An Olive Tree Burns in Bil'in

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Wednesday May 26, 2010 19:52

by TD - Free Palestine Campaign

So it goes ...

Yesterday morning, as is their wont, Israeli Occupation Forces intruded into the village of Bilin, this time there were only three to the forefront with backup behind them, when challenged they beat a retreat. Yesterday afternoon, villagers rushed to quench a fire in an olive tree sited close to the Apartheid-Annexation Wall which had to be deliberately set on fire by the retreating IOF, but which was unable to be saved due to the fire being set in a crevice in the trunk which smouldered throughout the day and it was only in the latter stages that the tell-tale smoke was detected.

This pernicious act of economic warfare has deeply angered the villagers as many are dependent on the sale of the olive oil (700 to 800 shekels per tree annually) for their livelihoods and father of six, Hisham Burnat, can ill afford the loss of this tree (one of twenty in his olive grove).To rub salt into their wounds and worse, after the fire was extinguished, the IOF ventured forth from behind the Wall and after detaining three activist-journalists - so as not to record their crimes, subjected the villagers to live fire, tear gas and sound bombs. Today's destruction of the tree has alarmed the farmers in that phosphorus may have been used to unobtrusively burn the tree and olive groves may follow. So it goes in Bilin, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, ad infinitum, in a vicious world which doesn't care.

Iyad Burnat, head of Bil'in's Popular Committee surveys the damage

Caption: Video Id: Z89Zjzb4LXM Type: Youtube Video
Bil'in, A Day in the Life: Live Fire, Tear Gas, Sound Bombs, Detentions, Torched Olive Tree

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Comments (2 of 2)

Bad News From the BBC

by TD - FPC

Thu May 27, 2010 14:55

Last March, Bothaina Hamdan, then a student in International Studies at Birzeit University (now Chief Editor- SWOT Electronic Magazine for Finance and Business) presented her research findings to a thesis committee outlining what she found to be un-objective coverage around "the question of Palestine" on BBC Arabic's broadcast news. The study, focusing on the daily news program World News This Evening's broadcasts between 8 November and 8 December 2008, found external political motivations swayed coverage of Palestine only weeks before Israel launched its Operation Cast Lead on 26 December 2008. Benchmarks for measurement included: Omission of facts, clear differentiation of facts and opinions, and avoiding prioritization of accounts. During the study period, the research found 25 news events in Palestine, including the death, injury and detention of Palestinians including children, that went unreported by the news program. The same period saw the full coverage of every home made projectile launched from Gaza into Israeli territory, a total of 14. The report also found that coverage of projectile launches was "exaggerated," given all 14 incidents resulted in no deaths or injuries. Not once in the month of broadcasts on BBC Arabic did newscasters say the word "occupation" in relation to Israel or Palestine, the study said. It also noted the use of the term "military arsenal" to describe home made projectiles fired toward Israel by militant factions in Gaza. The study concluded that the presence of an Israeli lobby, and its absence in the coverage on Iraq, was the single largest factor in the discrepancy of coverage. To substantiate the argument, the study cited BBC Director-General Mark Thompson's relationship with former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, relating the relationship to Thompson's decision not to air an appeal for humanitarian aid to Gaza paid for by several international agencies.

Bothaina Hamdan's research validates and augments the Glasgow Media Group findings on TV coverage of the Palestine-Israel conflict: The word 'terrorist' was used to describe Palestinians by journalists but when an Israeli group was reported as trying to bomb a Palestinian school, they were referred to as 'extremists' or 'vigilantes' (BBC 1 lunch time news and ITV main news 5/03/02). TV News coverage influenced some viewers to believe most deaths had been Israeli. There was a strong emphasis on Israeli casualties on the news, relative to Palestinians (even though Palestinians had around 2-3 times the number of deaths as Israelis). In one week in March 02 which the BBC reported as having the most Palestinian casualties since the start of the intifada, there was actually more coverage on the news of Israeli deaths. There were also differences in the language used by journalists for Israelis and Palestinians - words such as 'atrocity', 'brutal murder', 'mass murder', 'savage cold blooded killing', 'lynching' and 'slaughter' were used about Israeli deaths but not Palestinian (Bad New From Israel) http://www.glasgowmediagroup.org/cont...

Bothaina Hamdan