The war against the Jews (16)
Last week the Palestinian Reuters’ cameraman, Fadel Shana, was said to have been killed by an Israeli tank in the raid in Gaza following the killing of three Israeli soldiers. However, it looks as if his death may have been yet another manipulated piece of propaganda. Initial reports claimed his car had been hit by an Israeli tank even though the car was clearly marked ‘TV’. Yet subsequently, Reuters claimed he had been killed by a weapon fired by the Israelis which upon exploding in mid-air scattered anti-personnel darts. So how could his car have been blown up by a shell that exploded mid-air? Further claims were made that a second shell was fired at the car two minutes later. But this story in the Sydney Morning Herald, which reported the second shell claim, also reported:
Colleagues passing by in an Agence France-Presse armoured car noticed the smoke from the burning vehicle and turned back to investigate. An AFP stills photographer, Mohammed Albaba, said they were approaching the burning Jeep when a second missile struck close to it…The car was thus said to be already burning when it was allegedly struck again. But the picture above is captioned by Getty Images: 'An ambulance worker looks at the body of Reuters' cameraman Fadel Shana as he lies in the road after his car was hit by an Israeli missile'. But does his car look as if it has just been hit by an Israeli missile? It is not burning. It is intact. And if he was killed when the car was blown up, how come his body was in the road? And the original question remains: how can an anti-personnel shell that detonates mid-air have blown up a car?
The implication of the media reports was that the Israelis had deliberately targeted Shana’s car, even though it was clearly marked ’TV'. If the Israelis did kill him, however, it would undoubtedly have been because they believed he was one of the terrorists whom they were targeting; it seems unlikely that the tank in question would have seen the ‘TV’ marker from such a distance. The Israelis have said that their forces had only fired at armed attackers who were shooting at them from close range. It did not know what kind of missile had struck the press vehicle, and it was unaware of reports of a second attack minutes later.
Moreover, it is a curious fact that this was the second time Shana had reportedly been hit by an Israeli missile firing at his car. As Israellycool reports, on that occasion his claims of shrapnel injuries to his arms was hardly consistent with a missile direct hit on his vehicle.
One of the earliest to sniff dirty work at the lens face in Gaza last week was Professor Richard Landes, who has led the field in writing about the staged ‘killing’ of Mohammed al Dura. On his website last week, Landes published this observation by a reader about the pictures of the aftermath of the Israeli raid:
What puzzled me was the following. Two young men (and one bicycle) lie in the road. The young men show some traces of blood, the form of which resembles that produced by a knife wound. No sign of a shell crater or other damage is visible. In the distance is seen a collection of cars, one of which is claimed to belong to a cameraman killed by the same shell. The footage continues by getting closer to this car. No obvious damage, fire or smoke is visible. A new camera angle then shows a vehicle marked with TV insignia in flames with heavy billows of smoke surrounding it and spreading prominently into the air. The camera of the cameraman is displayed amid scenes of grief. My puzzlement is:- whether the injuries displayed on the young men are compatible with a tank shell
- whether a tank shell could have hit both the youngsters and a car 100 meters away
- why the car is not on fire in one image and is very prominently in flames in the other.
Other websites have now excavated much evidence to flesh out this reader’s concerns. Israellycool pulls together evidence from a number of different sites to reveal discrepancies between the various accounts. The Elder of Ziyon, for example, pointed out that this colleague of Shana’s, journalist Yassir Qadih, claimed:
There was nobody around us except a group of children who we were going to film. There were no resistance groups in the area.Yet AP reported that
Shana died along with two bystanders after his car was hit while filming Israeli tank movements
.But it is the photo-journalists’ website Snapped Shot which produces the really important evidence in this case about about notable discrepancies in the pictures. Key is that Shana was supposedly killed by darts from an anti-personnel weapon; yet the picture sequence shows that the car in which he had been travelling subsequently burst into flames; and it took time for the bodies to be shown on the ground in front of the burning car. Snapped Shot speculates that the evidence suggests Shana may have been killed instead by recoil from an anti-tank weapon – ie, a friendly fire killing by Hamas -- and the car was set on fire to destroy the evidence of what had really happened. Is this yet another full-blown media 'fauxtography' scandal -- with Reuters once again in the manipulated frame?
