Morning Edition: July 30, 2002
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JAT comments are indented and in italics.
The NPR segment whose transcript appears below is, regrettably, typical of what is presented as news by NPR reporters in general and by Peter Kenyon in particular. It reports Palestinian claims as uncontested facts, uses biased, inflammatory, and misleading language (e.g., referring to soldiers manning a guard station as "Israeli snipers," implying, as does the rest of the report, that they shoot indiscriminately at innocent Palestinian workers), and excludes any Israeli context or perspective. (The transcript carried the date "July 30," as above, instead of the correct date of "June 30.")
BOB EDWARDS, host:
Hundreds of thousands of West Bank residents are under curfew imposed by the Israeli army. The order does not affect the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians are permitted to leave their homes. But Gaza has its own problems. This fenced-in strip of land on the Mediterranean coast is effectively divided by Israeli roadblocks, and for most Gazans, living conditions are miserable. Some of the most severe problems are found in the Rafah refugee camp near the border with Egypt. NPR's Peter Kenyon visited Rafah and found that even the smallest improvements require major efforts.
PETER KENYON reporting:
The Rafah refugee camp backs right up against the Egyptian border, and is the scene of heavy Israeli military activity. The army demolished dozens of homes here last winter, saying weapons were being smuggled in from Egypt via tunnels. The media focused on the Palestinian families left homeless, but there were lingering effects for those who remained. For one thing, the sewer system no longer worked.
KENYON:
Water from a damaged pump house sprays over a pool of human waste and the fetid odor seems to be baked onto your clothes by the midday sun. A small crowd of Europeans dressed in white shirts and baseball caps is standing around watching the Palestinian workers repair the pipe. Yusef Haji(ph), with the Committee for the Protection of the Palestinian People, explains that the repair work is only possible because these Italians, Belgians and French Moroccans have placed themselves in between the workers and the Israeli snipers in the watchtower a few hundred yards away.
Note how Kenyon chooses the word 'sniper' above to describe the Israeli soldiers. This is not the Palestinian interviewee's language; it is Kenyon's!
Mr. YUSEF HAJI (Committee for the Protection of the Palestinian People):
(FOREIGN LANGUAGE SPOKEN)
KENYON:
'We're here in Bloco(ph) with the Rafah camp,' he says, 'because for the past six months Palestinian technicians have been shot at every time they tried to repair the lines, even after coordinating their visits with the Israelis. So we're standing here to offer protection to the workers.'
Note that no responsible Israeli spokesperson is permitted anywhere in the report to present the Israeli perspective. The claim above is presented as a fact, without question.
KENYON:
Khalil Shaheen, with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, says this human chain allowed 80 percent of the repair work to be finished the day before.
Mr. KHALIL SHAHEEN (Palestinian Center for Human Rights):
And we hope that we will succeed to continue today, but yesterday the harassment of the Israeli tanks continued. They shoot against the mission members and against the workers five times.
KENYON:
On this day, at least two shots are heard; each time the Europeans, none of whom is wearing a flak jacket, immediately pull out their passports and wave them in the air as it to ward off further gunfire.
KENYON:
Medical worker Jamal Arusi(ph) says the uncontained raw sewage was spreading disease, especially among the children. But this repair barely begins to address the problem. He says only 17 percent of Gazans have access to working sewer systems.
Mr. JAMAL ARUSI (Medical Worker):
So it means that the rest of the others, you know, are using the pump underground and they brought their sewage inside, which is affecting the water. And according to the studies by Ministry of Health, the water is not good for human beings.
And now we have Peter Kenyon's anti-Israel editorializing. As usual, no pro-Israel perspective is provided. This is not a news report; it is a Kenyon rant.
KENYON:
It's a small victory, and it may come at a high price for some of the Europeans who intervene. Israel has begun deporting some international activists and refusing entry to others, calling their behavior provocative. But Gazans are grateful for the help. In a place where the prospect of a normal life seems a far-off fantasy, they say even a mended pipe can seem like a small miracle. Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
EDWARDS:
The time is 21 minutes before the hour.
Copyright 2002 National Public Radio. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio.
This transcript was created by a contractor for NPR, and NPR has not verified its accuracy. For all NPR programs, the broadcast audio should be considered the authoritative version. To purchase an audiotape of this piece, please order online or call 1-877-NPR-TEXT.
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