by Ali Abunimah

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict gets a disproportionate share of mainstream western media attention, as compared, say, with conflicts in Africa. Yet the public, particularly in the United States, remains grossly misinformed.

Jeffrey Dvorkin, ombudsman for US National Public Radio (NPR), recently claimed that his network's coverage in 2000-2001 had "a tendency to overreport the impact of the intifada on the Palestinians and underreport the effect on Israelis". In fact, the opposite was true. During a six-month period near the beginning of the intifada, NPR reported on 84 percent of Israeli civilian deaths, a study by the well-respected Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting organization found, while reporting on only 26 percent of Palestinian civilian deaths. This has been a consistent pattern across the media.

At the time, NPR's correspondent in Jerusalem, Linda Gradstein, was accepting unethical cash payments worth thousands of dollars annually from pro-Israeli organizations, a practice that was stopped only after it was revealed by an investigation colleagues and I conducted for The Electronic Intifada website. While NPR allowed Gradstein to keep reporting, it had earlier dismissed another correspondent, claiming that she did not disclose to managers that her husband had been an advisor to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Dvorkin's revisionism comes as NPR and other media and academic organizations in the United States face intense attack from pro-Israel groups and allies in Congress who view any reporting that does not slavishly toe the Israeli line as being implacably hostile or even anti-Semitic. NPR and its affiliate stations face huge cuts in their government funding, instigated by officials with close ties to the pro-Israel lobby.

By Hasan Abu Nimah and Ali Abunimah

In February, press reports that cement imported from Egypt through Palestinian companies and ready-made concrete manufactured in the Palestinian village of Abu Dis were being used to build Israeli settlements and the apartheid wall provoked outrage among Palestinians. Israeli television showed trucks transporting cement from a factory originally owned by Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qureia to the Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, east of occupied Jerusalem. Qureia reportedly had transferred ownership of the plant to other members of his family.

In an attempt to mollify public disgust, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) ordered an investigation, even as the accusations were vigorously denied. The committee charged with the job, headed by Palestinian legislator Hasan Khreisheh, has now completed its work, according to a June 14 report in the Jordanian daily Ad Dustour.