Examiner ad demonizes Palestinian children

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 25 January 2005

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 Palestine 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: 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.

Original Reuters caption: "An Israeli boy plays with a machine gun during a rally in the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip, April 27, 2004 to protest Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to abandon Jewish enclaves in the Gaza Strip. The surprisingly high turnout of upwards of 50,000 flag- waving Israelis for an Independence Day march stirred hopes among settlers of defeating a crucial May 2 referendum of Sharon's right-wing Likud party on his 'disengagement' plan." (Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

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:

# immediately withdraw the adverstisement;

# 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

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The Zionist Jewish lobby has the *nerve* to produce such a graphically and horrendously *RACIST* ad, even as they have produced yet ANOTHER Jewish Holocaust TV special (for public television this week) to rub our noses in *AGAIN*: WAR PROPAGANDA endlessly *EXPLOITING* the horrible tragedy of their own people (European Jews) to support the RACIST state of ISRAEL that actually DISHONORS the memory of the Holocaust and the lives of those killed (not just Jews, but also "Gypsies", gays, the mentally handicapped, leftists, etc).

TELL ME THAT A, SIMILARLY, GRAPHICALLY RACIST AD COULD NOT HAVE BEEN RUN AGAINST THE JEWS (PORTRAYING THEM AS EITHER SOCIAL VERMIN OR AVARICIOUS MONEY-LENDERS) BY THE NAZIS!!?

Before it was Jews, then it was Asians (especially Chinese- and Japanese-Americans), now it's Palestinians/Arabs/Muslims.

WHO WILL BE *NEXT*?

That racist Zionist Jews would produce such an ad is certainly no surprise, but for the S.F. Examiner -- a major city newspaper in one of the most culturally diverse metropolitan areas in the country -- to actually RUN such ad an is UTTERLY *DETESTABLE*!!

Good people of all races, ethnicities, cultures and religions should **CALL** the Examiner and voice your *OUTRAGE*!!

IF POSSIBLE, ORGANIZATIONS AND GROUPS IN THE BAY AREA CONCERNED WITH SOCIAL/GLOBAL JUSTICE ISSUES SHOULD COORDINATE A PICKET AT THE EXAMINER.

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"Remember These Children", a joint project of the:

American Educational Trust (800 368 5788)

Americans for Middle East Understanding, Inc. (212 870 2053)

Black Voices for Peace (800 820 2873)

Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (202 423 7666)

website is http:// http://www.rememberthesechildren.org

This report was prepared as a supplement for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, a reliable outfit.

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BEFORE any Israeli children were killed by suicide bombers, 84 (that's right, 84) Palestinian children were murdered by the Israeli military or rabbid Zionist Jewish settlers.

Of the 84 Palestinian children, 39 were were killed by _HEAD_ shots. The report lays it out month by month, starting with September 30, 2000 the day the first Palestinian child was shot, two days after Sharon's provocation, errr 'visit', to the Al Aqsa Mosque.

The first Israeli child to die from Palestinian hands was January l7, 2001. Thus, 3-1/2 months later, AFTER _84_ killings of Palestinian kids by Israelis, the revenge suicide-bombing began.

by the organization If Americans Knew:

_662_ Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis

versus

_117_ Israeli children killed by Palestinians

since September 29, 2000.

http://ifamericansknew.org/stats/children.html

http://www.rememberthesechildren.org



TOTALS FOR 2004:

Palestinian children: 154

Israeli children: 11

http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/remember2004.html

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electronicintifada.net/v2/article3559.shtml

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http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3559.shtml

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(repost from indybay.org)

to zionist dickhead peanut gallery

by Ron Friday, Jan. 28, 2005 at 2:27 PM

I did some searching and found from Human Rights Watch:

The number of children suicide bombers that are under 16 is _0_.

There have been around nine 17 year-old bombers and one was 16.

So any way you slice it, the number is an EXTREMELY SMALL number of borderline adults over a 6 year period.

There are _0_ suicide bombers like the posted picture. _ZERO_. Its just racist propaganda to claim that Palestinian families are training their children to blow themselves up.

So of 662 killed Palestinian children 10 were armed. I.e., _99%_ of the children that were murdered by Israel were UNARMED.

And finally -- zionist dickheads -- I don't considered rock throwing 12 years olds fighting against tanks and B-52's as "armed".