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Showing posts with label Media Bias. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media Bias. Show all posts

Monday, October 19, 2015

The Knockout

In America Conservatives warn how the Left Wing Obama transformation is turning the USA into a pariah among allies and destroying America’s culture with unconstitutional executive actions plugging a Leftist utopianism. Counterjihad writers warn of how Islam is NOT conducive to the development of Western culture, indeed Islam’s very nature is antithetical to Western Heritage and to the U.S. Constitution.

Stabbing Jews is "a symphony of love for Jerusalem:"

Ari Bussel writes about how Israel’s complacency to Islamic terrorism and Arab lies from those calling themselves Palestinians is slowly destroying the Jewish State from within. The Left/Right similarities between the two allies – USA and Israel – is quite stunning. The only real difference between the USA’s and Israel’s political situations is that Israel’s situation is existential. If America’s Left maintains its transformation agenda I have no doubt the Home of the Free and the Land of the Brave will face an existential threat.

JRH 10/19/15
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The Knockout
Israel, Yes, You Can

By Ari Bussel
Sent: 10/18/2015 3:02 PM

For the past two weeks, I stood witness to what was taking place in Israel.  It started outside the walls of Jerusalem, and very quickly crept right inside.  From there, it spread throughout the country.

Young men and women, some in their teens, answered the call of their president who falsely claimed that the Jews were defiling the Al Aqsa mosque with their filthy feet.
 
“We will not allow them to enter, and we will do everything in our power to protect our Jerusalem.” [Mahmoud Abbas]

Thus started the concert of bloodshed.  A righteous and courageous one indeed against the Jews’ “delusional myths,” one in which stabbing Jews is “a symphony of love for our Jerusalem.”

All that one needs to do is read the Palestinian Media Watch [http://www.palwatch.org/] daily bulletin, bringing the clips and excerpts of the words of hatred in origin.

Abbas thus unleashed wave after wave of terrorists, and against them stood at ready a most sophisticated propaganda machine.  One terrorist blows herself up in a car filled with tanks of gas, clearly – lied the Israel haters – she was horrified due to an electric failure that she immediately turned and shouted “Allah U Akbar.”

A boy of 13 using a knife to try and murder another boy [See HERE] his age not only did nothing wrong, according to the propagandists, but was then executed by the Israelis.  The fact the boy was receiving treatment in a private room at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem mattered not to these deceivers.

13 year old Islamic Terrorist Ahmad Manasra

The terrorists are all “innocent,” the Israelis are all “executioners.”

Israel had to defend herself on two fronts, happening simultaneously:  terrorists attacking civilians in the streets and a most oiled propaganda machine spewing lies.

Security Cabinet member Dr. Yuval Steinitz along with the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited the foreign press to a special media briefing and two days later Prime Minister Netanyahu briefed the press corps as well.  In these briefings, we were introduced to the hatred and incitement by the PA and its president, which made little impression other than the obligatory “oh, how dreadful.”  The questions by the foreign press left no doubt where the wind was blowing among the members of the international press.

Some in the Israeli media were quick to criticize Netanyahu for waiting two weeks to convene such a press briefing, and others wonder to this day why Israel’s public diplomacy machine is not fighting back against the torrent of lies.

While I do not buy the attacks against Netanyahu (a favorite pastime here in Israel, thus obligatory outside of Israel), the question of why Israel is not fighting the way only she knows how to fight – i.e. to win – remains relevant.  At present, she is not doing anything other than trying to restore calm to the streets, peace to her citizens.

Thus, while Netanyahu and his government were trying to wade off the onslaught of terrorists locally and attacks internationally (the Los Angeles Times along with Israel’s usual detractors were busy at work doing what they do best – selling papers blaming Israel and the Jews for the ills of the world, twisting reality so that Israel a priori is found guilty in the court of public opinion), Abbas was planning the next round.

