News
Is U.S. News Media Covering Up Casualties Inflicted by Israel?
Author Alison Weir remembers supporting Israel as a young person growing up in a military family.
“I was sympathetic to Israel,” she said. “I had seen (the movie) ‘Exodus’ with Paul Newman and was aware of the Nazi atrocities.”
Alison Weir
Founded Research Institute
It was a realization that would motivate her work as a researcher and writer. In 2001, she traveled to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where she said she found conditions that differed from what was being reported by U.S. media. The trip led to her founding a non-profit research institute focused on the Middle East conflict.
Her organization — If Americans Knew — was created “to provide information that is to a large degree missing from American press coverage of this critical region,” according to the institute’s website.
Weir recently delivered a keynote presentation to members and guests of the Fresno Center for Nonviolence. She described significant under-reporting by U.S. media outlets of Palestinian casualties at the hands of Israeli forces.
“Children were being shot, in many cases,” Weir told the group. “And yet, the news media — NPR, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle — was sort of obscuring that fact.”
“After a while, I came to realize that this was the biggest cover-up I had ever seen,” she said.
Weir is the author of “Against Our Better Judgement: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel.” The book was published in 2014.
Alice Silverman
June 19, 2019 at 10:34 am
It seems to me that her story telling is also one-sided. To report a balanced story of what’s happening in the Gaza, etc. you can’t leave out the bombs being hurled into Israel as well as the pledge from groups like Hamas, whose aim is to annihilate Israelis. It’s a complicated existence. We’ve been to Israel and while we didn’t go to the Gaza, many Palestinians work and exist in Israel despite terrorism. Can Israel do better? Yes, but as long as Netanyahu is in power (Trump’s friend) the dialogue will continue to be hawkish and Hamas has as much power as it has, well, it’s complicated.
Catherine Gee
June 21, 2019 at 1:56 pm
It’s important to note, that even BEFORE Hamas, Israel was massacring unarmed Palestinians. Bear in mind, Palestine does not have a military. Yet, Americans fund Isrseli military to the tune of $3.8 billion a year. We bear a responsibility for each and every child killed by Israeli bullets financed by American taxpayers. Furthermore, the Palestinians have a right to resist their occupiers, including armed resistance. Then there’s the issue of all those Israeli squatters: United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 was adopted on 23 December 2016. It concerns the Israeli settlements in “Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem”. The resolution passed in a 14–0 vote by members of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC). Four members with United Nations Security Council veto power, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom, voted for the resolution, but the United States abstained.
The resolution states that Israel’s settlement activity constitutes a “flagrant violation” of international law and has “no legal validity”. It demands that Israel stop such activity and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
It was the first UNSC resolution to pass regarding Israel and the Palestine territories since Resolution 1860 in 2009, and the first to address the issue of Israeli settlements with such specificity since Resolution 465 in 1980. While the resolution did not include any sanction or coercive measure and was adopted under the non-binding Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter, Israeli newspaper Haaretz stated it “may have serious ramifications for Israel in general and specifically for the settlement enterprise” in the medium-to-long term.
Ron Temis
September 1, 2019 at 9:44 pm
Arabs were massacring Jews (Hebron) in 1929, long before the founding of the modern State of Israel. Look up Mufti and Hitler and see the collaboration between the Nazis and the Arab Palestinians.
Murray Farber
June 19, 2019 at 11:13 am
So Allison Weir offers anther conspiracy theory about the press. Actually Mideast reports show that Israel makes the MOST comprehensive effort to avoid civilian casualties, even issuing warnings before countering rockets from Gaza. Hamas claims victims are always civilians and hides the number of terrorists involved in attacks. They are exploiting their own people and using children to create border incidents.
Jane Voter
June 21, 2019 at 1:37 pm
Nothing honorable about Israel massacring 551 children during the 51-day assault on Gaza summer2014. As Americans, we should urge our Congress to stop funding Israel’s human rights violations. After all, what could $10 million a day do for your state?
Jonathan Rodcor
June 19, 2019 at 11:55 pm
The Israelis are murderers. They need to get off all Palestinian land and stop slaughtering Palestinian women and children. The world is sick of Israeli violence and sick of the Israeli terrorists that murder Palestinians everyday. It’s no wonder anti Semitic attacks are rising throughout the world in retaliation for Israel’s barbaric behaviour. Some have argued Israel is purposely stoking up anti Semitic hatred around the world so that more Jews move to Israel. Just like when the Zionists purposely colluded with Hitler in 1930’s Germany to get Jews moved out of Germany and to Palestine.
B Caracciolo
June 21, 2019 at 3:52 pm
Pro Israel commentors, detractors of Many Weir’s are delusional hasbarists who are actually exposing the vast contradictions pointed out by Ms Wei r and her impeccable research.