching to some straws. This is getting pathetic: “The protesters against the fence hint they will take vengeance, as the army keeps investigating…”

Screenshot:

Y-NET reporter slurs non-violent movement

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Images: Funeral of Bil’in protester Jawaher Abu Rahmah

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Dimi Reider

Dimi Reider is an Israeli journalist. He's a co-founder of +972 and has written for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, and many others. He currently works for Newsweek, and no longer blogs for this site. You can catch up with him on twitter @reider.