Israellycool

Separated at Birth: Peeping Tom Edition

Aussie Dave

Some palestinian man and Wilson from Home Improvement.

By the way, check out the caption to the photo of the palestinian man:

A Palestinian man stands near the scene of a stabbing incident near the Damascus gate in the Old City of Jerusalem March 18, 2008. A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli rabbi in Arab East Jerusalem on Tuesday, emergency services said, in an attack likely to further increase already high tensions in the city. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (JERUSALEM)

Despite the fact the picture relates to a story involving palestinian terrorism against an Israeli, the Reuters photographer with the Arabic name has managed to take a picture that alludes to Israel’s security fence and the idea that palestinians are “caged in.”

Update: I wasn’t paying attention, but luckily Israellycool contributor Elder of Ziyon was, as he points out the even bigger example of bias in this caption.

While there are parts of East Jerusalem that are predominantly Arab, to categorize all of East Jerusalem as “Arab” is an editorial comment, not a statement of fact. To say that the Old City is “Arab East Jerusalem” is pretty dishonest, even if there are more Arabs living there now than others. It is effectively enshrining Jordan’s illegal annexation and ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem for 19 years as being legitimate, and the existence of Jewish-owned lands in East Jerusalem as illusory. It is also meant to make the existence of a yeshiva in the Old City’s “Muslim” quarter look as if it is a recent “settlement,” when in fact the yeshiva is occupying the building of the only Jewish school or synagogue that was not destroyed by Jordan in 1948 (Torat Chaim, est. 1886.) All additional buildings that Ateret Cohanim own were purchased legally.

East Jerusalem is much larger than the Old City, of course, and using the term “Arab East Jerusalem” to describe something that happened in the Old City would be like saying that the Upper East Side crane accident over the weekend occurred in “New York State.” It appears that Reuters is specifically choosing this terminology in order to render Israeli building in other parts of East Jerusalem, such as in Har Homa, as being illegitimate, since Reuters considers it “Arab” land - notwithstanding that most of Har Homa was also owned by Jews in 1948.

An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.