NC professor illustrates Deir Yassin with Nazi concentration camp photo

A blog entry by Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, talks about the "massacre" of Deir Yassin in the 1948 war.

He quotes an article about the event from Counterpunch that is filled with lies - even Safi admits that the article he quotes is probably wrong when it says that 250 people were killed, but he shows no skepticism about the rest of the article, such as saying many of the bodies were stuffed down wells, or that the Jews threatened another massacre in Jaffa with loudspeakers when in fact the Arab leaders at the time led the flight from Jaffa...there are dozens of such lies. And that article was also written by a professor.

But as bad as it is for academics to engage in flat-out lies, Safi goes further. He illustrates the "massacre" with a photo of victims of the Nazis!

In fact, this photo is of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, part of the Buchenwald complex, and the dead bodies were victims of a Royal Air Force bombing raid in April 1945.

The Religion News Service, which sponsors this blog, claims:

RNS strives to meet the highest standards of public service journalism. Through our work, we report, write, compile, record and post news, features, photos and video.

Our goal is to promote civic engagement and discourse on religion. We strive to inform and challenge our readers, out of a conviction that religious literacy is a necessary component of effective citizenship.

I didn't know that outright lies were considered "highest standards" of journalism.

Hat tip to Tundra Tabloids, who has more. A much more accurate description of what happened in Deir Yassin, and how both Jewish and Arab leaders used exaggerations and lies about the event to further their own aims, can be seen here.

UPDATE: Safi removed the photo.

UPDATE 2: But he replaced it with this:

EoZ reader Irene looked at this and noticed the plastic bags - were plastic bags widely available in 1948?

In fact, this image is associated  on the Internet more with the Sabra and Shatila massacres done by Christian Phalangists against Muslims than with Deir Yassin. 

Yes, the esteemed professor Safi cannot even do a decent job in basic research skills. He saw the photo at an anti-Israel site a sbeing "Deir Yassin" and believed it wholeheartedly. 

Religion News Service must be so proud to host this person who, apparently, adheres to the "highest standards of public service journalism."