Jul 4 2012

What Harriet Sherwood won’t report: Palestinians beaten by PA police


Over the past several days hundreds of Palestinians have been demonstrating in Ramallah (and in other PA-controlled cities) in protest against diplomatic contacts with Israel and to denounce police violence at a previous rally.

On Saturday seven Palestinians were arrested after PA police used violence to quell the protests.

Ten Palestinians were hospitalized, including a few journalists who were beaten as they tried to cover the event.

“They beat them badly,” a witness told Ma’an.

The injured journalists were identified as Muhammad Jaradat, Hassan Faraj and Waed Barghouti.

Here are some photos of the violence:

According to Ynet, many of the protesters were chanting “We want your head Mofaz” as well as “The people want the fall of Oslo.” 

Regarding MSM coverage of the incident, CAMERA observed:

“…the major media outlets, usually so quick to run photos of Palestinians [demonstrating against Israel], has almost entirely ignored the story. Not a word from the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, CNN, New York Times, International Herald Tribune and others.”

Quite predictably, there hasn’t been a word about the incident from the human rights crusading Guardian journalist assigned to the region, Harriet Sherwood.

It is difficult to figure out which dynamic is most revealing about the story:

  • Palestinians in Ramallah were motivated to take to the streets and protest at the mere prospect of peace talks with Israel.
  • Journalists were beaten by Palestinian security personnel.
  • The Guardian has no interest in allowing their readers a glimpse into the reality of Palestinian society.
Either way, those genuinely seeking to learn more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (beyond the headlines, clichés and invectives), are deprived, by the media gatekeepers, of information which may challenge their pre-conceived notions. 
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29 comments on “What Harriet Sherwood won’t report: Palestinians beaten by PA police”

  2. “Quite predictably, there hasn’t been a word about the incident from the human rights crusading Guardian journalist assigned to the region, Harriet Sherwood.”
    No, ya don’t say. Maybe she was absent that day. Or maybe the dog ate her report.

        • Don’t get me going on Harriet’s pedicure. Last time I asked what polish color she’d chosen and was promptly accused of not caring about the children of Gaza. Who knows what I’ll be accused of if I ask whether she opted for the French manicure this time?

        • I know, it’s terrible: women can be journalists, have successful careers AND get a pedicure.

          Machos don’t like it it seems.

  3. Guess what the G. did cover?
    Yes, that’s right, another conspiracy regarding Israel’s supposed involvement in Arafat’s death(and now, his impending exhumation).
    And Lo, and behold, apparently, unbeknownst to us all, Israel had a clandestine President, who has hidden his title so well:
    “…While it is known that Israeli officials – including the former Israeli president Ariel Sharon’s then deputy Ehud Olmert – …”
    But that’s not all:

    “…had discussed “eliminating” Arafat “as a terror head”, the emergence of Arafat’s effects after so long is unlikely to prove how he died, something only an autopsy is likely to reveal…”

    A search for any evidence backing these “known”(I must admit that after countless, nearly annual refutations of such invectives by the Israeli government, I cannot be counted among those who supposedly “knew”, or buys them, frankly) claims, ended up, sadly on: “Stormfront”.
    (We have this, from the Jpost’s archive, clearly stating that Israel intended no such thing).
    Quality reporting, brought to you by Greenwood et al.

  5. I doubt if it’s Sherwood’s decision to suppress this story. Sherwood works for the Guardian and is answerable to Rusbridger who sets the policy.

    If Rusbridger says it ain’t news, it doesn’t get published. Sherwood is doubtless under strict instructions to find and report anti Israel stories: Anything else would get binned by the powers that be at Guardian Towers.

    Sherwood, as they used to say in Germany during the war, is “only following orders”.

    • Sherwood is a journalist, she’s paid to write stories with impartiality, not to spread the propaganda of pro-settlement far right wingers.

      • By you she’s a journalist – by the Guardian she’s a journalist – but tell us, Nat: by a real journalist is Harriet a journalist? Methinks she’s too embedded with the Palestinians.

    • It seems that at least one person, cited by that report as being a “photojournalist”-Mohammed Othman, is, apparently, not a journalist at all, but a prominent and vocal activist, who no doubt played more than just a bystander’s role in his own injury;
      Plus, the closure of the Pal. TV stations, is completely authorized by the Oslo accords(which allocated specific frequencies, for PA usage), which the PA signed, by the way.
      And at any rate, the incidents mentioned(that need still to be verified) are hardly tantamount to being “routine”.
      http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/20/israel-palestine-mohammad-othman?INTCMP=SRCH
      With regards to Othman, whom should we believe, RWB, or the Guardian?
      For an anti-Semite such as yourself(you’re the one who propounded the “Khazar” myth in an earlier thread here), it REALLY is a quandary.

      • “And at any rate, the incidents mentioned(that need still to be verified) are hardly tantamount to being “routine”.”

        As Reporters Without Borders (which criticises the governments of many countries of all political persuasions) notes: “Last year, Reporters Without Borders recorded more than 70 cases of violence by IDF troops against Palestinian, Israeli and foreign journalists.” That sounds fairly routine to me.

        “Mohammed Othman, is, apparently, not a journalist at all”

        So it’s quite OK to shoot him then. Was he armed? Was he an immediate threat to anyone at all? I think you reveal precisely the attitude of the IDF. Anybody they don’t like is fair game.

        • My dear fellow,
          You impute to me charges, on no basis whatsoever.
          Where did I, God forbid, imply that it was “okay” shoot Mr. Othman?
          I was merely saying that it is likely that he provoked a response, as it, sadly frequently happens, by throwing(not personally, but by some of his fellow picketers) Molotov Cocktails, rocks/stones etc.(And you know that these things happen)
          What do they think is going to happen, in such a case?
          Secondly, protests of this nature take place, nearly every Friday, in Nabi Selah and Bil’in. But according to your thesis(“Anybody they don’t like is fair game.”) we should have seen hundreds, if not thousands of corpses by now(Heaven forfend); do we? Of course not.
          Force is only used(and its application in the Israeli army is one of the most stringent in the world) when the demonstration gets out of hand.
          (By the way, did you ever stop to wonder, why they marched to the Erez crossing, on that day in May? Their reported aim was to violate the Israeli border with the Gaza strip, one which even YOU recognize(as far as I can gather)).

        • I am still waiting, by-the-by, for an apology for that “Khazar” rant. It doesn’t behoove you.

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