Palestinians may have caused Gaza beach deaths, Olmert says:
Both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz indicated Sunday that Friday’s blast on a Gaza Strip beach that killed seven civilians may have been caused by the Palestinians, and not by the IDF.
Peretz told the weekly cabinet meeting that he had established an investigative committee headed by a major-general, which is to present its findings on Tuesday.
Peretz said the panel’s preliminary findings showed that the Ghalia family was not killed by a shell fired by the IDF ground forces or the IAF. Peretz said that one of six artillery shells fired by the IDF was unaccounted for, but that there was a gap between when the shells were fired and the time the Palestinians said the shells landed.
Peretz told the ministers that some 40 Kassam rockets were fired at Sderot and nearby communities over the weekend, and that Nati Angel – the Sderot man seriously wounded by a Kassam Sunday morning at a school near the city – was a “personal friend.” Peretz lives in Sderot, where he used to be mayor.
If this does turn out to be the cause, or even a distinctly possible cause, of this tragic incident, I expect the BBC, particularly given their intensive coverage of the original story, will be extremely keen to revisit the story in depth, in order to ensure that the truth is fully investigated and reported in an impartial manner, lest another serious falsehood is perpetrated and established. But I won’t be holding my breath while waiting for Haw-Hawley and co. to leap in to action.
Update: According to Funerals for Gaza beach victims:
The BBC’s Simon Wilson in Jerusalem says that Saturday’s rocket attacks appear mainly symbolic.
Try telling that to Nati Angel (see above). I can think of some a***s that could do with a symbolic rocket or two up them…
But a spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam brigade, said next time the rockets would be longer range and hit deeper inside Israel.
Presumably for even greater ‘symbolism’, eh Mr. Wilson.
Hat tip: commenters dumbcisco re. JP link and Big Mouth re. Wilson quote.
Al Beeb likes to describe the rockets launched by Pally terrorists (oo I said the “T” word, that must make me a brutal war-mongering racist) as crude and homemade. That gives the impression that they are no more dangerous than ones you might buy for Guy Fawkes night, and hardly comparable to the awesome firepower of the Israeli armed forces.I wonder if the Pallys would ever launch an urgent investigation into any of their self-detonating plumbers? Of course, we all know that the IDF inquiry will be a sham as we all know that the Pallys are peace-loving cherubs who wouldn’t hurt a fly and Israel is the spawn of Satan. The Beeb tells us so, and the BBC never lies, does it?
Apparently by Israeli shelling” is still the BBC take… but are they giving ground?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5070428.stm
If it WAS a Palestinian “accident”, will this remind our much-loved BBC writers that these “homemade” rockets maybe ARE a little more dangerous than sparklers? But not, obviously, if they happen to land on Israel…
You want some first-class crap from a bbc that wants nearly £4 billion from us? Go here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5067414.stm
You will see where this Wilson chap says rocket attacks against Israel are “symbolic”.
“The BBC’s Simon Wilson in Jerusalem says that Saturday’s rocket attacks appear mainly symbolic.”
…I expect the BBC, particularly given their intensive coverage of the original story, will be extremely keen to revisit the story in depth…
Right. The BBC’s fellow-travellers in the press will do what they habitually do – publish a retraction consisting of three lines of small print tucked away where you’d be most unlikely to find it – if they publish it at all.
The BBC is the internet and TV equivalent of those propagandists.
But having said that, the World Service was last night including the word “apparently” in their news reports of the “Israeli” missile fired on the Gaza beach. And I see they make the same concession at the end of the article just linked to by Bob.
The BBC’s tiny acknowledgement that there is an Israeli side to this story.
I suppose we should be grateful.
So the chap who was seriously injured by the rockets was only symbolically injured. Well, that’s okay then, nothing to get worried about,
When I posted this story last night and others like it, I said that the BBC would be ready to broadcast a correction as its main headline every half hour on all channels in the UK and overseas.