Hamas, usually a foe of Abbas, already made promises:  Anyone caught while trying to free Jerusalem of the Occupier-Jews will be released at the earliest opportunity of prisoners exchange (they are already working on kidnapping a soldier or civilians to force such an exchange).  They called for armed resistance inside the Green Line and throughout Occupied Palestine and went as far as easing restrictions on Fatah militia inside Gaza, all for the common goal of attacking and defeating the Zionist enemy.

While these fronts will eventually be manageable, and in the foreseeable future other parts of the world – from Jordan to Paris and London and even Washington, D.C., New York and San Francisco – will have to turn to Israel to copy from her the lessons learned at subduing and conquering such terrorism, Abbas, the master-chess-player, is already several steps ahead.

He has prepared the ground of lies for all too long.  Israel, we have been told for eight long years, is planning to topple the third holiest place for Muslims.  Israel is defiling the holy mountain.  Israel is fabricating a claim to the place, where in reality she has no connection whatsoever.  Israel is changing the status quo and executing innocent Arabs right and left, without stop.

How can the world stand silent in view of such an egregious behavior?  How can any honorable human being with even a tiny bit of compassion allow such atrocities to continue? Abbas knows how easily the world is fooled and all too anxious to turn against Israel.

The concert continues:  blood spilled all over.  Not the blood of the Jewish victims by Arab terrorists, but the blood of “innocent” Arabs (i.e. perpetrators of these attacks).  Even the spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State joined, admonishing Israel for using “excessive force.” 

The screen is so full of the flowing rivers of blood that one cannot see anything else, one cannot think of anything but Israel’s newly found pastime:  Genocide!

Thus, stood the French with the utmost bravery, and declared:  International Observers to Jerusalem!

Abbas, busy at work at the moment to change the Western Wall to an international heritage site of the “Palestinians,” raised his hands, the hands of a victor, and proclaimed:  “Knockout!”

He is so close to declaring “Checkmate,” that one is holding one’s breath with anticipation.  Just let the Israelis and the Jews remain busy at the immediate.  While they are focused on putting out fires, he is ready to have the world crown Al Quds (previously known, for a shameful period of time, as Jerusalem) as the eternal capital of “Palestine.”

Long live the King.  The world is crazed with hatred for the Jews, and thus will follow whatever lies it is told.  No one checks the facts, uses common sense or bothers with a reality-check.  It is easier to beat the Jews, for secretly, we all wish for them to be gone.

It is time for Netanyahu to convene a Kitchen Cabinet of people he can trust, those who think outside the box.  People who will not follow the status quo and what Israel has been engaged in doing, but will focus instead on fighting in the one arena that is completely desolate of any Jewish or Israeli fighters:  the international public diplomacy front, in the court of public opinion.

For even if Israel manages to get up from one knockout after the next, the boos and rotten tomatoes thrown at her will eventually hit.  The tomatoes have already been replaced with stones, and these with knives.  Eventually, Israel might be left body parts strewn everywhere, as the crowd is overjoyed beyond its wildest dreams.

In a war one must fight.  And Abbas is a very sleek and sophisticated enemy.  He is playing the long game, while the world simply reacts to the effects of his lies. Time to fight Abbas, and Israel—yes, you can!
___________________________
This is the latest in the series “Postcards from America – Postcards from Israel,” a collaboration between Zager and Bussel, a foreign correspondent reporting from Israel.

Ari Bussel and Norma Zager collaborate both in writing and on the air in a point-counter-point discussion of all things Israel-related.  Together, they have dedicated the past decade to promoting Israel.

© Israel Monitor, October, 2015

First Published October 18, 2015
Contact:  bussel@me.com



Saturday, April 18, 2015

Michele Bachmann, Faith and Politics

Michele Bachmann

John R. Houk
© April 18, 2015

Thanks to being on Newsmax’s email subscription list I discovered that former Rep. Michele Bachmann castigated President Barack Hussein Obama’s foreign policy moves. In and of itself that is not surprising with Bachmann’s admirable Conservative credentials as one of the House’s leaders of the Tea Party caucus. Maybe some of you knew that Bachmann is also a devout Christian who has been a member of an Evangelical-Charismatic believing Lutheran Church in Minnesota. This Michele Bachmann is a Bible believing tongue-talker – like me (See HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE).

