Monday, June 19, 2006
Must Read Daled Amos: Pallywood at Gaza Beach
As the investigation continues into last week's fatal explosion on a Gaza Beach, it is becoming clearer that much of the media's knee jerk publication of basically unfiltered Palestinian propaganda is likely wrong. While this doesn't surprise me in general -- I expected as much at the time -- nevertheless, it is edifying to learn more about how the Pallywood industry really functions. It's no small feat to take a tragic internal accident and quickly convert it into a global billy club that the rest of the world uses to pound on a hated neighbor in one's stead.
Daled Amos has some eye-opening details culled from a German newspaper among other sources. For instance, the presence on the scene of Zakaria Abu Irbad, the photographer responsible for many of the famous images of the grieving girl, leaves a lot of unanswered questions:
Israel Matzav also has more, putting the Pallywood information into context against the attempts of other news sources to disprove results of the IDF's investigation. Elder of Ziyon also has a quick summary of the issues.
I can't imagine how this kind of issue would have been handled if we were still back in the days when Dan Rather was our only source of information. Actually, yes I can. I'm so glad we have blogs like Daled Amos, Israel Matzav and Elder of Ziyon around (just to name a few).
If you really, really liked this -- or even really, really hated it -- there's lots more:
Daled Amos has some eye-opening details culled from a German newspaper among other sources. For instance, the presence on the scene of Zakaria Abu Irbad, the photographer responsible for many of the famous images of the grieving girl, leaves a lot of unanswered questions:
- According to Irbad, that reason that Hadil Ghalia was not injured, is because she was swimming--but the footage he took shows here fully clothed and dry.
- Irbad's footage shows paramedics in green clothes and a dozen bearded men looking for evidence on the beach--but the question is whether those are Hamas affiliates and why they were preoccupied with collecting evidence instead of helping the injured.
- Irbad said the reason he filmed Hadil istead of trying to calm her is that: "She asked me to film her. She wanted to be seen next to her father to show the world the crimes that Israel is committing."--but the newspaper asks, "Did the shocked 10-year-old girl, who had lost her father minutes earlier, give the cameraman direction instructions?"
Israel Matzav also has more, putting the Pallywood information into context against the attempts of other news sources to disprove results of the IDF's investigation. Elder of Ziyon also has a quick summary of the issues.
I can't imagine how this kind of issue would have been handled if we were still back in the days when Dan Rather was our only source of information. Actually, yes I can. I'm so glad we have blogs like Daled Amos, Israel Matzav and Elder of Ziyon around (just to name a few).
