It is sometimes surprising where bias turns up in media
reports. Stories that seem innocent and on topics far removed
from the issues may have serious flaws, as HonestReporting
showed in a recent report.
The New Statesman and the Baltimore Sun wrote
stories about the situation in Bethlehem as the Christian
holidays approach. They both painted a very grim picture of
the city, a few weeks before Xmas. According to the
Sun:
"A once-bustling neighborhood has become a ghost town. Shops
are shuttered or empty, and the streets are deserted. A sign
carries the name of an abandoned restaurant. `Memories,' it
says. Another sign near an empty shell says, `Border
Cafeteria.' "
Typical of the The Statesman's claims is the
following:
"The flicker of optimism has been dampened by the completion
of the barrier around Bethlehem and the installation of the
gate, which has given a sense of permanence to the isolation
and the economy's free fall. The crossing is daunting even
for tourists, who are searched on their coaches as they enter
Bethlehem."
These stories paint Israel in a much worse light than it
deserves, and ignore Palestinian responsibility for some of
the conditions they complain about.
According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, each
one of these points is simply false:
There is no barrier encircling Bethlehem. There is only a
fence where the Bethlehem area meets Jerusalem, and it is
located close to the 1949 armistice line. Only a very small
segment of the fence is a concrete wall preventing terrorists
from shooting at motorists, built with the ominous shadow of
more than two years of sniper fire directed from Bethlehem
and its suburbs towards Jerusalem.
The economy has actually improved significantly. While
110,000 tourists visited the city during 2004, more than
218,000 have already visited Bethlehem during 2005 — an
increase of close to 100 percent. There have been
corresponding increases in Bethlehem's main industries:
Textiles - 50 percent, stone and marble export - 40 percent,
commercial transportation - 20 percent. These increases have
brought millions of dollars into the local economy.
Moreover, before the Christian holidays this month, the IDF
decided to take a "calculated risk" and to make access easier
for tourists. According to IDF Lt. Col. Aviv Feigel in the
Jerusalem Post, "The military will try to speed the
process by not checking every tourist bus, but conducting
spot checks of random buses instead." Israel is taking these
steps despite the fact that, "Half of the Israeli terror
fatalities in 2004 came from attackers who entered Jerusalem
from Bethlehem."
The New Statesman also raps Israel for pushing
Christians out of Bethlehem. But as FrontPage magazine
points out, it is the Palestinians who have been forcing the
city's Christian residents to leave.
The Vatican, in a rare diplomatic move, called publicly on
the Israelis to intervene in Bethlehem on behalf of its
severely receding Christian population. Now totaling less
than 12 percent of Bethlehem's population, Christians, who
have been the targets of continual PA violence, might leave
entirely.
In 1995, when the PA took over, Bethlehem was 62 percent
Christian. Before 1995, Bethlehem had a majority-Christian
municipal council, but when the Palestinian Authority took
over the town, Yasser Arafat replaced the municipal council
with a predominantly Muslim council. Christian Arabs fled
Bethlehem in droves, after a radical Islamic wave began
inciting against them.
Just last week, Palestinian gunmen disrupted Xmas
preparations in Bethlehem by taking over the municipality
building across from the Church of Nativity. Clergy closed
the ancient church for several hours. This was Bethlehem less
than a week before Xmas, with thousands of tourists expected
to arrive, encouraged by the downturn in violence since last
Xmas. The brief takeover by about two dozen gunmen could lead
to concerns over whether Palestinian security forces can keep
the biblical town safe for visitors on Xmas, though no shots
were fired Tuesday and no one was hurt.
With the downturn in Israeli-Palestinian violence after five
years of conflict, Bethlehem was hoping the number of
pilgrims would reach 30,000 this year, or nearly double the
turnout in 2004.
Despite the Palestinian efforts to push out Christian
residents, this holiday season will see thousands of pilgrims
celebrating Xmas in Bethlehem. HonestReporting says that
The New Statesmen and Baltimore Sun should
cover the facts and not rely on Palestinian propaganda.