I would cross post the Newsmax piece but they are a bit protect of their copyright brand and they have emailed (politely) their displeasure in the past. Newsmax tells me I can only use three or four paragraphs of their copyrighted material. Oh well.

Newsmax portrays itself as a Conservative media outlet. Oddly their Bachmann story was source from Right Wing Watch (Christian perspective that RWW is sure to hate) which is dedicated in vilifying all things Conservative as fringe politics much like I disparage Democrats as idiotic Leftists willing to toss the Founding Fathers’ Original Intent of the Constitution and replace it with a Living Constitution interpretation. The problem is the Living Constitution paradigm is all about molding laws to fit baby killing, terminating free speech that is contrary to the Leftist agenda, validating immoral alternative lifestyles and so on.

Bachmann’s Christian faith has exposed her to criticism from the Lame-Stream Media and a few Conservatives as well. Leftists and Republican Establishment elites view Bible believing Charismatics as dangerous extremism when it comes to politics. This is especially the case in Presidential politics. America’s press took no time at all to question Bachmann’s religious views as too Christian and backward for national leadership. It was irrelevant to the fact that a politician with strong political views were less corruptible than Leftists or Establishment Republicans.

Michele and her husband Marcus were vilified by the press for being involved in special Christian counseling clinics that exercised therapy for homosexuals to overcome the God-viewed abomination lifestyle. I mean - my God! Imagine a Bible believer being against homosexuality. After all the press and famous entertainers were just fine with a Presidential candidate that attended a White-hating BLT racist Pastor’s Church in Chicago for about 20 years. Or a candidate that that was mentored by an openly Communist White-hating African American considered a Leftist intellectual whose hobby was pornography with some evidence of pedophilia (HERE and HERE). Or a candidate that subscribed to a Leftist political training community organizing of Saul Alinsky who desired to end the Free Market American dream. Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn went on a Communist terrorist revolution spree of violence in the 1960s and still evaded prison due to the same legal technicalities they tried to take down as terrorists. Despite of the Obama/Ayers lies, these two had a tight relationship, but the media has done everything to twist this fact.

See Also:



Even with these Left Wing red flags, Barack Hussein Obama was elected President in 2008. AND even with a burgeoning explosion of scandals, the White House has done remarkably well to stall or lie to Congressional investigations to reelect a President Obama in 2012. All this presents an image of an ethical compulsive liar.

Michele Bachmann takes a moral and Christian faith stand and the Lame Stream Media fries her and her husband for being extreme. Go figure, right?

No longer in Congress, Michele Bachmann is less concerned about Lame Stream Media fallout. This is evident in the Newsmax article about Bachmann appearing on a radio podcast interview with Jan Markell in which former Rep. Bachmann discusses President Obama’s foreign policy pertaining to the agenda of making any kind of deal with Iran with the excuse some kind of deal is better than no deal. Bachmann believes if Obama is successful with an Iran nuke deal that will lead to nuclear weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Obama will be ushering in the circumstances that will lead to an End Times Armageddon which essentially lead to the Second Coming of Christ.

America’s Left jumped on Michele Bachmann’s assertion on a Christian program as further evidence of a Right Wing Christian nut job. I view the Markell/Bachmann interview as a bad news/good news prediction. Bad because of the needless idiotic suffering Obama will initiate that will make Hitler’s WWII genocide look like a picnic. AND good because the Savior Jesus Christ will finally return to reverse the curse of Leftist ideologues, Jew-haters and Christian-haters (cough – can you say Islam?).

Here is my allotted Newsmax excerpt followed by a cross post of a Christian Post article of similar information but minus using Right Wing Watch as a source.

