[Media-watch] FW: Action Item: Examiner ad demonizes Palestinian
children
Tom O'Malley
tpo at aber.ac.uk
Wed Jan 26 16:55:46 GMT 2005
Dear Media-watch - could this be put on the next mailing ?
Many thanks.
Tom
_______________________________
UPDATE FROM THE
ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
http://electronicIntifada.net
_______________________________
(Mailing List Information, including unsubscription instructions, is
located at the end of this message.)
Action Items
EXAMINER AD DEMONIZES PALESTINIAN CHILDREN
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 25 January 2005
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3559.shtml
*** Please visit the Action Item to view the advert ***
The Electronic Intifada calls on its readers to protest an
advertisement for the San Francisco Examiner and
Washington Examiner newspapers demonizing Palestinian
children. The advertisment appeared in the 24 January 2005
of Media Week, a trade publication.
THE PROBLEM
The advertisement aims to attract advertisers to the
Examiner newspapers. It includes a picture of a girl
playing a violin on the left-hand side of the page, and
another picture of a girl carrying an assault rifle on the
right-hand side of the page. Superimposed over the two
pictures is the legend "PTA to PLO," with PTA over the
girl with the violin and PLO over the girl with the rifle.
The pictures are undated and unsourced, however the
implication is clear: the girl with the rifle is supposed
to represent a Palestinian girl and embody what the PLO
stands for.
Such anti-Palestinian stereotypes obscure the reality that
over the past four years Palestinian children have been
the principal victims of violence and other human rights
abuses in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
625 Palestinian children were killed by the Israeli army
and settlers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip
between 29 September 2000 and 31 December 2004 according
to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Over 100 Israeli
children have been killed by Palestinians during the same
period.
Amnesty International has frequently condemned violence
against Palestinian and Israeli children. In a 20 November
2004 statement, the organization said:
"Many killings of Palestinian children by
Israeli armed forces have been unlawful, as
wilful, killings resulting from acts including
reckless shooting, tank and aircraft shelling
and bombardments and house destruction. As
such these killings are grave breaches of the
Fourth Geneva Convention and therefore war
crimes. Such killings have been part of
widespread, as well as systematic, acts
against Palestinian civilians. They have been
carried out by Israeli armed forces pursuant
to government policy, evidenced by the
knowledge and approval of government
authorities who are fully aware that for over
four years such practices have consistently
resulted in the killing or injury of civilians
and who have declined to take effective steps
to prevent such killings of civilians. They,
therefore, meet the definition of crimes
against humanity under international law."
Amnesty also highlighted that:
"In their daily lives, Palestinian children
throughout the Occupied Territories have also
been exposed to an increasingly high level of
violence and violations of many of their
rights including the right to education, to an
adequate standard of living, to the highest
attainable standard of health, to safe and
secure housing, and to freedom of movement.
For four years many have been confronted with
Israeli army aircraft circling the sky or
launching missiles, and with Israeli army
tanks outside their homes and schools. Their
villages and neighbourhoods have been kept
under siege and they have often been confined
to their homes for days and weeks at a time by
curfews and closures. They have been forced to
go through military checkpoints to get to
school or to take long detours and to climb
over blockades or in and out of ditches in
order to visit relatives or to go to the
doctor."
Source: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGMDE020022004
The vast majority of killings are never investigated and
rarely are the killers punished by Israeli authorities.
While these human rights abuses continue unabated, some
pro-Israel groups have aggressively used unrepresentative
images similar to the one in The Examiner advertisement in
campaigns designed to demonize Palestinian children and
portray them as violent and Israel-hating and thereby
justify or explain away violence against them.
At the same time, equally disturbing images of Israeli
children are readily available but have not been used by
advocates for Palestinian rights to try to depict Israeli
children in a similar manner. While many news
organizations have taken seriously debunked claims that
Palestinian children are routinely taught anti-Israel
"hatred" and "incitement" in their schools, they have
largely ignored evidence that Israeli children,
particularly in West Bank settlements are indoctrinated
with anti-Arab hatred. A lengthy report by Ada Upshiz in
Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper on 21 January, for example,
revealed how some Israeli children routinely terrorize
Palestinians and call for the killing of all Palestinians
if they do not leave their homeland.
These phenomena are deeply disturbing and can be
documented on both sides of the conflict. They are the
product of a long and bitter conflict and should never be
used to demonize children.
News organizations have a responsibility to investigate
the reality behind hate-motivated campaigns against
Palestinian children and should certainly not draw on the
same stereotypes to sell advertising.
THE SOLUTION
Please contact Mark Wurzer, Vice-President of Advertising,
and Jim Pimentel, Managing Editor at The Examiner, to
politely request that The Examiner:
1. immediately withdraw the adverstisement;
2. apologize for stereotyping and demonizing Palestinian
children
Mark Wurzer
VP of Advertising
E-mail: mwurzer at examiner.com
Phone: +1 (303) 299-1488
Jim Pimentel
Managing Editor
E-mail: jpimentel at examiner.com
Phone: +1 (415) 826-1100
RELATED LINKS
BY TOPIC: Children
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/183.shtml
BY TOPIC: Education
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/176.shtml
--
ABOUT US: The Electronic Intifada (EI) is a
not-for-profit, independent publication committed to
comprehensive public education on the question of
Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the
economic, political, legal, and human dimensions of
Israel's 37-year occupation of Palestinian territories.
EI, found at http://electronicIntifada.net provides a
needed supplement to mainstream commercial media
representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
More information about our work can be found at
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/aboutEI.shtml
To find out about other EI/eIraq lists available, see:
http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi
SUPPORT OUR PROJECT: Our work needs funding. We accept
donations via credit card and cheque. U.S. donations are
tax deductible. More information can be found at:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2162.shtml
The following information is a reminder of your current mailing
list subscription:
You are subscribed to the following list:
ei News
Using the following email:
jme02 at aber.ac.uk
You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by
visiting the following URL:
<http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi?f=u&l=einews&e=jme02@a
ber.ac.uk&p=10682924>
If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire
address. Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this
automatic unsubscribe mechanism.
You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:
<http://electronicintifada.net/cgi-bin/kebab/mail.cgi?f=list&l=einews>
If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:
<mailto:news at electronicintifada.net>
The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:
MECCS/EI Project
1507 E. 53rd Street, #500
Chicago, IL 60615, USA
http://electronicIntifada.net
--
Jiska Marita Engelbert
Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies
The University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Parry-Williams Building
Penglais Campus
Aberystwyth SY23 3AJ
Office: (0044) (0) 1970 628647
Private: (0044)(0) 7791 621 004
http://users.aber.ac.uk/jme02
More information about the Media-watch
mailing list