Studies show that US coverage is Israeli-centric. The main bureaus for CNN, Associated Press, Time, etc. are located in Israel and often staffed by Israelis. The son of the NY Times bureau chief is in the Israeli army;"pundit" Jeffrey Goldberg served in the IDF; Wolf Blitzer worked for AIPAC. Because the U.S. gives Israel over $8 million/day - more than to any other nation - we feel it is essential that we be fully informed on this region. Below are news reports to augment mainstream coverage.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Palestinian officials & Israeli peace groups protest Israeli 'ad' of Subaru running over Palestinian teens

Xinhua – The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Thursday expressed outrage and disapproval against an Israeli advertisement published on websites showing a Japan-made Subaru car hitting two Palestinian children.

Ghassan al-Khatib, chief of the PNA media bureau told Xinhua that the PNA complained to the branch of Subaru in Israel for publishing the commercial photo, which mocks the accident of Israeli settler running over stone-throwing children in east Jerusalem seven months ago.

The designer of the advertisement wrote in Hebrew "We'll see who can stand against you." The driver of the car that hit the two Palestinian teens is David Birri, the director general of the settlements association (El'ad).

"Publishing the picture and the commercial is immoral act, which is condemned and denounced. It is a complete disregard of the life of the Palestinians," said al-Khatib, adding that "it encourages more violence against the Palestinians, including running over Palestinian children."

The PNA had strongly condemned the commercial and had addressed a letter to Subaru branch in Israel, calling on the company to stop publishing this immoral commercial, but the company denied that it is responsible for the commercial and condemned it, al- Khatib said.

Israeli Radio on Thursday quoted a spokesman of Subaru cars company in Israel as saying that the company "has no relation to the commercial or publishing it, and the company had protested against those who are causing harms to the good reputation of the company."


Publishing the commercial had also brought a protest of the Israel peace organization (Peace Now). Spokeswoman of the organization Hagit Ghufran told Xinhua that "this act is a clear evidence that there is fanaticism in the Israeli company, mainly in the areas where there is friction with Palestinians."

"Certainly, such acts and thoughts would lead to more violence, mainly against children. The commercial is an indirect incitement to target them," said Ghufran.

Meanwhile, Khaled Quzmar, from the International Movement to Defend Children said: "This act must be followed in accordance to the law and those who are behind the commercial must be taken to court, but unfortunately, going to the law through Israeli courts is useless because the Israeli courts are serving the occupation which gave a cover to such behaviors."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party had earlier condemned the publishing of the advertisement, saying that "is a dirty advertisement and propaganda that reached to the status of calling for killing Palestinian children by running over them."

Several similar incidents had outraged the Palestinians in the past, such as publishing pictures on Facebook of Israeli soldiers taking pictures with Palestinian prisoners in the Gaza Strip, while the Palestinian prisoners' eyes are folded and hands cuffed.

One of the pictures published in October on Facebook showed an Israeli soldier pointing a gun at the head of a Palestinian, while another soldier wrote on the wall of a house in the Gaza Strip "we will back soon," and under it he painted the Jewish star of David.

The Israeli television showed a film, where Israeli soldiers were dancing near a detained Palestinian woman who was eye-folded and handcuffed. A female soldier was also shown on Facebook standing near Palestinian prisoners.

The Israelis and Palestinians usually trade accusations over incitement, where Israel had repeatedly accused the Palestinians of showing films and songs on televisions that incite for violence against Israel. Mutual incitement is one of the issues discussed in the stalled peace negotiations.
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IMEMC reports
: The settler, known to the Israeli police, fled the scene after injuring the two children. The attack was captured on video...

The victims were two Palestinian children aged 10 and 12. The 10-year-old child suffered a broken leg. The settler is at large, and is not even wanted for his crime...

The settler who rammed the children with his car was identified as David Be’eri, Director-General of the Elad settlement organization, an extremist settler real estate corporation that heavily promotes removing the Palestinians from Palestine, especially from Jerusalem, and replacing them with Jewish settlers.

The Elad movement heavily encourages Jewish settlers to move into Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem, and provides them with financial support. Most of its financial comes from Zionist groups in the United States.