Former Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., believes that President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, and his opposition to Israel, is going to bring on the biblical End Times, plunging the U.S., and the world, into Armageddon.

On the radio show, "Understanding the End Times" with Jan Markell, Bachmann insisted that Obama's actions will bring economic and natural disaster on the U.S.
Right Wing Watch Audio

Bachmann said that Obama's "anti-Israel" and "pro the goals of Islamic jihad" policies will have dire consequences for the U.S.

"Our president is as ignorant of Islamic scripture as he is of Islamic history, or he is trying to intentionally lie to the American people," Bachmann told Markell.
…

Right Wing Watch Audio


… (Michele Bachmann Predicts Return of Jesus Due to Obama; By John Blosser; Newsmax; 4/15/15 12:04 PM)

JRH 4/18/15
*********************************
Michele Bachmann Says Jesus' Second Coming is 'Imminent;' Obama's Nuclear Negotiations With Iran Are 'Pro Islamic Jihad'
By SAMUEL SMITH, CP REPORTER
April 16, 2015|5:20 pm

Former congresswoman and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has accused President Barack Obama of being "pro the goals of Islamic jihad," which she explains includes welcoming the "hidden imam" to bring on the apocalypse.

In appearing on the "Understanding the End Times" radio program with Jan Markell last weekend, the 59-year-old Minnesotan bashed the president's foreign policy goals as being aligned with the goals of Islamic extremists, who she argues have the ultimate goal of bringing about the end of the world and paving the way for the Islamic Messiah.

"Our president, who is as consistent in his foreign policy world view, which is to be anti-Israel and pro, and I'll say it in my own words, pro the goals of Islamic jihad, because that is what we are seeing," Bachmann asserted. "These are the goals of Islamic jihad."

She explained that in February, Obama tried to justify the potential nuclear agreement with Iran by saying that Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said it was against Islam to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Bachmann decried that "myth" and stated that Obama is either "ignorant of Islamic scripture" or he is trying to perpetuate a lie to the American public.

"Not only is there any such fatwa, he said that the supreme leader issued a fatwa, issuing a religious opinion, that it said that it was against Islam to obtain a nuclear weapon. Only there has ever been this fatwa found, nobody has ever seen it or heard it. It has never been published," Bachmann said. "But, it reveals that our president is as ignorant of Islamic scripture as he is at Islamic history. Or, he is trying to intentionally lie to the American people. We don't know which it is."

Bachmann also called out the fact that Iran's President Hassan Rouhani labeled Iran's diplomacy with the United States as an "active jihad" in early March.

"Our negotiations with the world powers are a source of national pride," Rouhani said in March. "Yesterday your brave generals stood against the enemy on the battlefield and defended their country. Today, your diplomatic generals are defending [our nation] in the field of diplomacy — this, too, is jihad."

Bachmann goes on to further explain Iran's Shia Muslim goals by stating that they foresee and eventual world were only Islam reigns.

"Islam is a flame because they see to that their scripture is being fulfilled. If you are a Shia, you believe that we are going to see the hidden imam soon come back and we will have an apocalypse and we will have an all-out war and then peace will come with only Islam reigning," she said. "If you are Sunni Islam, you also believe that it is the end of the age. As Christians, we know that the word of God is true. Let's preach the true living word of God from every pulpit so that believers can know what God's time clock is."

She urged more pastors to speak from their pulpits about the end of times, which she says is coming near. She contends that while Christian pastors and priests are not speaking on the end of times, Muslims are preparing for the coming of their twelfth imam.

"Talk about what you see in the newspaper every single day. We can talk about God's time clock and the fact that Jesus Christ's return is imminent. Is there anything more important to talk about?" Bachmann asked. "That needs to occupy our time and our thoughts from virtually morning to night because we have very little time, in my opinion, left before the second return of Christ."
_________________________________
Michele Bachmann, Faith and Politics
John R. Houk
© April 18, 2015
_______________________________
Michele Bachmann Says Jesus' Second Coming is 'Imminent;' Obama's Nuclear Negotiations With Iran Are 'Pro Islamic Jihad'

Copyright © 2015 The Christian Post, INC. All Rights Reserved.

