Did
Israel Shell a UN School? Globe & Mail Exposes the Truth
February 3,
2009
By: Mike Fegelman
Dear HonestReporting Canada subscriber:
In war, the saying goes, "the first victim is
the truth." With bullets flying and people dying, media coverage of the Gaza
conflict was often event-driven, context-free, and replete with
unproven
allegations. But an in-depth investigative report by the Globe and Mail's Middle
East correspondent, Patrick Martin
(pictured
right),
proved to be
the exception to the rule.
Martin’s
front-page report
on January 29
entitled
“Account of Israeli attack just doesn’t hold up
to scrutiny” investigated the Israeli shelling of Hamas
terrorists near a UN school that led to the tragic deaths of 43 civilians. His
conclusion: the facts don't support the accepted story that the school
itself was shelled.
According to
Martin:
“Physical
evidence and interviews with several eyewitnesses, including a teacher who was
in the schoolyard at the time of the shelling, make it clear: While a
few people were injured from shrapnel landing inside the white-and-blue-walled
UNRWA compound, no one in the compound was killed. The 43 people who died in the
incident were all outside, on the street, where all three mortar shells landed.
Stories
of one or more shells landing inside the schoolyard were inaccurate.
While the
killing of 43 civilians on the street may itself be grounds for investigation,
it falls short of the act of shooting into a schoolyard crowded with
refuge-seekers.”
Martin's
report, which
also got the
Jerusalem Post’s attention, confirms the underreported Israeli accounts that
the IDF accurately returned fire to the location from which it was being shelled
by Hamas terrorists.
The fact that
people were milling around the area where Hamas was firing rockets is not
Israel’s fault, but rather points out that Hamas fired from an area
frequented by civilians, engaging in what former Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu
calls a double war crime: “Attacking
[Israeli] civilians and hiding behind [Palestinian] civilians.”
After
originally covering the story on
January 6, Martin and the Globe and Mail may have felt compelled to further
investigate this matter to once and for all set the record straight.
Some of
Martin's key findings include:
-
There were
no dead in the UN school, only some injured according to
physical evidence and interviews with several eyewitnesses
-
Three Israeli mortar shells landed
outside the school's compound, not inside
-
Incorrect public pronouncements by
the UN helped allow "the misconception to linger"
It was news
reporting of this incident that supposedly prompted CUPE Ontario President Sid
Ryan to
call for schools to ban Israeli
academics from campuses across Ontario. We wonder if the new facts which have
come to light will now prompt Ryan to retract his odious boycott efforts.
As the conflict
between Israel and Hamas
continues, we hope that the world media will follow the Globe and Mail's
lead by always casting a critical eye and scrutinizing all accounts, big or
small, in their future reporting of the current conflict.
HOW YOU
CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
Human nature dictates that we're more likely to criticize than to give
acclaim, but given Patrick Martin’s rigorous January 29 investigation:
“Account of Israeli attack just doesn’t hold
up to scrutiny”, we urge all HonestReporting subscribers
to commend reporter Martin and the Globe and Mail for revealing the truth
about the shelling near the UN school. Please send letters to the Globe and
Mail at:
letters@globeandmail.com
