…on New York (NYT) station.
Muzzlewatch, a subsidiary of Jewish Voice for Peace, tracks efforts to stifle open debate about US-Israeli foreign policy, and by extension censorship and propaganda efforts by right wing pro-Zionist factions like the AJC intent on covering up Israel’s military occupation/colonization of Palestinian lands, and furthering the notion that Palestinians are terrorists rather than an occupied and subjugated people.
This post bearing the above title by Cecilie Surasky is one example of its work.
The American Jewish Committee, the group known for efforts to oppose congressional recognition of the Armenian genocide, has this VIDEO about the refusal of New York Times-owned radio station, WQXR, to run their ad raising money for an emergency fund for the people of Sderot, Israel.
AJC head David Harris, in criticizing the refusal of the station to run the ad, doesn’t do his cause any favors when he compares the situation of the residents of Sderot to the London blitz in 1940 and 1941 (and by extension, Hamas to Nazis) in which over 43,000 were killed. He asks if an ad about the London blitz would also be refused by the station “on the grounds that we failed to refer reciprocal British military actions against Nazi Germany.”
In fact, according to the UN, from 2000 through the beginning of 2008, 11 residents of Sderot were killed by Qassam rockets, while 2,677 Gazans were killed by Israeli rocket fire and incursions. It is likely the one-sidedness and sensationalism of the ad which caused the station manager to reject it. (Other writers will likely give the ad the detailed critique it requires.)
Nonetheless, the ad should have been accepted-and also, any ad which talked about the Gazans who have also endured. It is in the nature of wars and conflicts, in which people on both sides endure real and terrible suffering, that people only tell the story from their side. Can more really be expected? And can a free and open society withstand that kind of speech? I think so. Watch the video here: AJC video about Sderot ad.
The video notes that 400 CBS affiliates did broadcast the AJC ad. The reasons for WQXR’s refusal are obvious. No where does the AJC admit that Israel is carrying on a military occupation/siege of the Palestinian people, that it daily confiscates Palestinian lands while throwing out its legal owners, or that Hamas militants offered a cease fire on numerous occasions during the past year and voluntarily ceased firing rockets for one month twice to no avail. Israel forces continued to bomb and carrying out military incursions into Gaza and the West Bank resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians, most of who are civilians including innocent children like these:
The photos above were only the latest atrocity that Israeli defense forces have perpetrated against the Palestinians in Gaza. The Palestinians will apparently not terminate their fight for freedom and self-determination until Israel terminates its colonization of what is left of original Palestine. The stalemate is only leading to further unnecessary deaths on both sides.
