Monday, February 27, 2006
Joel Mowbray on the Palestine Solidarity Movement conference: The Big Lie comes to Georgetown
A handful of conference attendees were standing in a circle making faces at a cute, chubby infant girl, who was being cradled in the arms of her twenty-something, hijab-clad mother. When asked her daughter's name, the mother responded, "Jenin." Several cooed with delight, and one young man was particularly excited, widening his eyes and nodding his head vigorously.
The newborn's name, of course, comes from an incident that occurred in April 2002 during Israel's Operation Defensive Shield military campaign against terrorist organizations in the West Bank. To the mother and many others at the conference, it is known as the "Jenin Massacre."
Thing is, there was no massacre. But one would never know it if his only source of information was the PSM conference...
Interesting opinion piece, here are some other articles by journalists that attended the conference.
- Georgetown divestiture meet muted
Jerusalem Post
- At Georgetown divestment talks,advocates stress Jewish enlistment
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
- Georgetown quiet as Palestinian group readies for conference Jewish students
Washington Jewish Week
In fact, some of this coverage seems to contradict the opinion piece by Mr. Mowbray, an example includes his assertion that the conference received "substantial advance press coverage":
With the exception of a handful of letters and op-eds in the campus newspaper, a lengthy letter in Sunday's Washington Post and a segment on Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor, the atmosphere leading up to this weekend's parley has been relatively quiet compared to the four past conferences at universities such as Duke and Ohio State, say Jewish community leaders.
Wonder what else is off the mark?
The anti-Semitic press: "Divestment conference renews activism" It all depends what papers you read ;)
http://www.arabamericannews.com/newsarticle.php?articleid=4517
Point taken Liz. However, in this growing noise known as the blogosphere it is important to remember that there are clear and distinct differences between opinion pieces and a news articles. Both Mr. Mowbray and Mr. Youmans are presenting personal opinions, whereas, the articles by the JTA, Jerusalem Post and Washington Jewish Weekly go through the rigor of editorial scrutiny to ensure the facts are accurate.
Right. sorry. It's just, sometimes I read the Arab News, Al Ahram, Daily Star, even Electronic Intifada just to see the world through the wierd, funhouse-mirror-like distortions of the Arab point of view.