/NOT
The Today interview just after 8.30am had the Israeli spokesman saying there were various possibilities for the cause of the gaza deaths, not just an Israeli shell. No sign from the anchor-man that he had any idea what the guy was actually saying. BBC news staff MUST know these doubts are now being expressed at top political as well as military level in Israel, pending the intended results of the enquiry on Tuesday. It is reprehensible that the presenters of the Today programme seem blissfully unbaware that the BBC may have been grievously “misled”.
There’s more:
“A Palestinian security source said Sunday that Hamas operatives had cleared the debris from the explosion which killed seven Palestinian civilians on Friday in order to frustrate the IDF’s attempts to investigate the incident.”
Why would they want to do that I wonder.
And here is a more comprehensive report.
An aside. Olmert is visiting England now and one might expect (due to the extensive covarage the Middle East is getting) that news editors would appreciate an exclusive opportunity to interview such a high level persona as the prime minister of Israel. One would be wrong:
“The British media are for the most part ignoring Olmert’s visit due to the World Cup soccer tournament in Germany, and efforts by Israeli embassy personnel to set up a meeting between Olmert and the editor of The Guardian were futile.”
Why the Israeli embassy make efforts to set up meetings with the enemy’s propaganda chief is beyond me.
“[Palestinian] rocket attacks appear mainly symbolic”.
The quote of the year so far.
Palestinian militants do not wish to kill Israelis at all, but are just making a statement. How very Tate Modern!
Big Mouth,
Wilson is in desperate need of a good dictionary so he can find out what the word ‘symbolic’ means. But like most BBC propaganda, there’s a bit of truth nestling in there somewhere. Wilson is indicating that the barrage of rockets was fired to ‘symbolise’ Hamas anger at the beach incident. So in that sense it was a ‘symbolic’ act.
But then, of course, the symbolic act implies that they didn’t aim for any specific Israeli targets, just fired blindly. (Try telling that to the people in Sderot.) And as such it’s part and parcel of the BBC’s concerted campaign to minimise Palestinian aggression and exaggerate Israel’s defensive response.
Hamas Murders Children in Gaza, Blames Israel.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/011781.php
I think we should ask where the footage carried by BBC news came from. As I watched it, I thought – wait a minute, this doesn’t look quite right. We’ve got a picture of a very photogenic child being carried away, crying, but no footage of the shell crater, no pictures of the debris one would expect after a warship’s been opening fire. I’m afraid after the French Canal 5 shots of the “Palestinian boy and his father under fire” have been pretty well discredited, I’m on my guard against similar photo fix-ups.
If John Reith is there, I’d really like to know where this footage came from. Was it the BBC’s own cameraman, or was it bought in. And if so, from whom, and under what conditions? It may well be that I’m being too sceptical here, but given the track record of TV news (not just, or even principally the BBC) on running unsourced footage of “Israeli atrocities” which later turn out to have been faked, I’d really like to know. . .
If anyone from the BBC is reading this, I’d welcome a response. In the meantime, does anyone have a connection to the footage that was the basis of last night’s story?
Interesting how there just happened to be a camera set up on the beach to film all this. Me thinks this is another pallywood film to feed the Jew haters.
Good points Bryan, and Max, your link is spot on.
Here’s the latest from Tik Debka:
Cooperation between US, Israel, Palestinian Authority and Egyptian intelligence has yielded an initial impression that the blast that caused seven Paletinian deaths on a Gaza beach Friday, june 9, was caused by one of a series of bombs Hamas planted last week on the northern Gazan beach. They were put there as daisy chain traps in case Israeli commandos landed by sea to take Qassam missile launchers in northern Gaza by surprise. The theory gaining ground is that the Palestinian picnickers had the bad luck to detonate one of those bombs
OK, given that the story is unwinding before our eyes, we need to know which BBC journalist it is that’s just had his credibility blown away.
Remember, the only way you’ll get to the institution is to get to the journalists who work so usefully for it.
So, everyone, let’s name names. Who was the reporter who put his name to this one?
and. . . I should have added, does anyone know the name of the editor who decided the story was good to go, and the producer who agreed with him.
