Thursday, 6 June 2013

Where's the Coverage? Gaza Youth Flee TO Israel

CAMERA recently posted an article detailing the crimes committed by Palestinian prisoners held in Israel and the media’s failure to report on them:
All too often, mainstream media outlets have whitewashed the terrorist acts and violent crimes of Palestinian prisoners by failing to mention the crimes at all or by falsely minimizing the degree of violence. In some cases, media outlets euphemistically refer to prisoners incarcerated since before 1994 as “political prisoners,” covering up the atrocities they carried out. CAMERA is the first to publish a detailed list, obtained from Israel's Ministry of Justice, of 118 pre-Oslo Palestinian prisoners, including their names and violent crimes.
So that's one story not getting coverage. On the other hand, Ha’aretz, a newspaper that Commentary Magazine describes as having an “adversarial stance toward Israel,”recently portrayed conditions in Israeli prisons as “extremely harsh,” contending that even minors are “held in isolation illegally in dark, damp, bug-filled cells.”
Surprising, then, that Al Monitor reports young men from Gaza are fleeing TO Israel, seeking the opportunities available in the Jewish state. Yes, fleeing to Israel, even knowing that they might be apprehended and detained. The news outlet reports on one youth and his friends:
The teens started the journey by crossing the eastern Gaza border in an early morning in February Abu Huzayen cannot precisely recall. They walked for more than a kilometer into Israel, thinking that they had successfully made it across, before being spotted by Israeli troops, who hastily detained them.“When the Israeli soldier was handcuffing me, I was still happy that I would be able to start a new phase of my life away from my miserable life here,” Abu Huzayen recalled.
The four friends were kept for two days at the Israeli prison in Beersheba before they were transferred to Ofer prison, to the west of Ramallah. They spent three months there before being released less than a month ago, according to Abu Huzayen.
[…]
“It was a good experience. I enjoyed my time there, having a comfortable life and good labor,” Abu Huzayen noted.
The inmates would be woken up at 7 a.m. and then taken to their workplace, located near the reformatory. Their job was to sort restaurant items into boxes. For each box made, they were paid roughly $5. After work, at 1 p.m., the teens would return to their rooms and watch television.
[…]
Although Abu Huzayen was happy to be released, he is eager to attempt crossing the border once again.
“At the reformatory, I used to eat good food, make good money and receive good treatment. I need nothing more from this world.”
Now there’s a story you haven’t seen in the New York TimesWashington PostLos Angeles Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, NPR, etc. Or Ha’aretz.
Palestinian youth fleeing TO Israel… Where’s the coverage?

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