The Death Of Abu Rahma Is Not The First Case Of Palestinian Media Manipulation

CAMERA gives a detailed analysis of the numerous questions surrounding the death of Jawaher Abu Rahma, including a short history of the Palestinian manipulation of the media:

A History of Manipulated Circumstances:

The murky circumstances of Abu Rahma’s death cannot be viewed in a vacuum. It follows many instances in which Palestinian sources have fabricated and manipulated deaths, both on the large scale (such as in the case of the so-called “Jenin massacre” and on an individual level).

o Most famously, there is the case of Mohammed Al-Dura in September 2000. The many inconsistencies in the France 2 report blaming Israeli soldiers for his death have been documented extensively.

o Following the winter 2008-09 Gaza war, Khaled Abed Rabbo of Abed Rabbo in the northern Gaza Strip gave numerous completely contradictory accounts concerning the deaths of his daughters,

o  In April 2010, there was the case of Muhammed Faramawi, 15, who was said to have been shot “by Israeli forces” and “left bleeding for hours” before Israel allowed paramedics to evacuate him, has emerged, alive and well after having been held by Egyptian authorities.

o  In May 2008, Muhammad al-Harrani, a father of six from Gaza diagnosed with cancer who reportedly died while waiting for a permit to enter Israel, miraculously “came back to life.”

o  In July 2003, Palestinian sources blamed the death of four Gaza men on Israel, when it later came to light that they died in a so-called “work accident,” i.e., while preparing explosives.

o  An April 2002 staged funeral in Jenin, in which pallbearers drop a stretcher with a corpse, who falls off, and climbs right back on the stretcher [see below].

In all cases, the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) calls on journalists to “diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.” In the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where Palestinian deaths have so often been manipulated and even staged for political purposes, journalists have an added burden to fully report Israel's account.

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Technorati Tag: Abu Rahma and Media Bias.