Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Elder of ZiyonA Palestinian family of four was killed in a NATO airstrike Monday on the Libyan capital of Tripoli, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The ministry explained in a statement published Tuesday on the government news agency Wafa, that the International Red Crescent Association had relayed the news.
The family, according to Wafa’s report, had lived in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, before moving to Tripoli.
Palestinian ambassador to Libya Atif Udah told Ma'an radio the family was in a three-story building targeted by a NATO air attack. He identified the victims as Abdullah Muhammad Ash-Shihab, his wife Karima and his 6-month-old twins Khalid and Jumanah.
Some 19 civilians were claimed to have been killed in that airstrike, which came only a day after another errant airstrike from NATO killed 9 civilians.
NATO insists that they hit a military target on Monday.
While the increasing number of civilian deaths at the hands of NATO in both Libya and Afghanistan does get some news coverage, the amount and emotional content of that coverage pales next to news coverage of Palestinian Arab deaths from Israeli actions - and the vitriol that accompanies Israeli actions is virtually nonexistent when discussing Western killings of civilians.
It is telling that NATO didn't manage to kill its target in the Monday strike.
There is simply no comparison between the sanitized news coverage and lack of world reaction of these NATO attacks with that of Israel's attack in July 2002 that killed Hamas master terrorist Salah Shehadeh - and some 14 civilians who were in the same building.
No wailing relatives in Libya. No Arab leaders calling it a "horrible act." No condemnation by the White House and UN. No statements from Sweden calling it a war crime and calling into question NATO's democratic values.
Why the double standard?
