Friday, 4 June 2010


Just Journalism
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  4 June 2010 
Media report on Hamas rejection of convoy aid
[Includes Just Journalism's interview with Aliza Landes, a spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces.]

One of the minor themes emerging from the British media's reporting on Monday's flotilla raid off Gaza is what's being done with the confiscated aid parcels.

According to broadsheets reporting on the estimated 8,000 tons of materials the Turkish-sponsored convoy had intended to deliver to Gaza, the Hamas regime there has refused to accept Israeli trucks carrying them. Hamas say they will deal only with the convoy passengers themselves and not admit a single parcel of aid until all of those detained by Israel have been released.

Damien McElroy, Justin Vela, Dina Kraft and Richard Spencer write in '
We have nothing to be sorry for, Israel tells Turkey,' in today's The Daily Telegraph, 'According to officials in Gaza, Hamas has refused to allow the aid offloaded from the flotilla to enter the territory until all detained activists are released.' Harriet Sherwood, in a short sidebar article in The Guardian today, 'Where did the aid go?', likewise reports: 'Israel agreed to deliver the aid after the flotilla attack ended in the deaths of nine pro-Palestinian activists.'

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Conflicting impressions of eye-witness accounts
As more eye-witness accounts from flotilla participants emerge in the mainstream media, a contrast emerges in the reporting of media outlets which simply quote activists uncritically and those which challenge their accounts.

The most widely quoted British activist, who was on board the Mavi Marmara, is 
Sarah Colborne, director of campaigns at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. She has been quoted in four of today's broadsheets, the BBC News website and also featured on last night's Channel 4 News.

She was generally presented as horrified and dismayed over the Israeli army's deployment of lethal force. 
The Times reported her as saying, 'Everyone's just in shock. It was a massacre that took place there.' The BBC's Peter Jackson's website article, 'UK Gaza activist Sarah Colborne - ship raid 'surreal'' described Colborne's account as one of 'stunned surprise' and quoted her at her press conference, insisting: 'It felt surreal, I couldn't quite believe they were doing what they were doing - none of us anticipated it'.


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