Guadalajara – we participated in the international book fair of Guadalajara, in the presentation of the book: ‘Stories that God would have preferred not to write – the Jewish invasion of Palestine’ by Alejandro Almacen and Oscar Kamacho, which was presented by Lilia Hernandez; and we were shocked by the anti-Israeli and antisemitic speech we heard and taped.
Even, when during the presentation there was a malfunction of the sound system that caused great noise, it was attributed, amid the ridiculing voices, to the Jews.
Many of the participants wore a miniature version of the shawl called ‘Palestinian’.
Among the various arguments, we heard again the antisemitic stereotype comparing the Israeli actions to those of the Nazis, a comparison that should have shamed serious reporters, since there can be no comparison between the systematic murder of millions of Jews during the holocaust and what is happening today in the Palestinian territories. Another antisemitic allegation referred to the ‘power of the Jewish community’.
As I have said – as a representative of the Jewish link (Enlace Judio) in the presentation – this is a ‘unique book’, as the anchorwoman said, since it is an example of a ‘unique’ biased journalism, because it presents only one side of the conflict, while arrogantly ignoring the other side, and while taking the scenes between the IDF soldiers and the Palestinians out of context when showing a distorted simplistic version of the history.
The journalists say they did not write the article in the Israeli side, because they were explicitly asked to come in order to cover the Palestinian ‘reality’ for 15 days. They did not go to the Israeli side due to ‘shortage of money’.
In other words, if the trio Almacen-Kamacho-Hernandez had been asked to come in order to cover the Israeli side of the conflict would the story have been a different one?
Does journalism engage in selective sponsorship? Someone once said that in a conflict between me and you there are three truths: mine, yours and the truth. This is the role of the journalist, to find THE truth, and not just one of its facets.
It is saddening that a serious media conduit like Milenio agreed to publish this type of historical distortion for the pursuit of headlines. What was done is – providing erroneous information to the Mexican public through a ‘romantic’ story, using children in order to arouse the readers’ compassion.
On the other hand, the journalists’ ignorance regarding historical facts is manifest. They don’t even know the meaning of the terms ‘israelitas’ (Jews) which they use erroneously when referring to the citizens of Israel, since the correct term is ‘israelíes’ (Israelis).
Another unprecedented fact is to say that they ‘understand’ the reasons of a female suicide bomber, since the Palestinians opened their doors to the Israelis and they took control of them. This is a totally simplistic and distorted version of the source of the conflict. It is impossible and unseemly to ‘understand’ the terrorists, who wish in their death, to murder helpless citizens.
The show’s heroes were Taufik, Zhawab and Eiman, the three members of the Al-Fatkh Journalist delegation, the journalists’ instructors in the Palestinian Authority, who roamed the corridors of the Congress to brainwash our legislators, in order to exert pressure on the authorities to vote for a unilateral recognition by the UN of a Palestinian state.
They invited me, in fluent Spanish, to visit Palestine, all expenses paid, so that I could see for myself the harsh ‘reality’ of Palestine, and I thought that this was in contrast with the poverty from which Palestine, allegedly suffers.
I will probably have to forgo this trip, since I remember what happened a few years ago to Israeli soldiers who lost their way and arrived in Ramallah: a Palestinian mob lynched them in the municipality proper, tore them to pieces with window frames and played football with their heads.