Names, names, names. . . make news
“Both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz indicated Sunday that Friday’s blast on a Gaza Strip beach that killed seven civilians may have been caused by the Palestinians, and not by the IDF.”
Big surprise – NOT!
Here is what the Palestinians are broadcasting about the beach incident.
http://www.pmw.org.il/
Scroll down a bit for the footage.
I don’t think the Beeb will use that one, you never know though!
Didn’t the IRA explode a ‘symbolic’ car bomb outside the BBC HQ in west London some years ago? God forbid that Islamofascists should fire some ‘symbolic’ rockets at the BBC, who knows what might happen – my God, people might even get hurt!
As pro-Arab, pro-‘insurgency’ articles go at the BBC, this article is a beauty.
Michael Taylor | 12.06.06 – 4:53 pm
Speaking from memory, I’m pretty sure that it was jeremy bowen [beeb expert on ME (not)] who did the very assertive voiceover for the beach film on the beeb news.
IIRC he was adamant that the clip was genuine and gave us a lot of detail.
Michael Taylor
Good thinking, but it all happens like that on purpose. The government are the only people who have any power over the BBC. Also have you ever heard of a BBC journalist that has been sacked for being to left-wing lately, if at all? Some have resigned however, but that seems like a long time ago indead.
The amount of poison spread by the likes of Pilger for the last 35 years or so on the BBC and ITV, should assure even a young Starlin of a job for LIFE.
Inspite of this, I hope we all have more respect for our forefathers. For NEVER voting, 3 times running, for the Anti-English socialist Labour Party into power?
Thanks to Greg Dykes generosity with our cash, a job at the BBC is a job for life, with a pension. Which has one silver lineing, presenters and news readers seem to be getting older, faster than me.
These power crazed, ageing, mostly scotish ex-hippies will still be “crokeing on” into their nineties. Power is addictive, fame and power, even more so.
More deep scepticism about the film of the beach deaths :
http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2006/06/12/is-it-pallywood-thoughts-on-the-footage-from-the-gaza-beach/
The BBC gets worse. It KNOWS that the Israeli PM and defence minister have said there are now doubts about what caused the explosion on the beach. Its Middle East team will be perfectly aware of the jerusalem Post story on this.
In spite of this we have a weepy Fiona Bruce introducing a re-run of the incident by James Reynolds – concluding with a shot of the Israeli gunboat offshore. No doubt whatsoever expressed about the cause. No comment sought from the Israeli side.
The REAL news from the ME tonight is that the verge towards civil war between Fatah and Hamas gets worse, as serious fighting spreads from Gaza to Ramallah on the West Bank. Jeremy Bowen tells Fiona Bruce this fighting is going on – but he did not use the term civil war – and he must have been responsible for putting the Reynolds story first.
LIars and spinners, the damn lot of them. They are incorrigible.
10 o’clock or thereabouts news tonight, with the follow up to the beach bombing.
I’m speechless!
Dumbcisco,
Bowen looked nervous relating all that twaddle, worried a Mossad man may sneak up & wallop him one for being the complete liar he is! Shame nobody did so!
He really did lay the blame for everything at the feet of the Israeli’s, Everything!!
Anyone still not sure which side the BBC are on?
My other-half disagrees with me over the nervousness factor & suggests that Bowen was creaming himself with glee over the fact he was saying such naughty things just yards from the seat of power & their Israeli visitors. I’m going with her opinion upon reflection.
For the BBC to re-run the Gaza beach story tonight as almost the top item – without weaving in the fact that serious doubts have been raised by Israeli ministers and the military – is journalistic LYING. Not just spinning – it is LYING.
The people at the BBC (Bowen, Reynolds, Simpson etc) are trying to get the idea implanted in people’s minds of Israeli guilt and brutality over the killing of a whole family.