A response from Mark Thompson, managing editor, Reuters News:
I was shocked and appalled to read Melanie Phillips' April 21 blog post "The War Against Israel (16)" concerning the death of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana last month. It is inaccurate, offensive and defamatory. Fadel, a member of the Reuters Gaza team that won the Royal Television Society award earlier this year, was killed by an Israeli tank while going about his profession in a responsible manner. His colleague Wafa Abu Mizyed was wounded in the attack, and eight mostly teenage bystanders were also killed. The Israel Defense Force does not dispute that its tank opened fire with flechette shells but has yet to release the results of an inquiry into why the order to fire was given.
Not only is your blog extremely distressing for the family and friends of our late colleague, it cynically implies that Reuters has conspired to manipulate this personal and professional tragedy for political aims - nothing could be further from the truth. We are proud of the dignity and professionalism of our staff in Israel, the Palestinian territories and around the world who work hard in all conditions to report the news accurately, independently and without bias. We strive to protect our journalists and the freedom of the press, and have urged the Israeli authorities to release their report as soon as possible so that we can work together on ways to improve safety.
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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'Londonistan', published by Encounter and Gibson Square.
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Ravi
April 21st, 2008 8:58pmTime to remember the Lebanese ambulance that was never hit by an Israel missile either. Jeremy Bowen was SO upset! But it never happened. (Really, it was faked)
Alex
April 21st, 2008 9:15pmIn honesty, I think the situation is currently too close to call. I saw the footage early on in its release before the “second attack” which is certainly suspicious and the Press truck was damaged in a manner more consistent with gunfire than a flechette shell.
I think the real answer to this is angles, the trucks on a road with raised embankments and has sustained damage to the front of the vehicle and the two young Palestinian casualties lying before a break in this embankment means an Israeli shell didn’t come through the break yet one of the young men is clearly hit to the front. If indeed there was a flechette shell, where an earth did it come from and why are the two young men hit in a particularly localised manner whilst the truck appears to have only incurred hits to the windshield?
I’ve linked to the Guardians explanation of a flechette round http://www.guardian.co.uk/graphic/0,,2274464,00.html but I think the only real evidence will come from verifiable x-rays of the unfortunate journalist involved.
Seth
April 21st, 2008 9:21pmI wouldn't put it past Reuters, would you?
Maurice, MD
April 21st, 2008 9:59pmAre the letters TV now equivalent to the Red Cross Emblem as identifying persons under special protection?
Is that a new clause of the Geneva Convention?
If so, anybody can write "TV" as a cover for any activity, including terrorism.
Distinguished journalists and correspondents and photographers have fallen in battles that they covered without being granted this kind of protection.
Dee Ranged
April 21st, 2008 11:34pmMore sinister Hamas propoganda - truly!
phil
April 22nd, 2008 12:31pmWho knows ? so many falsehoods are put out like this by the Hamas propaganda machine and are later proved to be outright lies -the truth gets lost in the mysteries of time but the accusation stays long in the memories of those who want to believe ill -Can anyone tell me what Israel has to gain by killing journalists ?or innocents .it just beggars belief that no one can see that it only benefits Hamas-accidents sadly happen ,but on purpose -ridiculous
YA
April 22nd, 2008 3:47pm..if you want to film troops, ask for permission. Otherwise it ends like this.. Why? - becasue operational time is short, observer/spotter is high danger to troops, and should be a priority target.. And overall, if you want to live longer - keep distance from terrorists.
Commondog
April 22nd, 2008 6:47pmSo it said "TV" on the car.
It says "OXO" on the side of buses.
Alex
April 22nd, 2008 10:45pmOh common dog, how I enjoy your insightful comments.
YA, I think we both know that it can’t work like that. Embedded/controlled press isn’t a press at all, it’s a mouthpiece for whoever’s directing them.
Adam B.
April 22nd, 2008 11:54pmAlex, you're right. That's why the reports from Lebanon by Al-Beeb et al in the summer of 2006 were garbage, the press' freedom of movement being openly controlled by Hizbollah.
Andy
April 23rd, 2008 6:50amSo the shell from the Israeli tank shown in the footage somehow magically didn't injure or kill anyone or the cameraman? Or do you want me to believe that was not an Israeli tank, but an illusion created by Hamas as propaganda to mislead us? You guys are as bad as those lunatics who claim that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks. I wonder if this comment will pass through the censors.
Wilbur Post
April 23rd, 2008 8:35amThe Sydney Morning Herald article you cite was written by Ed O'Loughlin who heads up the Australian Fairfax newspaper stable's Middle East bureau.
