Gossip costs lives

This article illustrates the BBC’s habit of promoting gossip and tittle-tattle and presenting it as news (or comment)

 BBC Watch’s Hadar Sela has detailed what’s wrong with it.

Donnison omits relevant factors concerning the deceased prisoner:

“Abu Hamdiyeh was connected to both the PA security forces and the terrorist organization Hamas or to note that he was known to be involved in recruitment for paramilitary activities, weapons training, providing weapons and finance for terror and bomb-making in addition to his role in the attempted suicide bombing of Café Caffit in Jerusalem in 2002, in which the awareness of a security guard and a waiter saved the lives of some 60 customers and 12 staff in the café at the time.”

BBC Watch also criticises an erroneous reference to ‘the occupied West Bank.’ “T(t)he majority of Hebron is in Area A and controlled by the Palestinian Authority rather than “occupied:”

Unpleasant  ‘between the lines’ insinuations run through the whole piece, barely concealing Donnison’s sympathetic attitude to the Palestinians. As Sela says, the BBC should steer clear of the propagation of deliberately engineered rumours. Donnison really should take heed.

Khaled Abu Toameh writes about the PA leadership’s orchestrated campaign against Israel on the issue of prisoners. A ministry for prisoners’ affairs has been set up to accuse Israel of mistreating prisoners, conducting experiments on them, torturing them and stealing their organs. (has Jenny Tonge been recruited?) 

“But these attacks are also intensifying tensions between Israel and the Palestinians and paving the way for violence. By making serious allegations against Israel, the PA is further radicalizing Palestinians and even driving some of them into the open arms of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.”

That’s roughly what Jon Donnison is doing. Making matters worse by clumsy shit-stirring.

In the noble tradition of of long-windedness I annotate:

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails protest death

Weird unpunctuated heading.

Israeli prison guards have fired tear gas to stop disturbances among Palestinian prisoners after a Palestinian inmate died from cancer.

Attention-grabbing opening gambit involving tear gas.

Palestinian officials claim that Israel did not provide adequate medical care for Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, who was 64.

Unsubstantiated claim.

The Israeli Prisons Service (IPS) says he was well looked after and died in a public hospital in Beersheba.

“an Israel says”

The parole board was asked to consider his release but had not processed the case by the time of his death.

Implies Israel is deliberately procrastinating.

Following the announcement of Abu Hamdiyeh's death, Palestinian prisoners in several Israeli jails began banging on their cell doors and throwing objects around.

Implies prisoners are helpless and frustrated.

In Ramon Prison, tear gas was used to stop the protests although the situation is now under control. The IPS says that six prison guards and three Palestinian inmates were treated in the jail's clinic.

Implies Israel is heavy-handed with Palestinian prisoners.

The Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is said to have tried to intervene personally to have Abu Hamdiyeh released after it became clear that his illness was terminal.

Implies a thwarted humanitarian gesture, flatters Abbas.

"The Israeli government is responsible for the martyrdom of prisoner, Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh," said a statement by Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Mr Abbas.

Gratuitous emoting.

"The continued detention of the prisoners and medical neglect leads to dangerous implications."

Gratuitous emotive gossip 

Tensions running high

Other Palestinian officials accused Israel of denying proper, timely medical care to Abu Hamdiyeh, claiming that his cancer had been left to spread.

More claims (unsubstantiated and outrageous)

"The prisoner was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus in February of this year and was under the medical supervision of experts at the hospital," read a statement by the Israeli prison authority.

More “Israel says”

"About a week ago, following the determination that it was a terminal illness, the IPS turned to the release committee to apply for early release, a procedure which started and didn't finish."

Implies Israel procrastinating over Abdelbaset al-Megrahi-type compassionate leave.

Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, from Hebron in the occupied West Bank, was serving a life sentence for attempted murder for his role in a foiled attempt to bomb a cafe in Jerusalem in 2002.

Implies a foiled attempt is only a ‘thought crime’.

The issue of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails is an emotive one for Palestinians. Inmates are generally highly regarded despite the reasons for their detention.

euphemism for prisoners being generously pensioned / families rewarded.

Tensions have recently been running high as several Palestinian prisoners have been on intermittent hunger strike.

Intermittent hunger strike: like being a bit dead?

As of December 2012, Israel held 4,517 Palestinians in its jails.

Statistical implication that this is unfair?

Of these 1,031 were being held until the conclusion of legal proceedings, 178 were in administrative detention without trial or charge.

Not to mention the remainder who were tried and found guilty (1,031 + 178 from 4,517 = 2,308)

**** 

By what stretch of the imagination can this be an impartial article?

It’s unadulterated trouble-making. Like gossips do. Malicious gossips.