A propagandist for al-Jazeera was given free rein during World Have Your Say tonight during a discussion on the Gaza beach incident. He waxed predictably outraged about the ‘massacre’ and then asked, “Why would an Israeli gunboat shoot them and kill them?” I kid you not. Need I add that he was not challenged on this statement by the presenter, even though that version of events was denied by the Israelis from day one.
(In fairness, a sceptical WHYS presenter did ask him if al-Jazeera would show the aftermath of a suicide bombing four times an hour. Naturally he said they always do. Then an Egyotian blogger was invited to speak and he said that wasn’t true. LOL, as they say in the classics.)
BBC Middle East ‘Editor’ Jeremy Bowen was on, spouting his usual meaningless moral equivalence. Then the spotlight was briefly shone on one of Biased BBC’s very own commenters:
Presenter: Well Jeremy, we’ve had a comment directed at the BBC, which I’d like to share with you, coming from chatmandu in the UK, questioning the validity of… [I didn’t catch the tail end of the sentence.]
“It looks like the propaganda battle is in full swing and the BBC is swallowing it as fact.”
Bowen: That’s absolute nonsense. We’re very well aware of the issues here and we’re not swallowing it.
Could have fooled me. Besides, if he’s really aware of the issues, why doesn’t he report them? Ah, but that would mean reserving judgement and thereby taking some of the pressure off the Israelis. And we can’t have that.
They had an Israeli counter-terrorism expert on but he didn’t make much of an impact on the motley crew and callers who were in full propaganda mode. Overall, it really was a disgusting display. Typical BBC.
Quite so. They are lying through their teeth.
It is looking increasingly unlikely that it was an Israeli shell that killed the beach family – eg no crater, the shrapnel in a body was not from an Israeli shell, the timing was wrong….
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150035838991&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Dumbcisco,
What happened on the beach in Gaza where 7 Palestinians were killed was an abomination. According to the IDF front commander for Gaza, Major General Yoav Galant, “the picture is unclear. The artillery fire has been well-analyzed, and the question marks are multiplying as to whether the artillery fire was the cause of the incident.” But even so, that does not absolve Israel. Bradley burston from haaretz comments…
“Say he’s right. Say it wasn’t our fault. Say we dismiss as irrelevant the fact that five IDF shells landed nearby at the same time, and that the trajectory of the sixth is unaccounted-for.
For every Mohammed Dura, there have been hundreds and hundreds of Palestinians killed by the IDF in error, in conjunction with the killing of terrorists, or because overwhelming force and remote technology was applied in order to minimize the risk to Israeli troops.
There was no news crew to film them, so the world cares nothing for them. And neither do we. Their tragedies are no less unbearable, surely no less unbearable than the hundreds of our own the world cares nothing for.
We can live with it, as we live with the idea of sending thousands and thousands of artillery shells into one of the most crowded districts on the planet, in order to try to hit three-man mobile crews firing a rocket not much bigger than a broom – the equivalent of going after a fly with a pile-driver.
We live with it because we Can’t Just Do Nothing, as if thousands of shells, many of them directed at open spaces calculated precisely to hit nothing, are the only possible alternative.
We can live with it, fundamentally, because we don’t know what else to do, and because the only thing left for us to believe, is that it’s wrong to negotiate.”
Ittay,
There are so many misconceptions and distortions of the truth in that passage that it would take ages to Fisk it. The following sentence alone is written either by a bleeding-heart idiot peering out at the world through rose-coloured spectacles or a propagandist well aware of the agenda he’s pushing:
We can live with it, as we live with the idea of sending thousands and thousands of artillery shells into one of the most crowded districts on the planet, in order to try to hit three-man mobile crews firing a rocket not much bigger than a broom – the equivalent of going after a fly with a pile-driver.
Does this alleged journalist really not know that Israel does not target the Kassam crews and other terrorists with artillery but with precision missiles fired from the air – and then only when there’s an absolute minimum of risk to civilians?
It surely no longer needs to be pointed out that israel uses the absolute bare minimum of force to counter the Kassam crews and takes utmost care to avoid civilian casualties. And has this journalist ever seen the damage caused by one of these little brooms? Does he know about the deaths and injuries caused by the Kassams?
