Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Stack that deck!

In the first line of a story appearing today, the racists at Reuters tell us:

Israeli authorities demolished two Palestinian homes near Arab East Jerusalem on Tuesday, ignoring international concern about the practice.

Reuters frequently deploys the racially-loaded fiction, "Arab East Jerusalem", in an effort to demarcate the area and assign title to the Arabs. And by adopting the Arab historical narrative associated with the land, Reuters offers succor to the Palestinians in their claim to all of Israel as Arab territory.

Reuters then goes on to cite the Head of the UN Human Rights Council as calling for a halt to house demolitions in "East Jerusalem". This is the UN body "responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe", constituted by exemplary states like Jordan where Palestinian Arabs have been stripped of their residency and Jews are forbidden to own property, as well as Saudi Arabia where Jews are banned.

Reuters also quotes Adnan al-Husseini (identified as the Palestinian-appointed "governor of Jerusalem" but actually the PA adviser on Jerusalem affairs) insisting that the UN Security Council intervene to stop these "criminal actions". This, from someone who demands that the Western Wall of the Jewish Temple be under Muslim control -- obviously a thoughtful and authoritative source on matters of international law.

Finally, in a prominent example of the propaganda techniques of card stacking and appeal to pity, Reuters reports:

Statistics in a U.N. report published in May showed that 1,500 demolition orders issued by the Jerusalem municipality were pending for Palestinian dwellings built without permits. The report said that if the orders were implemented, about 9,000 Palestinians would be displaced.

What Reuters does not report is that over the last few years, Palestinian Arabs have built 6,000 homes in Jerusalem without permits and that as per a study at the time, the majority of illegal structures demolished between 1995 and 2001 were in the Jewish sector.

Just the usual oversight, we're sure.

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