Sunday, December 03, 2017
Elder of Ziyon
No one who is at all familiar with Israeli newspapers really expects honest journalism from Haaretz any more, but that doesn't mean that their methods don't need to be exposed.
Amira Hass wrote an article about how Israel is delaying Gaza patients from being approved for medical treatment in Israel, saying that things are much worse this year than ever.
About 25 paragraphs of the article are accusations against Israel and descriptions of specific heartbreaking cases of Gaza children who have died or are very sick because they are waiting on responses.
Buried in the middle of the article is the Shin Bet response:
The Shin Bet said in response, “Over the past year, we have seen an increase in the practice whereby terrorist organizations, headed by Hamas, exploit the departure of Gaza residents (including for medical treatment) to promote terrorist activity, including by transferring explosives, money for terrorism and other means of promoting terrorist activity.Although the article includes the usual hyperlinks to topics when they are relevant, this article doesn't bother to link to Haaretz' own reporting of the story of the two sisters, one who had cancer, who were caught attempting to smuggle explosives into Israel.
“This past April, two Palestinians who had been allowed entry into Israel so that one of them could receive medical treatment for cancer were caught at the Erez crossing. Their baggage was found to contain medical tubes, inside of which explosives were hidden that apparently were meant for a Hamas attack in Israel.
“Given the great danger this activity presents, strict security checks are performed on everyone applying to leave Gaza. Naturally, these checks take time, and efforts are constantly being made to reduce that time and prioritize the handling of all entry applications, with an emphasis on humanitarian applications whose subject is entering Israel to receive life-saving medical treatment.”
Later on, the Shin Bet is quoted as saying that many of the cases that Haaretz mentioned to them of people waiting to enter, or who had died waiting, had been, in fact, approved to enter Israel. Hass didn't bother to verify the Shin Bet response in the piece, making the reader think that they are simply making it up. It would undermine the entire story if he Shin Bet claims were true, after all.
Finally, in the next to last paragraph, she writes:
In recent months there has been a drop in the stock of medications used in conjunction with chemotherapy, they wrote, and it is difficult to perform surgery to remove tumors because of the shortage of fuel and electricity. Moreover, in Gaza there are no radiation or radioactive iodine treatments, nor is there equipment for following the progress of the disease. In addition, both the Majadala-Efrat letter and the B’Tselem report note that the Palestinian Authority is now pursuing a policy of reducing the number of patients sent for treatment outside Gaza.The reason for the drop in medications, which result in more applications for medical treatment in Israel and therefore more delays? The Palestinian Authority.
The reasons for the drop in electricity and fuel, causing surgeries to not be possible in Gaza and causing more people to seek treatment in Israel, endangering their lives? The Palestinian Authority.
The reason that there are fewer patients being approved to leave Gaza? The Palestinian Authority!
But Haaretz and Hass downplay this. They barely mention enough to pretend to be even-handed (which, in Amira Hass' case, is an improvement), but the average reader comes away with this story with more hate for Israel, and none for the Palestinians who pursue a policy of directly hurting their own people.
Which is, after all, the intent.