The final sentence, with its unnecessary comma between “believe” and “is”, makes me think our writer was trying to work out a way to come to come to some kind of profound conclusion. But he only succeeds in further revealing his ignorance – or his agenda. Hamas and other memebers of the motley Palestinian crew want Israel to negotiate her very existence away.
Haaretz is a subversive propaganda outfit, in the same vein as the BBC. It’s just not quite as polished and practised in the art.
Unlike the ‘experts’ at the bbc I was not actually on the beach in Gaza and I don’t know exactly what happened! However, one thing al-beeb fails to understand — Israel is in a state of war with groups of terrorists; smugglers; drug dealers; clan, tribe and family feuders; car thieves; and pimps. Oh yeah, and also a few Islamic religious fanatics. I find it hard to believe that people of any persuasion would actually picnic on a strand in the middle of a war zone.
So let’s hear some of that from the beeboids who are too smug to go out and investigate that what they are actually spouting is true! Three cheers for £4 million well spent !!!
Please can B-BBC start a Hall of Shame, featuring those individual journalists (and editors and producers) who repeatedly do not live up to the high standards of journalism which the BBC puports to pursue? I’ve suggested this before, on the grounds that whilst you’ll never manage to make any impression on the corporate behemoth’s behaviour, you can, and therefore should, be able to make an impression on individuals who work there and uphold, or don’t uphold, decent standards.
If in this case, it’s Jeremy Bowen, then his mug should be in the Hall of Shame, complete with references to the stories he’s messed up. Follow the track record. As a TV journalist we know right from the start that he’s an unusually vain man: who knows – he might not like it. The world belongs to those who know the history, and the time-line: so if we want to stop the rot, that needs to be us.
But, of course, it mustn’t stop there. To a certain extent, Bowen is the mouthpiece – we should also monitor on an individual basis, the work of the editors and producers who call the running order.
You win back the BBC to decent journalistic standards one journalist at a time. Why not start with Mr Bowen.
The Have Your Say meddlers….er….modifiers….er….moderators are such a funny bunch:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=2151&edition=2&ttl=20060613083709
Is this the end of the Hamas ceasefire?
The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, has said it will no longer respect a self-imposed truce.
The announcement follows the death of eight civilians, including three children, when Israeli shells hit a beach in Gaza on Friday, a further thirty were wounded.
Although Hamas’ political wing, which runs the Palestinian Authority, has yet to make a statement, its armed wing has declared an end to the ceasefire held since February 2005.
Are you in the area affected by the shelling? Is Hamas right to end its ceasefire? How should Israel respond?
Published: Friday, 9 June, 2006, 21:03 GMT 22:03 UK
They’ve had this topic up since shortly after the Gaza incident yet they’ve only published 36 comments. This in spite of the fact that it’s obviously attracted considerable interest – hundreds of recommendations for those few comments have poured in – and they must have received hundreds of comments that they’ve torn up and thrown in the bin.
And of course they still wont acknowledge that the ‘Israeli’ shell story is looking less and less likely as time goes on. They prefer to push the Hamas version. I wonder if any of these people were ever trained in journalism. Or ethics. Seems unlikely.
Maybe Paul Reynolds or John Reith or Alan or any of the other apologists for BBC propaganda who pop in here would care to comment. No? Didn’t think so.
Michael Taylor,
You are right. Journalists take pride in their craft and it really grates them when they are accused of bias.
Problem is, the hall of shame you propose would probably be filled by 90% of BBC staff. Might be more practical to institute some sort of award for the rare BBC writer for whom the truth is more important than the party line.
Hmmm, but on second thoughts that would just get them fired.
Er…. I think we’re on the wrong thread here. This ain’t the open thread.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/726029.html
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=105304
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=105304
If the Israeli investigation finds that IDF forces were not responsible for the Gaza beach explosion I wonder how much prominance Al Beeb will give to it? Will they stick to their guns or quietly bury the story like seems to have happened to the US Marine massacre video. Sad to say, however, that often the damage is already done in the minds of the public.
dumbcisco | 13.06.06 – 9:36 am
Last 2 links are the same.
