Republished from TimesWarp
by Barbara Erickson
TimesWarp is an excellent critique of the New York Times’ coverage of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Highly recommended.
A full 10 months after Ethiopian Israeli Avera Mengistu made his way into Gaza, not to be heard from since, officials have allowed his name to appear in print, and The New York Times has offered us a report that promotes Israeli spin, omitting key details and glossing over the government’s unsavory role in this strange tale.
Isabel Kershner tells us that Israeli officials, lifting a gag order on the story, announced that Mengistu and a second Israeli citizen, a Palestinian, were being held in Gaza. Officials said Mengistu crossed into Gaza voluntarily on Sept. 7, but they had nothing more to report about the other man.
Kershner’s story gives the impression that Israeli officials have been working hard to free the men, but it omits details reported in other media that suggest a far different story.These reports state that officials ignored the Ethiopian’s case until American blogger Richard Silverstein exposed the name of the missing man last month and Ethiopian-Israelis began raising the issue in street protests.
It was only then, this past week, that the government agreed to lift the gag order, which had applied to Mengistu’s family as well as news media. Family members are now saying that the government forced them to remain silent but failed to respond to their requests for information and help until recently.
An Israeli television station, Channel 10, gave weight to their claims by broadcasting a conversation between a Netanyahu aide and Mengistu’s parents. Israelis heard Lior Lotan, Netanyahu’s representative for missing persons, threaten the family members and warn them against criticizing the government’s handling of the case or blaming it on discrimination.
If they did so, he said, their son would be left “in Gaza for another year.” The recording also captures complaints by Mengistu’s father that he had written to Netanyahu several times and received no response. The prime minister, according to reports, never called the family until just before lifting the gag order.
But nothing of this appears in the Times story. Here we are told that “the news blackout regarding Mr. Mengistu had been imposed with the agreement of his family.” We also hear that Netanyahu is taking a tough line, telling Hamas he holds the party responsible for the welfare of the two men.
Kershner appears eager to counter the charges of discrimination coming from the Ethiopian community and their supporters. She repeatedly links Mengistu’s disappearance to the case of Gilad Shalit, an Askenazi Jew, who was taken captive in 2006 in Gaza and later exchanged for Palestinian prisoners. The Shalit affair “traumatized” Israeli society, she writes, and the Mengistu case threatens to “open old wounds.”
The Shalit affair followed a different route and quickly received widespread publicity in Israel, with a full-scale campaign for his release. Ethiopian-Israelis, who have been protesting government treatment this year, have noted the difference.
Kershner, however, waits until her final paragraphs before she makes brief mention of the Mengistu family’s objections to the government response. Their complaints, she implies, are part of a general “discontent” on the part of Ethiopian Israelis who have made “accusations of discrimination and police harassment.”
Kershner’s story avoids still further evidence that Netanyahu had little interest in the Mengistu case: Several officials in the Security Cabinet and the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said after the gag order was lifted that they had never received official briefings on the affair.
It was a request from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Kershner writes, that finally led officials to lift the news blackout. Authorities had rejected previous requests, she writes, adding, “It is not clear what prompted the change.”
In fact, Kershner and others who have followed this story know why the order was rescinded: The silence was broken last month when Silverstein revealed Mengistu’s name in a Mint Press News article. Soon afterwards Ethiopian Israelis showed up on the streets wearing T-shirts with Mengistu’s name.
But the Times gives no credit to Silverstein, who had reported last October that an unnamed man was missing in Gaza. Silverstein recently revealed the name of the second missing man, Hashem al-Sayyed, who apparently disappeared April 20 from his Bedouin village in the Negev. This man’s father also complained of official negligence in his son’s case.
Kershner’s story omits the most telling details of the Mengistu case—the threats against the family, their evidence of negligence and the ignorance of high government officials—while she gives weight to officials’ statements of concern for the missing man. It is all in line with official spin.
As a result, readers are likely to remain ignorant of the full story concerning Mengistu and al-Sayyed. The actions of Netanyahu and the revelations of Israeli racism as they appear in this tale are off-limits in the Times, and the curious and the caring will have to find the full story elsewhere.
Hamas spreads sordid lies about Mengistu to make him into a bargaining chip.
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Hamas-Israel-lying-about-Mengistus-date-of-entry-to-Gaza-and-his-mental-state-409316
Now, Mengistu was a uniformed soldier who slipped into Gaza during Operation Protective Edge. Bullshit!!
@ Mitchell: the only sordid lies come from the Israeli gov’t claiming it cared about Mengistu, telling the family it was doing all possible to get him released. And that it was the family which requested a gag order in his case. All lies. Hamas claims that the government’s conduct in this case is motivated by racism, which is true. Of course Hamas may be embellishing to further embarrass the governmrnt. But this ase doesn’t require embellishment to be greatly embarrassing to Israel.
The man is mentally disturbed and off his meds.
Hamas should have been returned Mengistu to Israel months ago.
I’ve stated that the gag order was a silly mistake.
Now where is the condemnation of Hamas for not returning this lost soul to his family?
Hamas is playing there cards the best way they can. This is a war, not a game! You can’t expect them to give him up that easy!
This was a sarcastic comment. You Richard claim to care about Avera Mengistu but have no issue with Hamas using an ill person as a simple bargain chip.
@ Eilati: Oh puh-leeze. Israel uses its own citizens and especially Gazans as pawns in its own political games. Israel’s refusal to acknowledge Mengistu & al Sayyed and refusal to negotiate for their release is far worse than anything Hamas has done. Stop with the feigned outrage and look in the mirror.
Read the comment threads before you publish. Others have already expressed precisely your views. Don’t repeat views already expressed. It’s boring, unoriginal & repetitive.
@ Mitchell:
Stop repeating yourself. This is the same comment you already published, a violation of comment rules.
yowzer, as if Hamas isn’t every bit as full of crap as Netanyahu’s bunch
Thanks for mentioning Erickson’s blog– I was unaware of its existence and after visiting just now, it looks like a very valuable contribution, given how much undeserved influence the NYT has.
” TimesWarp is an excellent critique of the New York Times’ coverage of the Israeli-Arab conflict. ”
yes, some people are of that opinion. of course, those people ain’t necessary correct
Unfortunately for NYT readers, Timeswarp does in fact do a good job showing how the NYT downplays or ignores Israeli violence against civilians during so- called truces, which gives its readers the mistaken impression that Palestinians are the ones who initiate violence.