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Phyllis Chesler’s Blog Goes back to Pallywood’s Origins: Lebanon 1982
Phyllis Chesler has posted a note from a colleague in Israel with some eyewitness recollections of media staging news in Lebanon in 1982, which is when we have dated the origins of Pallywood.
Hi Phyllis :
In the first Lebanon War, just before I left for that feminist conference in Montreal, we saw two news reports on Israel TV. In one, the Israel news team followed a French film crew. The French media put several young children in a burnt out car and lit a fire on the far side of the car and then filmed the children in the “burning car” screaming and crying with the smoke and flames billowing in the background. Two days latter I saw this clip broadcast in Montreal. If I hadn’t seen them staging it, I would have believed these were kids who were directly attacked (by Israelis) and left to burn to death.
The other clip – was of the Israeli air force attacking a “hospital” with a big red cross on the roof. We could see that the “hospital” was actually a base of the PLO who were (engaged in) shooting from it. That, too, appeared on the news. Interestingly, the Lebanese Government took out a big paid ad stating that the (so-called) Hospital was PLO Headquarters and was headed by Arafat’s brother.
(The Montreal feminist ) conference was the one that the PLO tried to take over to pass anti- Israeli Resolutions – and that I more or less single handidly fought to prevent – successfully – I might add .
One of the commenters at Chesler’s site suggests collecting an anthology of these kinds of staging. (The first Intifada is full of them.) I think that’s an excellent suggestion. Time to detoxify the Western media.
[...] tagged siteOwn a WordPress blog? Make monetization easier with the WP Affiliate Pro plugin. Phyllis Chesler’s Blog Goes back to Pallywood’… saved by 1 others Jelloooooo bookmarked on 05/23/08 | [...]
>>Time to detoxify the Western media.<<
indeed.
Tuvia Grossman, the Jenin “massacre”, and the 2 lynched Israeli reservists shouldn’t be forgotten…
[...] The Augean Stables – Phyllis Chesler’s Blog Goes back to Pallywood’s Origins: Lebanon 1982 [...]
RL,
There was the “tree” picture which if I’m not mistaken was published in a Time magazine article about the fighting in Lebanon.
The tree in question was growing in the rubble, within some walls that were left standing, of a destroyed house.
The text ascribed it to Israeli destruction of the house, but the tree was obviously of an age that pointed to the house’s destruction, years before, in the 70s during the civil war in which Arafat and his PLO played such a devastating role.
With regard to the hospital mentioned above and its nefarious connection to thugs
(funny, anything to do with a cross inflames the Muslims and yet here they used one instead of the “Red Cross” recognized Muslim emblem)
there is this story that Solomonia linked to
A7: Gaza Schoolyard Missile Launchers Discovered
which brings to mind the PLO using a soccer stadium as an arms depot in Lebanon and when everything went bang the world went mad at “Israel’s attack on a sports stadium”. No, I’m not mixing it up with Hamas firing rockets from a soccer field in Gaza.
which validates my argument that the evidence don’t matter, the current dogma does.
i’ve been skimming through a book on golda meyer and there’s a description of the attitudes in the west towards isral and how the US society received her when she visited her: both israel and her were adulated after 1967 and up to 1973.
compare that to the rabid anti-semitism of today that I never thought I would ever encounter again, certainly not in the US. but that’s because I did not think the west would sink so fast.
for your greater delectation, oao,
with very curious timing Reuters and Skynews have revived the claim from 5 or 6 weeks ago that Israel deliberately killed a Reuters cameraman in Gaza. You may recall how we chewed over all aspects of the story and of the claims made at that time here on the Augean Stables site. As I recall, Thursday morning, 5-222-08, Skynews TV devoted about 4 or 5 minutes to this story, a day after the French judge had agreed that the al-Durah atrocity claim by Gaza Arab cameraman Talal abu-Rahma might not be reliable. Skynews made NO report of the Karsenty acquittal on the libel charge [search their web site for "karsenty" or "al-dura" or "al-durah" starting with 20 May 2008]. But a slightly stale story about an Arab cameraman “murdered” by Israel was prominently featured.
It seems that this other story out of Gaza may be meant to replace Little Muhammad al-Durah as an icon of Israeli/Zionist/Jewish evil. It seems that the story is also meant to support the Hamas’ media campaign to show how Israel is starving Gaza, etc. Alastair MacDonald of the Reuters Jerusalem bureau was especially obnoxious, demanding to know Why did Israel kill Our cameraman. He was just “going about his business.” But when your business is going onto battlefields you are knowingly taking your life in your hands. Besides the possibility that the Reuters character/camaerman too was a newsfaker like Talal Abu Rahma.
first a correctin:
5-22-08
It’s interesting that reuters and skynews are british outfits, like the bbc. About 2 months ago, 6 weeks ago, Prof Robert Wistrich of the Hebrew Univ put out a report on Judeophobia in the UK today. The UK ambassador here in Israel popped a cork over that and sent a letter or op ed rebuttal that was published in the Jpost where a report on Wistrich’s report had already been published. Look up Wistrich’s report on the JPost site.
yet another validation, ain’t it? and they tell me I am a pessimist. i am a realist. they are in denial.
Why did Israel kill Our cameraman. He was just “going about his business.”
Eliyahu,
Maybe his business was to use his camera’s telephoto lens to spy out the Israelis?
I think that Israel should keep tabs on foreign journalists, not to limit their activities but to catch them in the act of fakery when it happens. I’m not sure how do-able that is, but even if the Israelis could catch a number of instances, and then publicizes them, that could help.
Joanne,
Israeli authorities will never ever do anything to a press professional, national or international, unless this proffessional harms state security (very narrowly defined). Freedom of speech can be a double-edged sword- but this is the Israeli deliberate choice. It’s a moral principle, considered a fundamental right that Israelis willingly adhere to.
yet they kicked finklestein out.
and about time too. i know i am not very consistent, but to hell with the idiot.
Oao,
To the best of my knowledge, Finkelstein is neither a journalist nor a media professional. So you’re merely off topic, if that’s any consolation. And Israeli authorities did not kick him out – they did not let him in.
To the best of my knowledge, Finkelstein is neither a journalist nor a media professional.
True, but how much is this a distinction without a difference? He does exactly the same thing that journalists do and often the damage is worse, because he has the aura of an academic about him, and while he blasted the “holocaust exploiters” he keeps presenting himself as a son of holocaust victims for maximum effect. so the same principle still applies.
And Israeli authorities did not kick him out – they did not let him in.
Another distinction without a difference given the principle involved. Perhaps the point is that some journalists should not be let in either and then they won’t have to be kicked out.
I am ashamed that the Israeli media and in particular The Broadcast Authority gave wholly inadequate coverage to the story.
2. In 2002, David Witztum of the Authority defended Enderlin at a Jerusalem symposium which discussed Esther Shapira’s film.
3.France 2 has proved that it represents the France of Petain and not Zola.
4. Karsenty deserves an award!