Summary and Analysis – Jerusalem Escalation

V.O.P. broke new ground today in its description of the shooting attack on a driver at the French Hill junction. It twice described the man as a “settler” using the locution “shots fired on a settler in the French Hill area.” The strong suggestion that French Hill (which is a misnomer in English, Arabic and Hebrew, by way-see jocular note below**) was a settlement was deliberate, though not as pronounced as recent characterizations of Giloh, which V.O.P. regularly calls “the colony of Giloh built on land taken from Beith Jallah.” V.O.P. cited the “occupation police” as a source for the item on the French Hill shooting, although V.O.P.’s Jerusalem correspondent Muhammad Abd-Rabbo already had details of the shooting (which occurred at 5:30 a.m.) for morning news. Nevertheless, V.O.P. chose not to feature the shooting of the Israeli driver in its morning news bulletin and round-up headlines, preferring to highlight instead Israeli arrests and searches in the nearby Shueifat camp, rather than what prompted them.

V.O.P. also cited “occupation police” sources throughout the morning as saying that the incident “was the first of its kind since the sparking of the Al-Aqsa and Independence Intifada.” This phrasing, which was repeated at 11 a.m. and 12-noon was hardly a call for restraint but rather a coded message to encourage further actions of this kind.

(Note: In a V.O.P. interview this week, PA Minister of Information classified building Israeli settlements as a war crime, and Israeli “settlers” have long been considered tantamount to war criminals. Note also that when V.O.P. recently quantified numbers of Israeli fatalities, it broke the 50-odd deaths into two categories: soldiers and settlers.)

Further attacks on Israelis in northern Jerusalem (there were some shootings several weeks ago in the neighborhoods of Nevei Ya’kov and Pisgat Ze’ev as well as the nearby Giva’at Ze’ev) would in effect open a two-front war in Jerusalem, with shootings along the southern front in Giloh and along the northern front of French Hill and other northern neighborhoods.

The shooting comes amid other signs of escalating violence in Jerusalem, V.O.P.’s Abd-Rabbo said the Fatah agents arrested by the Israelis were members of an armed cell, headed by Muhammad al-Abassi of the Ras al-‘Umud neighborhood-but this material was not repeated in the headlines of any of the news bulletins. Abd-Rabbo said the police were accused of concealing hand grenades which they planned to throw at Israelis.

V.O.P. also neglected to report that the Lebanese-born British citizen arrested by Israel (identified by Israel as Jihad Shuman) had allegedly concealed his own materiel in a site on Mount Scopus in preparation for his own terror attack inside Jerusalem.

V.O.P. also reported in one of its local reports that the PA Housing Ministry had registered 144 Palestinian houses as being destroyed in recent fighting in Gaza.

At the end of the morning news, V.O.P. interviewed an Israeli Arab doctor who testified at the internal Israeli commission of inquiry into the deaths of 13 Israeli Arabs in October 2000 (Note: V.O.P. uses the term “13 Palestinians inside the Green Line” refusing to use the term Israel in the context of Arab citizens). “I spoke about the wickedness of the attack on our youth,” said Dr. Atif Aghbaria.

The news also included a feature on Israel’s alleged attacks on Palestinian and foreign journalists, without making mention of the repeated PA threats in recent weeks against the entry of Israeli journalists to PA territory as well as not mentioning the frequent threats against Western reporters who write, record and film in PA areas.

Thursday Morning Round-up Headlines

  • “Occupation forces invade Shueifat Camp in occupied Jerusalem, arresting seven citizens; [note: figure was changed almost immediately]
  • Pilgrims arrive in sacred shrine;
  • Deep losses to criminal Israel artillery barrage;
  • The (Israeli) Labor Party agrees to Sharon including extremist religious parties in his government;
  • Israeli attacks increase against journalists and the media.”

Thursday Morning Headlines, 7 a.m. / 8 a.m. / 9 a.m.

  • “Israeli forces bombard with artillery and heavy automatic fire the western and southwestern neighborhoods of Tulkarm last night, damaging tens of houses;
  • Occupation forces arrest 15 citizens from Shueifat township in Jerusalem, as well as detaining 3 youths on charges of belonging tot he Fatah movement in occupied Jerusalem;
  • The National Authority asks the Investigating Commission headed by the American George Mitchell to intervene strongly in the situation of the chain of assassinations carried out by Israel (and its effect on) the rights of Palestinian citizens;
  • Dr. Nabil Sha’ath, the Minister of International Economic Development and Planning, calls on the new American administration to sharpen its role in the Middle East quickly;
  • American State Department demands Israel lift the siege on Palestinian people and transfer customs levies as soon as possible;
  • The Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan says he is profoundly concerned by the economic situation in Palestinian lands;
  • The head of the Palestinian refugee commission UNRWA, Peter Hanson is encountering difficulties in providing assistance to Palestinian refugees because of the siege.;
  • Belgium is threatening recalling its ambassador from Tel Aviv and freezing agreements with Israel because of practices against our Palestinian people;
  • British government has submitted a sharp protest to Israel over the detainment for six months (administrative detention) of a British citizen of Lebanese origin;
  • Sudanese security forces arrest religious leader Hassan Tourabi.;
  • Iraq announces that American and British war planes dropped incendiary bombs on civilian targets on (sounds like) Samara in southern Iraq.”

Thursday Noon Headlines

  • “Occupation bulldozers continue their settlement action in Qaria Sawiya, and occupation forces seized Qaria Qusra in the Nablus prefecture and endangered 20 houses in southern Hebron;
  • Heavy searches in Jerusalem after the opening of fire on a settler;
  • Security organs (PA) in Hebron are investigating an explosion in the liberated portion of Hebron during the night;
  • His Excellency President Yasser Arafat receives an emissary of the British prime minister.”

Quote of the Day “This is an operation to banish Palestinian citizens.” Palestinian Housing Minister describing Israeli artillery attacks in Gaza, 7:50 a.m.

Quotes from Interview with Dr. Hamad Abd al-Rahman, PA Housing Minister

Question: “Doctor, could you give us an idea of the sale of the economic losses due to Israeli bombardment of inhabited buildings?”

Answer: Really, Israel has not spared any military means against our people leading to more than 430 being martyred and thousands of wounded, but it is also using economic warfare, destroying partially or completely many buildings. This is an effort to empty out by bombardment inhabited areas which abut settlements to free-up the lands the settlements want to control. This is an operation to banish Palestinian citizens. Thousands of Palestinian citizens have left their houses and are living in tents.The direct cost is 14-million (fourteen million) dollars of the Israeli bombardment. In addition, the Israelis are shelling the infrastructure, such as schools, police headquarters and so forth. And our preliminary estimates on this matter are 17-million dollars.”

“French Hill” Terminology

This term is actually a misnomer in Hebrew and Arabic where it is translated literally as “The French Hill”, ha-giv’a ha-tzarfatit in Hebrew and Al-Tel al-Fransawi in Arabic. The origin of the term is the British conquest of Jerusalem in World War I when a Captain French led the British forces who conquered the area near Mount Scopus.

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