About Christian Post

ChristianPost.com is the nation's most comprehensive Christian news website and was launched in March 2004, incorporated with the vision of delivering up-to-date news, information, and commentaries relevant to Christians across denominational lines.

As the flagship website of The Christian Post, ChristianPost.com has quickly grown to become a leading online Christian news publication, with continuous updates throughout the day - seven days a week.

Through the website, The Christian Post presents national and international coverage of current events affecting and involving Christian leaders, church bodies, ministries, mission agencies, schools, businesses, and the general Christian public.

As a pan-denominational Christian media source, The Christian Post views all Christ-centered denominations as equal constituents of the body of Christ and … READ THE REST 

Monday, August 6, 2012

Radical Islam in Tennessee

Sharia in America toon
John R. Houk
© August 6, 2012

The Rutherford Reader is a free local and weekly newspaper with circulation in the Murfreesboro, TN area as well as 43,000 online subscribers. The Reader’s money base is third party advertising for the Murfreesboro area.

So what, right?

The Reader is a local bastion against Radical Islam in its area making the newspaper a target for Radical Muslims pretending to be moderate and Multicultural Leftists. In the case of Murfreesboro, most of the large circulating Tennessee newspapers rag on the Reader (especially The Tennessean) as the local hate-speech and bigoted media.

The thing is there isn’t an iota of truth to the accusations. The Reader is simply having journalist contributors and perhaps the publisher report on the local Mosque which has deep pocket connections to Radical Islam. Unless you have been in a coma since September 2001 you do know America was attacked by the Radical Muslim transnational terrorist organization known as al Qaeda. The USA has been involved in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) since 911. So whether bureaucrats in the U.S. government publicly recognize that war or not Islam in its so-called radical form has been at war ever since.

HENCE, after a Mosque engages with Muslim-American organizations that have ties with the Muslim Brotherhood or Hamas or whatever terrorist organization, it is noble for a local newspaper to buck Liberal Multiculturalism and report on Radical Islam and/or the speakers promoting a Radical Islamic agenda for America. AND in case you have been victimized by Muslim Apologists, that Islamic agenda is not pretty or copacetic for Constitutional America especially as related to the Bill of Rights.

One of the contributing journalists to the Reader is Justin O. Smith. Justin is also a defender of the Reader when Muslim Apologists and Multicultural Leftists wrongly go after the Reader rather than say a newspaper like The Tennessean which has been caught lying to support in print Radical Islam in Tennessee.

On Facebook I found such a defense from Justin and I am cross posting it below.

JRH 8/6/12
*****************************
Tired of the bullying!
Letters to the Editor...pg 4 of 'The Rutherford Reader' and Mrs. Pam King's excellent article!...

By Justin O. Smith
August 4, 2012 5:36pm

To the Editor:

Last week I sent the following message via Facebook to William Cripps: “I am very concerned that you and your wife have attempted to ruin a local business, The Rutherford Reader. When you contact business people and threaten them if they continue to advertise in The Reader, this is at best very unethical and at worst, just slimy! No one has actually proven that anything printed in The Reader is either hate speech or lies, it is only your opinion.

You certainly do have the right of free speech and so do I. I wonder how the people at ATI in La Vergne would feel if they were aware of your attempts to put a business out of business with unfounded opinions and and (sic) absolutely zero proof? I wonder how the Democratic Committee in Murfreesboro would like what Sara is doing? Are those the tactics they approve of?”

