The Media Accountability Project  

"It is particularly refreshing to read an article which includes several Palestinian voices reporting first-hand on the violence they have been experiencing at the hands of the illegal settlers, who continue to terrorize and disrupt their lives. Furthermore, we appreciate the up-to-date coverage of the events affecting Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Your article provides readers with the necessary context to understand the recent events by succinctly recapping them. This is highly useful."

Palestinians have been living under occupation for several decades and are subjected to restrictions on their movement, freedom of expression, rights abuses and violence at the hands of the Israeli forces as well as Israeli settlers.

The use of such strong language when describing Israeli settler attacks on innocent Palestinians, especially in a situation in which the violence is asymmetrical, is inflammatory and a violation of basic journalistic standards. I insist that you immediately remove the words “revenge” or “avenge” in both articles and their headlines.

"I also appreciate the inclusion of Shireen Abu-Akleh’s case as it points to a larger, systematic issue that Palestinians face. This provides key information to the readers that many reports often omit."

"The article, which relies mostly on information sourced from the Israeli military, fails to mention that the Israeli military fired live bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas, at Palestinian residents protesting the raid and demolition, wounding at least 35, including 20 who suffered from gunshot wounds. According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israeli forces also deliberately injured two Palestinian journalists, Rabee Munir and Momen Samreen, who suffered serious wounds to the head and abdomen. The article also fails to specify that the demolition of Islam Faroukh’s house displaced his parents and four sisters – exemplifying the real brutality and damage by Israeli forces that are absent from Israeli military sources."

As I’m sure you know, Jerusalem is one of the five “final status” issues from the 1993 Oslo Accords. Israel and the Palestinians are not supposed to change the status quo until a negotiated agreement is reached.  Jerusalem was also intended to be a shared international zone under the 1947 UN Partition Plan. Moreover, the UN repeatedly censures Israel for “altering or purporting to alter the legal status and physical and demographic character of the city.”

"For Palestinians, the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 constituted a Nakba or ‘catastrophe,’ where families were forcibly expelled from their homes to make way for Jewish immigrants coming from Europe and the Middle East and North Africa. The massacres of Palestinian villages by Zionist militias, the most well-known being the Deir Yassin, is what drove Palestinians to flee."

"I urge the AP to be far more skeptical of Israeli military sources when it reports on developments related to Israel-Palestine.  The Washington Post’s recent analysis of the March 16 raid in Jenin which led to the murder of 14-year-old Omar Awadin provides a case study in how Israeli military sources can provide highly misleading accounts of the actions of their forces.  So much about the current story makes the Israeli account extremely suspect, and results in the AP article likely serving as a whitewash of the actual events."

"I’m not particularly interested in being a spokesperson for Roger Waters. His controversial status is well deserved. However, given the waves of misinformation following his recent Berlin concert and the subsequent misrepresentation of his performance, I feel compelled to try to provide some basic information that Michael Levitt left out."

"The Tower of David Museum sits atop an ancient citadel which had a dome and crescent that were removed by the Israeli Antiquities Authority. According to Middle East Monitor, the $50 million renovation of the citadel resulted in “wiping out all Islamic features which confirm its Islamic identity.” This destruction of historic constructions dating back to the Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman dynasties demonstrates the efforts to demographically alter Jerusalem and solidify an Israeli narrative that is contradictory to history."