Janhoo's Blog

As I commented in several earlier blog entries, the conflict in Sri Lanka was virtually ignored compared with the attention shed on Israel's attempts to stop rocket attacks on its territory. Honest Reporting actually went through the trouble of comparing BBC's coverage of the two conflicts. Not surprisingly, 4.5 articles were written every day about Israel's efforts to stop Hamas' rocket attacks, while the conflict in Sri Lanka produced barely one article per day. Since the estimated number of civilian deaths in Sri Lanka was much higher than in Gaza, the difference in reporting (not to mention condemnation) becomes difficult to explain.

Labels: gaza, media, reporting, sri lanka

According to The International Herald Tribune, "UN says Hamas stole aid intended for Gazans". Israel has been allowing approximately 200 truckloads of humanitarian aid into Gaza on a daily basis since the end of the campaign, though the article does not mention how much aid Egypt has allowed to pass through its borders.

Also, human rights groups have commented that an investigation of Hamas war crimes is not necessary as its actions constitute blatant war crimes not worthy of investigation.

The Norwegian tabloids VG & Dagbladet are ignoring these stories, and instead focus on a Norwegian politician that recently made a trip to the Gaza Strip and Israel. VG and Dagbladet also published articles on wreckage that needs to be removed from the Gaza Strip.

Currently, the crisis in Sri Lanka is getting zero coverage on the front pages of Dagbladet and VG. James Dunnigan posted an interesting article yesterday titled "Why Israel Is Special". He writes in the article about how approximately 300,000 people have been killed in fighting in Sudan during the last few years, around 5 million have died indirectly or directly as a result of the war in Congo during the last decade, and almost 100,000 have been killed in Sri Lanka during the last 25 years. Still, all the world's focus is on Israel and the "horrible" Jews, though the number of dead in the Israel-Arab conflict is relatively minimal compared to other conflicts. As he ends his essay; "Go Figure".

Update 1: VG has posted a small article covering an amnesty offered to the Tamil rebels by the government in Colombo. Dagbladet is still ignoring the Sri Lanka crisis, not to mention any stories stories from Africa. Instead, Dagbladet has posted a one-sided story (the sources are Al Jadeed og Al Jazeera) about a boat with emergency aid that was stopped on its way to Gaza. The ship is apparently trying to access Gaza without Israeli permission, and has several Palestinian activists onboard the ship. It seems the activists are more interested in media attention than they are in delivering the aid. Since it surely is not possible for them to ensure that the aid does not end up in the arms of Hamas, perhaps they ought to sail on to Sri Lanka?

Labels: gaza, hamas, israel, norway, sri lanka, sudan

Following courageous reporting by Patrick Martin of The Globe and Mail, it has now been established that the UN school in Gaza was not bombed after all. Read more about his findings at Honest Reporting.

I am glad to see that the tabloid VG is covering the story, though they are not very willing to admit their error. The title simply reads "Israeli grenades killed 40 civilians outside of school, not inside".

While it is natural to question what 40 civilians were doing walking around outside the school perimeters, the big question is why the UN has not previously made public that the school was not shelled. For example, the UNRWA's operations director in Gaza condemned the attack and suggested Israel knew it was targeting a UN school simply because Israel had the GPS coordinates of all UN facilities in the area.

In other boring stories today, UPDF peacekeepers in Somalia have been accused of shooting and killing up to 40 civilians. Luckily we do not need to care as that is taking place in Africa. Also, Sri Lanka is continuing to shell hospitals and civilians, but Norwegian socialists (including madmen Mads Gilbert & Erik Fosse + disgraced diplomat Trine Lilleng) do not need to play outraged, but can sit back and relax as no Jews are involved.

Labels: false, gaza, israel, reporting, school, shelling, UN

I found an interesting article that gives a revised figure for the number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip. According to the doctor, who ironically works in Gaza's Shifa Hospital (from which the Norwegian Hamas supporters Gilbert & Fosse reported during the midst of the battle), the number of dead stands at no more than 500 or 600. Most of the latter were Hamas members.

Dagbladet is reporting another story about Israel bombing a military target in Gaza. Apparently no one was injured or killed in the attack, but a staged picture (showing a man and a little boy sitting on the rubble of the building) still give the impression this was an attack on civilians. VG makes a big deal about some diplomats held up at the Gaza border for 6 hours (security at the border is understandably strict as a soldier was killed in at attack yesterday). Some warning shots were also fired while a Norwegian diplomat was sitting in a car nearby. There is also a story about the UN requesting $613 million in aid for Gaza.

While these non-stories receive lots of coverage, the Norwegian tabloids are completely ignoring the 100 civilians massacred in Congo.

Labels: casualties, civilian, death, gaza, hamas, israel