HonestReporting UK: UK Media Responds to Qana

[furman]

http://www.honestreporting.co.uk/articles/critiques/UK_Media_Responds_to_Qana.asp


COMMUNIQUE: 31 July 2006
UK Media Responds to Qana
HonestReporting UK calls on the media to examine the Qana tragedy in context.

With over 50 Lebanese civilians killed following an Israeli Air Force strike against a building in the village of Qana, Israel is once again subject to some severe criticism in the UK and international media. TV viewers and newspaper readers are confronted with highly emotive and disturbing images and front pages such as that of the Independent.

Undoubtedly, the loss of life is extremely tragic and the vast majority of Israelis deeply regrets this incident. However, while some media wishes to portray Israel as a malevolent force that deliberately murders civilians, some wider context needs to be added to the coverage of the Qana story:

* Some 150 rockets have been fired at Israeli cities from Qana over the past 20 days. This IDF map traces how these rockets have been launched in 30 salvos at Haifa and other locations, including Nahariya, Ma'alot and Kiryat Shmona. To date, 18 Israeli civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded as a result of this rocket fire.



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* Hezbollah has been deliberately hiding behind and operating from within civilian areas in the knowledge that Israel does not deliberately target civilians.


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full article and links to UK news sources at
http://www.honestreporting.co.uk/articles/critiques/UK_Media_Responds_to_Qana.asp

[melnjones]

1. *sigh*

Israel needs to put special forces on the ground to gather some better intelligence before they go bombing. They have the precision technology to pretty much avoid the civilian deaths that we've been seeing...they just don't want to risk their own soldiers in the process. This whole "blaming Hezbollah for shooting from civilian areas" excuse is old.