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As we mourn Muhammad Al-Durrah, killed by Israeli forces 21 years ago, I’ve been remembering two small personal incidents related to the boy’s death.

The first one occurred a few months after his killing. I had gone to the Palestinian Occupied Territories as a freelance reporter to see for myself what was going on. At one point I was walking around the area of Gaza where the boy had been killed. A man came up to me and said he was the cameraman who had filmed the incident.

He told me that afterward Israel had claimed ­that their soldiers had not shot the boy and that the footage was fraudulent. He was extremely angry at Israel’s misrepresentation of the death and of their outrageous accusations of journalistic malpractice. (By the way, these israeli claims were finally laid to rest in 2013.)

The second incident provides a window into news coverage of Palestine:

Three years later I was in the Palestinian Territories again, and had gone to the AP bureau in the West Bank to interview the bureau chief about their news coverage.

While I was sitting in front of the editor’s desk, he received a phone call from a contact in the field. After he hung up, he explained that it was a report about a boy who had just been shot dead by Israeli soldiers.

He phoned the report into the control bureau for the region, which is located in West Jerusalem and staffed by journalists living in Israel; many of them Israeli and/or with Israeli families. I later wrote about the incident in this piece, and in this one, which contains the boy’s photo.

That night I was watching CNN news back at my hotel and noticed that there was no report about this murder of a young boy. I had no doubt that if the murder had been of an Israeli child it would have been featured.

I phoned CNN (I believe their London headquarters) and told them I was in the West Bank and had a news tip: a 12-year-old boy had been killed earlier that day by Israeli soldiers.

The woman on the phone said: “I know, I’ve seen the footage.”

I was startled and said: “But I’ve been watching CNN, and I haven’t seen any report about it.” She answered in a regretful tone: “I know… “

She told me that she had been the one who had gotten them to broadcast the footage of Mohammed El-Durrah. She implied that she wasn’t likely to succeed with this one…

And she didn’t.

While we’re mourning Muhammad, let’s mourn all the other hundreds of children also killed by Israeli forces, whose deaths were never shown on TV… and the hundreds more that will come in the coming weeks, months and years… until enough of us around the world finally say

No More.

I feel deep sadness about all the deaths described in my article, The strange, sad saga of the Taylor Force Act.

I’ve personally visited the Palestinian Territories a number of times and have stayed in many Palestinian homes, including one in another small village near Qalqiliya. I’ve seen their desperate circumstances first hand and have visited hospitals full of children who had been shot by Israeli forces. I’ve talked to parents whose children had been strip-searched by Israeli officials, and who themselves had gone through this humiliating procedure.

I’ve also spent time in Israel and met Israelis who strenuously and courageously oppose their governmental policies. I’ve met Israeli academics who have described the conditioning Israeli children undergo in school, and spent time with Israeli bereaved parents who have joined with Palestinian bereaved parents to oppose the system that is causing these tragedies.

Regarding Taylor Force, my feelings also have a personal dimension. I grew up in a military family, as did 10 of my cousins. My father was an Eagle Scout and highly decorated World War II veteran. He graduated from West Point and was a tactical officer there when I was born at West Point’s Cadet Hospital the same year that Taylor Force’s grandfather graduated from the Academy.

The patriotic, often brave and idealistic Americans who risk their lives in our armed forces come from all sectors of our highly diverse country and are of all races, ethnicities, and economic classes.

They serve in wars that are sometimes considered just wars and sometimes not; which is which for a particular war is often unclear, even afterward. Without exception, however, our government and many of our media pundits tell those they recruit that our soldiers are fighting to preserve freedom, to help others, and to defend our country.

None of our presidents over the past 24+ years fought in any wars themselves. Nevertheless, they called on others to do so.

Taylor Force was one of those who answered their call.

I write very little on this blog. My main work is at If Americans Knew.org. My articles are here. It’s also important to subscribe to our new blog, here, to see a frequently updated compendium of news and analysis. We also post on our Facebook page often. (Another organization I’m connected with is Council For the National Interest.)

Bill Weinberg, a New York journalist who appears very conflicted on Israel, periodically makes false statements about me (and others), so I thought I’d post a letter to the editor I wrote to the Village Voice in response to one of his diatribes:

To The Editor:

Re “Standing up for Gaza but not with certain groups” (talking point, by Bill Weinberg, Aug. 28):

I recently learned that Bill Weinberg listed our organization first among allegedly impure groups with which Mr. Weinberg would not deign to stand, despite his proclaimed love for the Palestinian cause.

I wondered what evidence he had provided for our dastardly designation.

Was it because I traveled throughout Gaza and the West Bank as a freelance reporter in 2001, discovered the carnage, and began an organization called If Americans Knew to give people the facts?

Did he dislike our designer’s infographics about Gaza, reaching millions — our Web master’s creation, considered one of the top sites on Palestine?

Did he dislike my recent book on the history of the Israel lobby with its almost 8,000 sales?

No, none of this is mentioned. Mr. Weinberg’s “evidence” consisted of two items. The first was an extraordinarily creative (and erroneous) Sherlock Holmes-like deduction: “It is obvious from its name that this is basically a right-wing nationalist formation with (at least) an anti-Semitic streak.”

The second was an equally creative (and erroneous) description of an alleged If Americans Knew flier that contained, he wrote, “a big quote from Gilad Atzmon,” an Israeli author who apparently causes Mr. Weinberg such anguish that when he heard Atzmon praised, “[a] wave of existential loneliness swept over me.”

