[Elder of Ziyon] Partial list of Gazans killed by terrorist rockets, and why journalists can't get it right

From Human Rights Watch, 2005:

On August 2, 2005, members of the Ashqar family were in their courtyard in Beit Hanoun having dinner with some visitors when a rocket exploded in their midst. It killed 6-year-old Yasir `Adnan al-Ashqar. Adnan Mustafa al-Ashqar, his 45-year-old father, died the next day from the wounds he sustained

From YNet, December 26, 2008::

A rocket apparently fired by Palestinians on Friday struck a house in the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinian sisters aged five and 13, Palestinian medics said.

From the Gaza NGO Safety Office, January, 2011:

Jan 22 2011 ; (1) [home-made rocket] was fired from E of Zaitoun quarter, E of Gaza, but dropped short and fell within Gaza territory. It is alleged that the HMR fell near a group of Pal. workers collecting scrap metal near Malaka area, E of Gaza, killing 1 labourer and injuring 2 others.

From OCHA, August, 2011:

Between August 19-21 2011: One Palestinian child, 13-years-old, was also killed, and six others injured, when a GRAD rocket fired by Palestinian armed groups fell short. 

From PCHR, June 2012:

Tuesday, 19 June 2012, Hadeel Ahmed Sa'eed al-Haddad (1.5) was struck in the head by shrapnel while she was standing in the entrance of the house of her grandfather, Sa'eed Mohammed al-Haddad, in al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, when a home-made rocket landed on their house. Hadeel was transported to al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City to receive necessary medical treatment, but later transferred to Shifa Hospital due to the seriousness of her injuries. The efforts made by her doctors failed to save her life.

From The Telegraph, November 2012:

The highly publicised death of four-year-old Mohammed Sadallah appeared to have been the result of a misfiring home-made rocket, not a bomb dropped by Israel. The child's death on Friday figured prominently in media coverage after Hisham Kandil, the Egyptian prime minister, was filmed lifting his dead body out of an ambulance. "The boy, the martyr, whose blood is still on my hands and clothes, is something that we cannot keep silent about," he said, before promising to defend the Palestinian people. But experts from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights who visited the site on Saturday said they believed that the explosion was caused by a Palestinian rocket.

While these are only the deaths I could find, there is evidence that there are more. A report from Palestine Press Agency from 2008, for example, said

It should be noted that this incident is not the first, as previously many locally manufactured missiles aimed at Israeli communities fell on Palestinian homes and factories especially in the northern region of the sector and causing substantial material damage not to mention the human losses in many cases.

Of course, there have been literally hundreds of rockets that fell short in Gaza, causing much damage and injuries. Even a UNRWA school has been hit.

The Mishrawi case is hardly unique. Unless you read the mainstream media that couldn't quite figure out that many Gaza rockets fall short.

In many of these cases, Gaza officials blamed Israel for the deaths. Just as they did for the eight family members killed on a Gaza beach from a Hamas weapons stash. And then, as now, the media believed them.

The question is, why can the members of the media not figure out that they are often being lied to, especially when it comes to civilian casualties? Especially when it comes from officials in a territory that can hardly be described as a bastion of free speech and transparency?

The only conclusion is that journalists'  ability to think critically is impaired when they have a preconceived idea of who is right and wrong. They take all evidence - even from proven liars, like Gaza's Health Ministry - as proof their ideas were right to begin with. Israeli denials, even though they have been proven to be correct time and time again, are instead treated with the skepticism that is missing when listening to Gaza officials.

The sad part is that, judging from the way that journalists have been trying to deflect or blame others for their mistakes, they cannot learn the basic lesson to be skeptical of all sides, not just one.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder of Ziyon at 3/12/2013 08:49:00 PM