Needless to say, I have not received a response from either of them. I am seriously tired of the bullying! While working on a note to explain myself, I ran across the following
written by a Facebook friend, Dawn Ellen. Dawn has perfectly formalized my thinking so I quote her:

“People who spew the words "hatred" and "bigotry," when you attempt to enlighten them about the reality of Islam are drowning in ignorance. They are being compliant and complicit in the Islamization of America and the world. They have never studied the Qur'an/Hadiths, the life of Muhammad, or the history of Islam. They only have Liberal sound bites and Islamic propaganda running through their brains. They spew those words because they have no intelligent argument or response. I laugh at their perpetual nonsense and then move on. There is no point in responding, because their brainwashed minds are not open to reasonable and logical debates, but rather they are blind to the truth and will never see it. It is most definitely pitiful.”

Pam King

Murfreesboro, TN

___________________________
Radical Islam in Tennessee
John R. Houk
© August 6, 2012
_________________________
Tired of the bullying!

About Justin O. Smith


Studied at Middle Tennessee State University
Lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Born on February 16, 1957
Political Views: Conservative

I found this on Justin at the end of a Counter Jihad Report Post from 7/5/12:

Justin O. Smith is a concerned citizen with a B.S.-MTSU/ International Relations & Cultural Geography, ex-firefighter, U.S. Army and freelance writer.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

BBC: Denying Jewish Jerusalem



Honest Reporting exposes the BBC’s anti-Israel bias. The BBC has put together a documentary which vilifies Israel’s position on Jerusalem, specifically the Eastern portion of Jerusalem formerly occupied by Jordan at the end of the Israel/Arab war of 1948 in which Arab nations sought to prevent the emergence of an independent sovereign Jewish nation which is known as Israel. The BBC paints a picture of victimhood to Arab Muslims living in the Eastern portion of Jerusalem while failing to report the anti-Jewish violence from Arabs toward Jews residing in East Jerusalem. In fact historically the BBC fails to mention when Jordan occupied East Jerusalem, the vibrant Jewish population living there was expelled.

But I get ahead of myself. Read the Honest Reporting exposé.

JRH 1/21/10
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BBC: Denying Jewish Jerusalem
The BBC's flagship documentary distorts Jewish history and rights to Jerusalem while promoting a one-sided and biased agenda.

Honest Reporting
20 January 2010


On 18 January, the BBC's flagship documentary program, Panorama, focused on tensions in the area of eastern Jerusalem adjacent to the Old City.

Any pretence at balance is thrown out of the window as reporter Jane Corbin makes it clear that, under the BBC's own interpretation of international law, anything that Israel does in that part of the city is illegal, setting the tone for the entire 30 minute program.

Thus, Israelis are presented as usurpers of Palestinian rights and property in eastern Jerusalem in a one-sided piece of agitprop. As analyst Robin Shepherd writes:

Rarely will you get a clearer insight into the flagrant institutional bias inside the world's most powerful media outlet than this. The slipperiness of the tactics employed, the unabashed censorship of vital historical context, and the blatant pursuit of a political agenda constituted a lesson in the techniques of modern day propaganda. It was something to behold.


Here we examine some of the assumptions, claims and biases that underpin this edition of Panorama.

This edition of Panorama is available to view on YouTube in three parts. Click below to view Part 1 and here to view Parts 2 and 3.

Denying Jewish Rights to Jerusalem

The BBC's institutional anti-Israel bias often manifests itself not in what is broadcast but what is left out. Panorama is no different. The BBC reports events as though Jewish history in Jerusalem begins in 1948, thus omitting thousands of years of Jewish attachment to the city, including those areas of eastern Jerusalem that are the subject of Panorama's investigation.

The only time that the eastern part of Jerusalem was exclusively Arab was between 1949 and 1967, and that was because Jordan occupied the area and forcibly expelled all the Jews.

As Mitchell Bard makes clear, before 1865, the entire population of Jerusalem lived behind the Old City walls (what today would be considered part of the eastern part of the city). Later, the city began to expand beyond the walls because of population growth, and both Jews and Arabs began to build in new areas of the city.

