[Peace-discuss] Letter to NPR

[David Green]

NPR ignores Israeli attack on school, killing of two
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 24 April 2003

To National Public Radio:

I have heard numerous news spots on NPR this morning
that a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and
an Israeli security guard at a railway station in Kfar
Sava this morning.

None of the spots I heard, all of them by Linda
Gradstein, reported that Israeli occupation forces
today opened fire on a group of school children near
Ramallah, killing one student, and a taxi driver, and
injuring a number of other people.

Agence France Presse reports,
"Osama Hamdulla, 24, and Fakr Ezzet, 18, were shot by
troops in two army jeeps who entered the village of
Qurawat Bani Zeid, 12 kilomtres (six miles) northwest
of Ramallah, Palestinian medical and security
officials told AFP. The rioting erupted as the Israeli
jeeps approached the village school and crowds of
youths ran out to pelt them with rocks. The village is
an area which was autonomous until Israel reoccupied
almost the entire West Bank last June after a series
of suicide bombings. Ezzet was a student, as were two
others wounded when the Israelis opened fire, medics
said. Hamdulla was shot while trying to help one of
the wounded."
Israel is, as far as I know, the only country that
implements an on-the-spot death penalty for children
who throw stones at heavily armed soldiers invading
and occupying their homes.

NPR has for years repeatedly given prominent coverage
of violence against Israelis, while ignoring Israel's
daily violence against Palestinians under military
occupation. When will you end this unacceptable double
standard?

Yours,

Ali Abunimah 


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