REPORTING ON 'EXPLOSION' IN A BUS IN WEST JERUSALEM AND IMPLOSION OF 'WESTERN' JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY

A fire and a possible explosion in a gas station in West Jerusalem has damaged an empty bus and injured 10-20 people around it and in a nearby bus.

The 'explosion' happened in 'Derech Hebron, just west of the 1949 armistice line dividing Jerusalem, and was apparently deliberate based on first claims by Israeli authorities and media, which were echoed by the 'Western media'.

Yet only a fire that started in an empty bus, that spread to another one and led to both's destruction has been confirmed.

'Western' mainstream media is rushing to cover this - unlike most of the news we post on our wall - as the victims are likely to be mainly Jewish Israelis, who in the eyes of the 'Western' journalists and media are 'Westerners' and thus worthy of attention.

The context of the incident, the occupation, the over 200 Palestinian deaths since October 1st and the daily announcements by Israeli government of home demolitions and illegal colony building in East Jerusalem and elsewhere of the occupied territories are almost guaranteed to be lacking from most of these news reports.

To 'Western' mainstream journalists in Israel and occupied Palestine Jewish Israelis are still usually 'Us" and Palestinians represent the "Other", which leads to huge imbalance in reporting, which is not only accidental, but in many cases deliberate attempt to distort audiences' understanding of the events and to present the occupier as the 'victim'.

We point to a decade old study of UK television news by BBC and ITV by the university of Glasgow:

"The report takes issue with a tendency in the media to present the problem as "starting" with Palestinian action, while Israelis were seen to be "responding" with actions that were explained and contextualised.

"There was very little discussion of the nature of the relationship between the two sides - that one [the Palestinians] was subject to military control by the other [Israel]," the report says.

Researchers also found a strong emphasis on Israeli casualties on the news despite the number of Palestinian deaths being considerably greater.

And the differences in language used by journalists for both sides were also noted.

"Words such as 'atrocity', 'brutal murder', 'mass murder', 'savage cold blooded killing', 'lynching' and 'slaughter' were used about Israeli deaths but not Palestinian," the report said.

"The word 'terrorist' was used to describe Palestinians by journalists but when an Israeli group was reported as trying to bomb a Palestinian school, they were referred to as 'extremists' or 'vigilantes'."

Already we see this distortion at work in the first news reports in the explosion in the 'Western' media; no mention by BBC or Reuters of occupation or even of that the explosion happened in West Jerusalem - the 'Western' media is, through reporting this incident, repeating Israel's government claim of a "united Jerusalem" and pushing both the occupation and internal law out of the picture for their readers.

To Reuters the incident happened in "south-western Jerusalem" "amid a wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis". Occupation and a ratio of 7 Palestinian deaths per one 1 Israeli Jewish one are not mentioned at all; Reuters is basically doing Israel's propaganda for it, which is only confirmed by the end of the article:

"...if confirmed as a terror attack will raise fears of a return to the regular suicide attacks on buses that ravaged Israeli cities a decade ago."

This has been confirmed of not having been a suicide attack and was indeed possibly an accident, but you would not know this by reading the article by Reuters.

The whole context of the second Intifada with its death ratio of over 5 Palestinian deaths per 1 Israeli are something that Reuters apparently feels are also not important enough to be mentioned, unlike the phantom of suicide bombings, none of which has been made against Israeli occupation since 2008.

In most cases, 'Western' mainstream journalists and press are both as much a part of the occupation of Palestine as Israel's occupation forces and its illegal settler militia and as important in keeping up the occupation. Objectivity, neutrality and journalistic integrity are all lacking from their toolbox when it comes to Palestine.

'Western' mainstream journalists could carry an Israeli occupation forces uniform, it hardly could make their reporting much worse. Which each of their biased reports they are fighting for the occupation, Apartheid and Greater Israel and helping Israel to bleed more Palestinian blood and take over more Palestinian land.

SOURCES:

Explosion aboard Jerusalem bus, 20 casualties - Israeli radio

http://news.trust.org/item/20160418150520-dwlc7

Fire On Bus In Jerusalem Injures At Least 15; Cause Under Investigation

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/474683933/fire-on-bus-in-jerusalem-injures-at-least-15-cause-under-investigation

Jerusalem bus blast: 10 injured as double explosion goes off in 'militant attack'

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/509012/Bus-explosion-city-injured-blast

Jerusalem bus 'blast' causes casualties

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/18/jerusalem-bus-bomb-casualties-derech-hebron

Mid-East coverage baffles Britons

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3829967.stm