There have been a lot of passionate diaries and comments about the I/P conflict over the last few days. I want to sound a note of caution about the facts that people are using, the statements that they are making and the difficulty of putting the genie back in the bottle after people throw around accusations and unattributed facts. This applies particularly to some of the graphic videos that have been posted to this site.
The first video that I reference seems no longer to be available on YouTube. It is, however, available at the following website:
Part 1: http://muslimtv.magnify.net/...
Part 2: http://muslimtv.magnify.net/...
This video was posted earlier this week on Kos by an impassioned diarist who used it to highlight Israeli attacks in Gaza. No-one was really able to source the video, nor contradict it. The green Hamas flag and the symbol of The Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades - Hamas's military wing - clearly appear in the video. After some brief discussion that this may have occurred in Iraq, all parties greed that the video was shot in Gaza. Thatis correct. What was wrong, however, was the conclusion that this resulted from an Israeli attack or occurred in the last week. In fact, it occurred on September 23, 2005, and was taken in the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. It resulted from a Hamas pick-up truck carrying Qassam rockets being detonated by mistake during a Hamas rally, leaving at least 15 killed and dozens more injured. The pick-up truck can be seen at the very start of the video. Here is a good discussion and sources to support it:
http://www.reddit.com/...
Another examples from past Israeli - Palestinian fighting were events in Jenin in 2002. Media news sources around the world reported that over 500 Palestinians had been massacred in Jenin. Here is what the UK Guardian stated:
"A senior Palestinian, Nabil Shaath, accused Israel of carrying out summary executions and removing corpses in refrigerated trucks. He said close to 500 people had been killed. Israel says 70 Palestinian fighters died in the fighting. 'The Israeli army took six days to complete its massacre in Jenin and six days to clean it up,'" Mr Shaath said.
Source - http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Later reports, including from a UN Commission, confirmed 56 deaths. Here is piece in the Guardian on this point: http://www.guardian.co.uk/... In addition, Wikipedia has a good discussion: http://en.wikipedia.org/... There continues to be controversy about Israel's actions in Jenin, but elements of the Palestinian authority ultimately actually claimed it as a victory against the IDF: http://goliath.ecnext.com/...
Conversely, and to show that this can go both ways, the following video was posted by the IDF under the heading "Israel Air Force Strikes Rockets in Transit 28 Dec. 2008":
http://www.youtube.com/...
It was later questionned by the BBC and an Israeli human rights organization, Btselem: http://news.bbc.co.uk/...
I think that the concluding paragraph from the journalist who wrote this article is particularly apt:
"I do not believe anyone's 'propaganda.' We seek to verify all claims, from whatever source. One of the main claims in Gaza at the moment is the serious situation for the population. Having reported from Gaza many times over the years, I know how crowded parts of it are and how dependent the people are on food aid from the UN. This means they have no other source of supply but equally, if the system is working, they should be getting enough to get by on. The problem is that foreign correspondents cannot get in to establish the exact situation for themselves."
One of the lessons that Israel claimed it learned from events in Jenin is that keeping foreign correspondents away from fighting is actually counterproductive because it leads to a lack of verifiable information. I think it is understandable that Israel does not want to admit thousands of journalists to Gaza - and that is probably not an underestimate - since it is an active combat zone. That having been said, it strikes me that admitting a limited number of reputable journalists from a range of organizations and perspectives as soon as possible is important, necessary and beneficial to everyone.
I have already made clear in a prior diary my background and views on the I/P conflict. The purpose of this diary is not to advocate for one side or the other. There have been plenty of others, including myself, who have already done that.
I do not deny the suffering of the Palestinian people nor of those in southern Israel that are the targets of Hamas rockets. The purpose of this diary is to encourage those on all sides of the debate to consider carefully the facts they see and hear (and later claim on this site) and to exercise healthy skepticism. This might result in a more meaningful discussion and some mutual understanding for the positions that the more reasonable people on each side of this debate have expressed over the last week.