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An open letter to Haaretz From Maurice Ostroff The otherwise informative front-page report by Lily Galili "The left won't be held hostage by the Likud" (Haaretz May 16) is vitiated by the same inexcusable offense as the London Daily Mirror's printing of a fake picture. That the Mirror's editor, Piers Morgan, believed the facts were true was not accepted in mitigation and he was summarily fired because he failed to check the authenticity of information he was providing. We Haaretz readers, are also entitled to expect that your editors not only verify the accuracy of information provided, but also ensure that it is placed in context so as not to mislead by inference or unjustified allusions.. Although Galili's offense is not as sensational as Morgan's, it is equally guilty of distorting facts. I refer to her irrelevant introduction of the 22 year old Sabra and Shatilla massacre into a report about a current rally for disengagement. In particular, I refer to her inference that Sharon was directly responsible by claiming that the masses stood calling Sharon a murderer. The text is misleading because few readers will recall that it was Lebanese Christian Phalangist leader, Hobeika, who was directly responsible for the massacres and that the Kahan commission found that Sharon was not directly responsible for them, but that at the worst he was guilty of incompetence. Haaretz would do well to bear in mind that Sharon successfully sued Time Magazine for publishing an article which did not directly state, but only implied, as did Galili, that Ariel Sharon was guilty of this crime. |
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To: Ha'aretz Letter Editor 24 May 2004 Dear Editor! Does IDF deliberately kill civilians? Does IDF deliberately kill civilians? Amira Hass's "One step ahead of the bulldozer" (May 21) strongly suggests 'Yes' and when 'Israel's leading newspaper' tells the world that IDF intends to kill civilians, why shouldn't they believe? Europeans wouldn't go so far based on Palestinian sources. They may remember how Saeb Erekat lied that 520 Palestinian civilians were massacred in Jenin, while UN's committee found 52 killed, out of them 47 young male combatants. Ninety percent of Hass’ article cites the story of Mansour from Rafah, how a "large bulldozer rumbled over neighbors' home, and …residents fled for their life". The Mansour family escaped death more closely, because the Israeli driver "blocked the entrance". "We were just a second from being killed - 50 persons, children, the elderly, women, all of us with our backs to the wall". Their life by mere luck "was saved by an iron ladder" - where 50 people descended, seemingly in that one second left. Hass did not ask the story-teller one single question! Like: 'Were you not warned to leave the house?'. Only at the end, does she quote IDF briefly that "claims made by local residents about the demolition of houses are not correct." So, unchallenged by the journalist or the editor, one more blood libel against Israel can take off, backed by your prestige. Today many people in Europe believe that IDF deliberately kills civilians, even children. The Swedish 'Expressen' called Rafah 'an Israeli massacre', while in the same place the US killing 40 at a wedding in Iraq an "accident". When asked, the editor said he knew the IDF deliberately targeted civilians. Rev. Margaret Oaken, Deputy Chairman of the Danish parliament, said in a conference that the Israeli Army murdered knowingly three times more Palestinian children than the Palestinians did by explosive belts! Sadly, many international opinion makers have terrible views on Israel, based at least partly on one-sided reports which appear in Haaretz. Respectfully, Endre Mozes Chairman, Take A Pen www.take-a-pen.org |
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Dear Editor! |
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