The myth of Jeningrad, ten years on
Media commentator and analyst Tom Gross who originally took the media to task for its coverage of Jenin in 2002, has recently published the following in his Middle East Dispatch, which is adapted here with his permission.
“ISRAELI SOLDIERS STRIPPED HIM TO HIS UNDERWEAR, PUSHED HIM AGAINST A WALL AND SHOT HIM”
Ten years ago, in April 2002, Israel was subjected to the most incredible wave of media misreporting and nastiness I have ever witnessed on any subject. This followed a supposed massacre of hundreds (or thousands, according to some initial CNN reports) of Palestinian civilians in Jenin. In fact at most 14 Palestinian civilians died (together with 23 Israeli soldiers). This was far fewer than the hundreds of Israeli civilians killed in Israeli towns by suicide bombers dispatched from Jenin, a wave of attacks that Israel was trying to prevent from continuing.
By early 1921 Britain’s war in Ireland was not just a moral issue, but a financial one. The sheer expense of solving The Irish Question , considering financial reparation for the loss of civilian life and destruction of private property, along with the price tag of the Crown Forces’ operations in Ireland, was staggering.