The problem is that there is no such If Americans Knew flier.

Poor Mr. Weinberg, in his agony over those not marching to his own, highly flawed tune, simply got things wrong.

Orlando Sentinel, Sept. 30, 2015

The leader behind the anti-Israel billboards tells why massive funding must stop.

 

 

 

 

A Sept. 21 My Word column criticized a billboard by our organization announcing: “$10 million a day to Israel? Our money is needed in America!” (“Anti-Israel billboards mislead drivers”).

The commentary was by Hava L. Holzhauer, the Florida regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, which frequently expends some of its nearly $100 million endowment advocating for Israel.

U.S. politicians from both parties have given more of our money to Israel than to any other nation, thanks to the multibillion-dollar pro-Israel lobby. In fact, the U.S. historically has given more aid to Israel than to all of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America combined.

And U.S. aid to Israel is given at the beginning of the year. Since our government operates at a deficit, we borrow this money and then pay interest on it long after it has been transferred to Israel’s account at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank. This is an interest-bearing account, so Israel gains still more money, while Americans lose it.

The ADL claims that Israel and the U.S. have shared values. This is inaccurate. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Israel, conversely, was created to be the “Jewish state,” and systematically discriminates against Christians and Muslims. A few years ago, an Israeli mayor rounded up New Testaments and had them burned.

While a few Christians and Muslims, about 25 percent of the Israeli population, are in the Israeli parliament, they make up only 10 percent of its members. By contrast, Jewish-Americans, more than 2 percent of the U.S. population, make up 12 percent of the Senate and a third of the U.S. Supreme Court (which contains no Protestant Christian justices).

The ADL claims that Israel is a strategic asset. In reality, Israel is a tiny nation with few natural resources; it has long been subsidized by Americans; it has spied on us; and it has stolen U.S. technology. Israel attacked a U.S. Navy ship in 1967, killing 34 and injuring 175. Israel then paid $6 million compensation for a ship worth $40 million. The survivors of the attack are calling for a public investigation.

Surveys in 2014 show the majority of Americans oppose taking sides on Israel-Palestine. This means ending our massive aid to Israel. It’s time for politicians to listen.

______________

Alison Weir is president of the Council for the National Interest, executive director of If Americans Knew and author of a book on U.S.-Israel history.

Other nicknames for it are the “Anti-Palestinian League,” the “Anti-Muslim League,” the “Anti-Arab League,” the “Anti-Truth League,” “The Anti-Justice League,” etc.

The ADL has a pattern of attacking people who provide facts they dislike about Israel-Palestine. A great many of the diverse organizations, writers and speakers who provide significant, factual information about Israeli oppression and violence against Palestinians – including Jewish individuals – are called “anti-Semitic.”

I’ve written about this in my article: “A Modest Proposal to the Anti-Defamation League.”

An excellent article that discusses the ADL’s role in creating Islamophobia is “The Great Islamophobic Crusade.”

A short piece I wrote rebutting some of their accusations in their extremely long dossier about me is “Anti-Defamation League Defames Me – My Letter to the ADL.”

A documentary about the ADL made by an Israeli filmmaker is Defamation – a trailer is here.

For decades the ADL has bullied people, intimidated victims, and spread vicious misinformation. It’s time for everyone to stand up to this hate group and expose and oppose its nasty agenda.

 

I’m on a speaking tour in the northeastern United States and am being hosted in the homes of a wonderfully diverse array of committed, principled human beings – religious and secular; Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other; old and young.

This is representative of the extraordinarily diverse collection of people working for justice in Palestine, who are of all ethnicities, races, ages, faiths, and political backgrounds.

While Israel apologists immediately call all of us, even those who are Jewish, “anti-Semitic,” the fact is that I consistently find people who are committed to fairness and respect for all people and who are profoundly opposed to bigotry.

Since Israel partisans can’t refute our facts, they attack the messenger with untruths and nasty names.

Nevertheless, our ranks are growing as we’re being joined by courageous individuals of all backgrounds who are daring to speak out against the bullying that has too long warped American policies.

As we join together in our determination to bring justice and end violence and oppression, we will eventually, I have no doubt, overcome.

• Analysis: Emerging Iran deal is not a ‘sword at Israel’s throat’ – Jerusalem Post

• They’re Palestinians, not ‘Israeli Arabs’ – LA Times

• Olmert [former Israeli Prime Minister] found guilty of taking cash for personal gain – JTA

• Danny Schechter Was an Observant Jew, Even if he Rarely Set Foot in Shul: Journalist and Radio Legend Dies at 72 – Forward

(I met Schechter once and am sad to learn of his death. He was often critical of Israel; it’s unfortunate that the Forward does not include that aspect of Schechter’s activism in this article.)

• Juan Williams: Boehner, Israel and race – The Hill

• Rumor Control: Contra NYT, Iran Didn’t Renege on Shipping Uranium – Huffington Post

Some articles I’m reading today:

https://goingtotehran.com/snatching-defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory-the-case-for-u-s-iranian-rapprochement-that-obama-must-still-make-leveretts-in-the-national-interest

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/26/new-low-obama-doj-federal-courts-abusing-state-secrets-privilege/

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/American-Israeli-Rabbi-compares-Obama-to-Haman-395457

https://www.brussellstribunal.org/article_view.asp?id=2200#

https://www.councilforthenationalinterest.org/new/netanyahus-spying-denials-contradicted-by-secret-nsa-documents/#.VRfx22YmRNI