De Commerciele Massamedia 82

Emergency ministers" of the new Palestinian Authority (not including Hamas) swear in to their new positions in Ramallah, 17 June 2007. (POOL/PPO/Omar Rashidi/MaanImages)
Decoding the media's Palestinian "civil war"Ben White, The Electronic Intifada, 19 June 2007

Over de westerse mediacampagne van de 'vrije' pers om de Fatah-staatsgreep aan het westerse publiek te verkopen.

'Major news stories from Palestine/Israel are often accompanied by what becomes a self-reinforcing "vocabulary," typically generated by Israeli government ministries or other propaganda outlets, and then picked up by the Western media. A classic example was the redeployment of Israeli settlers and military from the Gaza Strip in 2005, which was successfully packaged as a "disengagement" that pitted "Israeli against Israeli," in a "painful compromise." This kind of marketing exercise often works even when there are widely available contradictory reports, such as how "disengagement" was openly trumpeted by Sharon and his advisors as a strategy for destroying the peace process.This phenomenon went into overdrive recently, as dramatic events across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but especially in Gaza, presented the evening news with a problem of how to reduce the conflict in the internal Palestinian political arena into an easily digestible sound bite. The solution was, as usual, lazy journalism and an almost total blackout on Israeli/US collusion in the dark events unfolding. Here then, is a guide to decoding the Palestinian "civil war," presented as a series of oft-repeated, yet entirely misleading, clichés.

The Palestinian Authority actually has any authority

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is regularly presented in the mainstream media as having the authority, independence, and jurisdiction of a state, equivalent to Israel. Yet despite the misleading name, the PA's writ does not extend beyond the civic affairs of several dozen isolated cantons in the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Its law and order officials cannot travel from one canton to the other without the permission of the Israeli occupation forces. Look a bit deeper, and in fact, one discovers that the PA was designed specifically to thwart genuine Palestinian "authority," to keep Palestinian sovereignty solely rhetorical, while Israel continues its colonization. The Angry Arab website quoted Palestinian writer Rashad Abu Shawir as saying of Hamas and Fatah that they are "fighting over an illusory authority." Read between the lines even in the mainstream media, and this picture emerges. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert greeted Abbas' formation of a new cabinet by saying that "a Palestinian government which is not a Hamas government is a partner and we will co-operate with it." It is Israel that decides who represents the Palestinian people, and even what authority these representatives will enjoy.'

Lees verder: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article7042.shtml