Yesterday, Israellycool made the interesting discovery that many of the names of the Gaza casualties listed by Al Jazeera (which gets its names from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry) were listed more than once.
He counted about 33 names that were listed twice, out of less than 600 listed with known names.
I just looked at the list myself, and I count even more - some 42 names out of 592 are listed more than once! They usually have different spellings but it is clear they are the same names.
Even worse, two people are listed as being killed three times! And by sheer coincidence - they are both children!
8 or 9 year old Yaseen Ibrahim Dib al-Kilani was also listed as Yaseen Ibrahim Dieb Alkilani and Yaser Ibrahim Dib al-Kilani.
13 or 14 year old Hiba Hamed Mohammed Alshiekh Khalil/Hiba Hamid Alsheikh Khalil was also listed three times, the second spelling done twice and noted as a duplicate in the list, but still there and counted separately.
This means 7% of the names being solemnly offered to the world media are double or triple counted.
By contrast, I only counted 5 duplicates in the PCHR list of the over 1400 names listed after Cast Lead.
Of course, this list doesn't list the other lies - people who were killed by Hamas rockets, people who were executed as "collaborators" (reportedly 9 of those,) and those who may have died of natural causes that are being counted as casualties. Hamas doesn't exactly have a great track record of being honest.
My only question for the many reporters still using Hamas numbers: Once it is proven that a source is a liar, is it standard practice to continue to trust it?
You know, I'm not a professional journalist, only a mere blogger. Perhaps I don't understand the rules as well as the guys who get paid to do this. I'm willing to learn. After all, if I start loosening my standards, blogging the news will become a whole lot easier.