Hmmmm, a reasonable article from Haaretz? Perhaps I’ve been a bit harsh.
“Fake but accurate” is the pali defenders cry.
We’ve heard that line before, and it didn’t work that time either.
Lefties, your LIES are being caught.
Israeli National Radio website is reporting that the beach explosion is believed to have been caused by a Hamas mine rather than from an IDF gunboat firing shells.
corsair
At least your post was accurate.
The BBC repetitively posts LIES, every half-hour, every channel, TV and radio, UK and overseas.
Sorry about going on . . . . but . . . if a (very) casual viewer can spot the symptoms of a likely fake piece of footage, why can’t BBC’s editors and producers? I mean, it’s really not that difficult to ask yourself such basic questions as “OK, where’s the crater?”
I understand now that the raw footage had, in any case, been edited together – presumably by the BBC – to take out the more obvious fake bits.
Blimey, I never thought I’d say this, but either the editors/producers are completely effing idiots, or they have deliberately attempted to deceive the British public. If the latter, I want their names, ideally I want them up there sweating in front of the cameras, publicly shamed, before they are summarily fired without pension. Actually, I want their heads on a spike on top of the BBC’s offices. I mean, I honestly can’t think of a worse journalistic crime.
So what happens now? Is the BBC going to apologize and set the record straight? Are there any managers there who are prepared to demand even the most basic standards of integrity? It makes me despair, yes, but more than that, it’s beginning to make me very very angry.
How dare they?
The editor of the Mirror got sacked for those dodgy army photos
Anybody got a link to the “raw” footage – before the BBC removed the obviously faked bits ?
The Beeb are quietly declaring that perhaps it wasn’t an Israeli shelling after all. Buried at the bottom of this story.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5074798.stm
Beach blast
The upsurge in violence follows the deaths of eight Palestinians on a beach in Gaza on Friday.
After those deaths, the militant group Hamas, which heads the Palestinian government, said it was breaking off its voluntary truce and launched rockets at Israel.
The beach explosion was initially blamed on Israeli shelling near the area where a family was enjoying a picnic.
However, an Israeli military inquiry is close to deciding Israel was not responsible, media reports say.
Quote from today’s Times: “Israeli officials have hinted that the blast could have been a misfired Palestinian rocket. However, no Palestinian harbours the slightest doubt that it was Israeli artillery” – well they wouldn’t would they? It isn’t just al beeb spreading lies and smears – tho’ they lead the way.
Here’s the latest from Ha’aretz (who are as bad as the rest of the media pack)on the IDF report.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/726162.html
And there’s already been false reports from al beeb about two Israeli missiles missing their target and killing civilians today – when in fact the Israelis shot a single missile that hit its target accurately setting off the katyusha rocket Islamic Jihad were preparing to launch.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150035842838&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
If you follow the side-bar links on various BBC pages right now (labelled Gaza Beach Deaths) you’ll see some pictures.
Picture 1 shows a blood-stained table-cloth of some kind.
Picture 2 shows a rather blurry image of a man looking at what is described as “rubble”.
Picture 3 shows a young girl, obviously in some pain, and bleeding too.
Picture 4 is odd. The “alt” text reads “Israeli navy boat fires shell into the Gaza Strip on Friday”. So, is this an actual photo of that happening, or just some stock image? The near-flat trajectory of the gun suggests that it isn’t being fired at a land-based target.
If this is a genuine photo of the shelling, it is remarkable that (a) the Israelis were taking photo’s of themselves shooting at civilians, and (b) the beeb got hold of it so quickly and easily – after all the picture is quite obviously being taken from on-board the vessel.
Or, perhaps, this is just some old photo they had lying around?
Pictures 5 and 6 have got nothing to do with the beach deaths. I have no idea why they are there.
In pictures:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/5065782.stm