By the time of partition, a thriving Jewish community was living in the eastern part of Jerusalem, an area that included the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. This area of the city also contains many sites of importance to the Jewish religion, including the City of David, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. In addition, major institutions like Hebrew University and the original Hadassah Hospital are on Mount Scopus — in eastern Jerusalem.

Palestinian House Demolitions

Corbin's tone gives the impression that she just so happens to be strolling through eastern Jerusalem before coming across Israeli authorities carrying out a house demolition almost as if this is a daily occurrence. She disingenuously pulls a supposed list of dozens more demolitions scheduled to take place. Viewers are treated to emotive scenes and Palestinian claims that such demolitions are driven by "racism" and "ethnic cleansing" while Jewish residents of Jerusalem are not subjected to similar demolition orders.

As human rights lawyer Justus Reid Weiner found in his research, illegal building by Palestinians has reached epidemic proportions while in the Jewish neighborhoods, illegal construction typically takes the form of additions to existing legal structures - such as closing a balcony or hollowing out under a building to create an extra room. In the Arab sector, however, illegal construction often takes the form of entire multi-floor buildings with 4 to 25 living units, built with the financial assistance of the Palestinian Authority on land that is not owned by the builder.

In addition:

    • The same procedures for administrative demolition orders apply to both Jews and Arabs in all parts of the city, as a final backstop to remove structures built illegally on roadbeds or land designated for schools, clinics, and the like.

    • Despite frequent accusations that the city's planning policy seeks to "Judaize" Jerusalem, the Arab population of the city has increased since 1967 from 27% to 32%. Moreover, since 1967 new Arab construction has outpaced Jewish construction.


The Hanoun Family Eviction

The eviction of the Hanouns has become something of a cause célèbre with the family camped in the street outside of their previous home making for a compelling media story and propaganda tool. Once again, the BBC does its best to portray the Palestinians as victims of Israeli malice.

However, the Hanoun case is not quite so simple having been subject to legal activity dating back decades. After 1948 the neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Shimon HaTzadik came under Jordanian control and the Jewish-owned land was handed over to the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property. In the mid-1950s the Jordanian government settled Arabs there. They took over the homes of the Jews and paid rent to the Jordanian Custodian.

Although a Jewish institutional presence has been established in the area in the form of Israeli governmental offices and services, Jewish groups have sought to establish a residential presence as well. This is being done through property and land acquisitions, and by judicial means. To date, this activity has achieved a residential presence of no more than ten families who are living in a small part of the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood from which Jews had been evicted in 1948.

There are dozens of pending court cases and legal proceedings seeking to remove Arab tenants on the grounds that they have not been paying rent to the rightful owners - the Committee of the Sephardic Community and the Ashkenazi Assembly of Israel, who purchased the land in the second part of the nineteenth century. In some of these cases, eviction notices have been issued, although the Israel Police has delayed the actual evictions due to international pressure.

After 1967, control over Jewish-owned property in the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood that had been seized by Arabs was transferred from the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property to the Israeli Custodian of Absentee Property. In 1972 the Israeli Custodian released the land back to its owners (the Committee of the Sephardic Community and the Ashkenazi Assembly of Israel). In 1988 the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the 28 Arab families living on the premises enjoy the status of "Protected Residents," but that the ownership of the land belongs to the two Jewish organizations.

Ten years later, in 1998, Jews entered deserted houses in the neighborhood. At the same time, a slow process of evicting Arab families who apparently refused to pay rent to the two Jewish organizations was begun.

Indeed, as both the New York Times and Guardian wrote, the Hanouns had refused to pay rent for years and thus eviction orders were served.

For more on this issue see this JPost Analysis: Arabs, Jews don't have equal rights to recover pre-1948 properties.


A Shooting in Silwan

Jane Corbin makes a big deal out of the fact that some of the Jews living in eastern Jerusalem are armed. As if to illustrate the apparent threat that this poses to the Arab residents of the area, she interviews the victim of a shooting incident that took place in September 2009 involving a Jewish gunman. Operating under standard BBC procedures, viewers are treated to scenes of crying children and a story of suffering. There is no interview with any Israeli spokespeople regarding the incident. While it is not in dispute that the Palestinian was shot, the BBC relies solely on his testimony without any Israeli response.