This is immediately problematic because you would have to search long and hard in the archives of the SMH or the Melbourne Age to find an article written by O'Loughlin which is critical of Hamas, the other Palestinian terrorist groups or Hizbullah.
When human rights groups were critical of Hizbullah's conduct during the Second Lebanon War, O'Loughlin was reporting elsewhere. Did he cover Farfur the Mickey Mouse like character who taught Gazan kiddies to hate Jews? Absolutely not.
The same can be said of the myriad of bad news stories about Hamas that could be written on an almost daily basis.
This journalist only appears when there's a bad news story to report about Israel such as this one where the emphasis of the story is the allegation that Israelis targetted the Palestinian cameraman.
His reports merit little credibility.
Dave
April 23rd, 2008 2:20pmIt would seem not, Mel.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2008/04/23/ftgaza123.xml
roGER
April 23rd, 2008 3:42pmOh dear, Mel and science seldom agree, in the case it's the science of ballistics.
To start answering her many foolish questions, perhaps Mel could start by pondering:
1) Why the flechette shell is DESIGNED to explode in mid air?
2) What the effects of even a few metal darts travelling at supersonic speed might have upon a human, even if they are wearing a flack jacket. HINT: Penetration is related to velocity, mass, and cross-section.
3) How otherwise to explain the presence of flechettes in the body of Fadel Shania (see Hareetz article).
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/976084.html
Lest anyone think I'm being too hard on Mel and science, and think this article an abberation, I suggest you Google her views on the MMR vaccine (and her associated misunderstanding of basic statistics and scientific procedure) and her penchant for repeating the most outrageous stories that come from extreme Zionist propaganda sites.
patricia
April 23rd, 2008 4:26pmISRAEL IS INNOCENT!!
But it does like the odd massacre from time to time...
The first act of Jewish Terrorism (of late) was in 1946 Ben Gurion said yes to the Massacre at the King David Hotel. 92 Brits and others dead.
Palestinian Arabs were targeted regularly throughout the 40s and 50s, Semiramis, Dair Yasin, Qibya, Kafr Qasem. Kahn Unis are notorious examples.
Massacres followed throughout the decades, notable in Lebanon and infamously at the Shabra and Shatila camps, where 3500 people were slaughtered.
And then there was Jenin. An area the size of several football pitches was flattened by the IDF and human remains have been found beneath in what the UN described as "horror beyond belief".
Today in Gaza, hundreds of women and children have been killed in care free acts of collateral damage.
But for Melanie, whatever the evidence, from Jewish human rights groups or foreign governments,
ISRAEL IS INNOCENT
phil
April 23rd, 2008 5:48pmPatricia do you think if you tell bigger and bigger whoppers people will believe you -like Jenin 1000 reduced on inspection to 50 many of them militants and Israeli soldiers -shatila an even bigger lie ,even you must know the killers were not Israeli -I can only conclude the moderator allows you to post this stuff so you will make a bigger fool of yourself than ever -I wish he wouldn't because we all know it anyhow
Ann
April 23rd, 2008 9:16pmQuite so, Phil. And there is other nonsense you have not highlighted, such as the idiotic canard about the King David 'hotel' which was not, of course, a hotel at all but the HQ of British military intelligence, and thus a legitimate military target. Or Sabra & Shatila, which was not carried out by Israel but by ARABS. Or the failure to mention many massacres carried out by Arabs (but this time, properly documented) - Hebron, Mt Scopus, JNF, ........
Not that mindless Jew-haters will take the slightest note (cf. roger's 'extreme Zionist propaganda sites').
KateA
April 24th, 2008 12:51amAh so Patricia - more hysterics, AND statistics convenient to your cause? Except, as with everything you post, not quite accurate.
Your favoured web site certainly states: "92 Brits and others dead": Israeli Crimes: Details and Numbers of the Nazi Jews activities
http://www.deathmasters.com/#KING
However, copies of newspaper accounts at the time claim 28 British, 41 Arabs and 17 Jews dead - NOT 'your' 92 Brits.
How's your maths ... 6 million dead; survivors returned to Europe to face Polish pogroms, or to holding camps ... supplies of British arms to the Arabs .. all the stuff you ignore in your righteousness. It's documented and accessible from British government archives - not that you'd be interested of course.
Ann
April 24th, 2008 9:24amKate, this is simply more evidence that frequenting neo-Nazi websites and buying wholesale the vile c*** published on them is bad for the brain.