Update: Widlanski: Voice of Palestine justifies murder of 7 year old on toll
road - labels her "settler"

Aaron Lerner Date: 18 June 2003

Michael Widlanski is an expert in the Arab media and a lecturer at the
Rothberg School of the Hebrew University. The following are some of his
observations regarding Abu Mazen's Voice of Palestine's coverage of the
murder of seven-year-old Noam Leibovitch when her family vehicle was
attacked by terrorist fire as it exited the Trans-Israel Highway (toll road
6) near the Kibbutz Eyal junction (inside the Green Line). The family lives
in the religious youth village Yamin Ord located in northern Israel near
Haifa. Noam's five-year-old sister was also seriously wounded in the
attack. The terrorist reached the highway via a storm sewer in the PA
controlled Qalqilyeh and left tracks indicating a safe return to PA
territory after the attack.

"Voice of Palestine radio's number one achorman, Nizar al-Ghul opened his
Wednesday morning 7:30 am morning news round-up by citing the Israeli
"invasion" of Qalqilyeh. In the third sentence of his report he cited "the
death by shooting of a female Israeli settler" [Arabic: "Maqtal 'ala
rasass mustawtinna isra'iliyya"]. Al-Ghul did not actually connect the
"death by shooting of the female Israeli settler" with the invasion of
Qalqilyeh, from where the shots were fired into Israeli territory.

There was no mention of official Palestinian condemnation of the murder nor
even vague disapproval of the timing of the attack.

During the 8 am Wednesday morning news bulletin, Voice of Palestine,
after detailing Israeli military actions and Palestinian diplomatic
activities for seven minutes, noted that "an Israeli female child was
killed and another wounded in an armed attack near Qalqilyeh."

The description of Israeli military acts included a full inventory of
tanks and other weapons deployed. There was still no hint of condemnation
nor disapproval of the shooting murder of the 7-year-old.

Again at 8:10, the number one VOP anchorman Nizar al Ghul referred in
the second headline to "the death by shooting of a female settler."

- - - Michael Widlanski

It should be noted that reports concerning the proposed "cease-fire"
indicate that soldiers and "settlers" can be murdered during the cease-fire
period. The Palestinian definition of "soldier" is anyone who served in the
IDF, thus allowing the murder of adult males.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
pager 03-6106666 subscriber 4811
Website: http://www.imra.org.il