Had Corbin been concerned with balance or accuracy, she could have contacted the Israel Police, something that HonestReporting did. Police Foreign Press Spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld explained:

Upon arriving at the scene, a police investigation was opened and a suspect was immediately detained for questioning for being involved in the incident.

The suspect a twenty year old man said in his statement that he had been surrounded by six Arabs inside the neighborhood and then was attacked by them. In an act of self defense only and after being surrounded he had used his weapon.

Unfortunately after the incident local Arab residents rioted in the neighborhood and police had to call in extra units who quickly maintained the situation and prevented any further rioting.


As Rosenfeld points out, this was one isolated incident that could have taken place in any of the neighborhoods in Jerusalem both Jewish or Arab.

Contrary to the impression given by the BBC, it is, in fact, Jewish residents of Jerusalem who have far more to fear from their Arab neighbors. While the incident described above is remarkably rare, not so rare were the suicide bombings, stabbings and even bulldozer attacks that have been carried out by Palestinian terrorists residing in eastern Jerusalem.

The armed guards and security in the area is necessary to protect not only Jews but also Jewish holy sites from potential Arab extremists.

Foreign Jews Changing Jerusalem's Demographics

Nadav Shragai writes that Jews from abroad are not the only ones buying property in Jerusalem. Munib al-Masri, a Palestinian millionaire from Nablus who holds American citizenship, is planning to purchase property 900 meters from the Teddy Kollek Stadium, not far from Jerusalem's Malha shopping mall. His investment company is planning to build 150 housing units next to Beit Safafa, according to company chairman Samir Halayla. Until 1967, Beit Safafa was an Arab village south of Jerusalem divided between Israel and Jordan. After the war it became an area where Jews and Arabs lived together, generally as good neighbors.

The Gulf States, the PLO, and Palestinian millionaires such as al-Masri and the late Abd al-Majid Shuman have all invested funds to purchase property and support construction for Palestinian Arabs. The Jerusalem Treasury Fund affiliated with the Jerusalem Committee headed by King Hassan of Morocco is also active. The Jerusalem Foundation for Development and Investment was founded in Jordan, and there are several similar funds and foundations in Saudi Arabia.23 Foreign donations from Qatar were also involved in the construction of 58 housing units recently completed in Beit Hanina under the auspices of the Arab teachers' association.

On July 19, 2009, Yuval Diskin, head of the Israel Security Agency, reported to the Israeli government on the extensive efforts of the Palestinian Authority and its security apparatuses to prevent Palestinian land from being sold to Jews, especially in eastern Jerusalem.

Regardless of these ongoing struggles, the State of Israel does not limit or forbid the purchase or sale of property or land within Jerusalem, which is under Israeli law, whether the individuals involved are Jews or Arabs.

Archaeology in the Hands of "Right-Wing" Groups

The BBC claims that right-wing Jewish groups have been left responsible for politically sensitive archaeological sites in eastern Jerusalem. In fact, all archaeological work in Jerusalem is carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority, an independent government body with a sterling international reputation.

BBC: Failing to Reflect Reality

Robin Shepherd, who picks up many other flaws in BBC's Panorama, concludes:

Well, you get the picture. Obviously the issue of Jerusalem excites passions inside Israel and outside it. Reasonable people can disagree on it. There are many shades of opinion to be assessed. And there is no reason why a BBC documentary should not reflect that. The problem is that the documentary does not reflect that reality at all.

Every Jewish step in East Jerusalem is presented as wrong and dangerous. All the important context has been removed. A clear ideological agenda has been pushed at the expense of basic standards of fair reporting.

Welcome to the world of the BBC. And welcome to yet another illustration of the slippery path to the delegitimisation of the world's only Jewish state.

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