18 December 2002
Earlier this year, 187 Israeli professors signed an “Urgent Warning” letter titled “The Israeli government may be contemplating crimes against humanity.” Today, 800 American professors have signed a similar document, warning of coming Israeli ethnic cleansing. EI’s Nigel Parry reports. Read more about 800 American professors sign document warning of coming Israeli ethnic cleansing
18 December 2002
Above: Jaggi Singh.
Jaggi Singh, a Montreal based activist and writer was granted entry into Israel after winning an appeal filed by Israeli lawyer Shamai Leibowitz on December 16th in Tel Aviv by the District Court. An illegal deportation order was issued by Israeli authorities upon Jaggi’s arrival in Tel Aviv on December 14th. Jaggi spent 2 days in detention at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv fighting the illegal deportation order from Israel with support from many Israeli peace activists and international solidarity activists. Stefan Christoff reports. Read more about Exposing the Israeli Occupation: the case of Jaggi Singh
17 December 2002
Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher revealed either simple ignorance of a well-established school of thought or journalistic laziness when he attached the label of ‘Holocaust revisionist’ to author Norman Finkelstein. Amazingly, it took a while for Finkelstein to get a retraction. Mark Hand reports. Read more about Washington Post retracts "Holocaust revisionism" claim against Norman Finkelstein
18 December 2002
“Every six months or so a report comes out detailing the woeful state of geographical knowledge held by many Americans. Usually people chuckle and wonder how it is that so many Americans think California is on the East Coast. After all, every rightly educated American knows it’s on the Left Coast.” Mike Brown writes about what happens when the New York Times sits in on a Middle East geography test. Read more about The New York Times gets an 'F' for geography
16 December 2002
Bernard Lewis
Veteran analyst Lamis Andoni examines the views of Bernard Lewis, the man who coined the phrase “clash of civilisations” and inspiration for much of the current US administration’s Middle East policy, in this article based on her UC Berkeley course, “The War on Terrorism: The US, Islam and the Arab World”. Read more about Bernard Lewis: In the service of empire
16 December 2002
On 3 December 2002, EI’s Ali Abunimah, historian Peter Novick, writer Emily Hauser and Rabbi Arnold Wolf met at the University of Chicago to consider the differences between criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism. EI presents the text of the opening remarks of the four panelists. Read more about Panel: Is criticism of Israel anti-Semitism?
13 December 2002
NPR loudly reported highly dubious, anonymous claims that Palestinian “extremists” linked to Al-Qaida had obtained a deadly nerve agent from Iraq. When Pentagon sources poured cold water on the charges, which came from a Washington Post journalist who had previously concealed news at the government’s request, NPR fell silent. EI’s Ali Abunimah takes NPR to task. Read more about NPR allows dubious, sensational claims to stand
13 December 2002
On Wednesday 11th December 2002, the social arm of Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah was one of three organisations to be added to Canada’s official list of “terrorist entities”. Canadian newspapers and politicians cited, as the ultimate deciding factor for Canada’s policy change towards Hizbullah, a statement attributed to its leader Hassan Nasrallah last month in which he allegedly urged Palestinians to undertake suicide bombings outside of Israel/Palestine, in locations around the world. But it has now emerged that the source of the remarks is suspect, meaning that an organisation widely recognised for its humanitarian contributions in desperate areas of the Middle East has been cut off from a considerable number of donors on the basis of a false account. EI’s Nigel Parry reports. Read more about False Washington Times report convinces Canada to ban Hizbullah
12 December 2002
The Reuters article “Double standards” that appeared in the Oct 10th edition of the Economist was been widely circulated and lauded by pro-Israeli media monitoring groups as “seminal” (Honest Reporting, Oct 17) and “highly informative and balanced” (CAMERA alert, Oct 16). This dubious praise was only garnered because the article avoided a rather important fact… Read more about Economist: Main reason for UN inaction against Israel glossed over
12 December 2002
NPR demonstrated a complete lack of skepticism about a report in the Washington Post citing shadowy and anonymous government sources claiming that Lebanon-based Al-Qaida-lined extremists obtained a deadly chemical weapon from Iraq. By failing to ask any hard questions, NPR served essentially as a transcription service for the government, rather than as an independent source of news and analysis. EI’s Ali Abunimah explains. Read more about NPR confuses irresponsible speculation for hard news