April 2, 1999

Today, the pro-Israeli group CAMERA published an advertisement in the New York Times, attacking National Public Radio (NPR) for "biased" coverage of Israel. While making general accusations that NPR is anti-Israeli, and charging its foreign editor, Loren Jenkins, with "endemic bias," and holding "extreme views," CAMERA cited a specific NPR report which it said was "strikingly biased and inaccurate."

In fact it is CAMERA's charges, selective citation and factual errors that fit this description. CAMERA singled out a March 12, 1998 report by NPR correspondent Mike Shuster, about the Israeli policy of demolishing Palestinian houses in east Jerusalem. In addition to making its own inaccurate statements, CAMERA fails to mention that Shuster gave Israeli officials ample opportunity to respond, in his report. I will deal with all of this in order.

CAMERA's Ad states "Mike Shuster claimed Israel has suffocated Arab building in Jerusalem and destroyed "thousands" of illegal Arab structures in the city."

To disprove Shuster, CAMERA offers the following statement:

"FACT: A building boom is underway in Arab neighborhoods. Indeed housing construction by Jerusalem's Arabs both licensed and unlicensed has outpaced Jewish construction over the last thirty years."

CAMERA does not substantiate this "FACT" in any way, except to say that it is in possession of "corroborating aerial photographs and statistics."

Here is some evidence that shed light on CAMERA's unsubstantiated statement:

*Israeli researcher Daniel Seidemann notes "According to the Jerusalem Statistical Yearbook for 1996, the number of housing units added in the Arab sector in East Jerusalem between 1967 and August 1996 was 10,473, in addition to the 12,600 units that existed in 1967. The number of housing units in West Jerusalem was 57,500 in 1967; by August 1996, 70,692 units had been added for the Jewish population. During this period, the Jewish population of Jerusalem rose from 197,500 to approximately 409,000, while the Arab population rose from 69,500 to 171,000. Accordingly, the number of housing units in the Jewish sector grew by approximately 123%, while the number of housing units in the Arab sector grew by approximately 83%. Since 1967, approximately one housing unit has been added for every 3 additional Jewish residents; during the same period, one housing unit has been added for every 9.7 additional Palestinians in the city." (Seidemann, D. "Ehud Olmert: Jerusalem and the Facts," Jerusalem Quarterly File, No.1, 1998)

*In east Jerusalem alone, there are now approximately 170,000 Israeli settlers (from zero in 1967). The Palestinian population of east Jerusalem, meanwhile, is put at about 180,000 by the Israelis, or 210,000 by the recent Palestinian census. It is therefore hard to imagine how it could be mathematically possible for Palestinian construction to "outpace" Israeli construction, given that according to Israeli human rights group B'Tselem the housing density among Palestinians (persons per dwelling) is twice as high as that among Jews in the city and the gap in housing density has doubled since 1967. B'Tselem also estimated that between 1990-94, only 4.8 percent of construction in Jerusalem was in Palestinian neighborhoods. (B'Tselem, February 25, 1997)

*When Israel began construction of a new Jewish settlement at Jabal Abu Ghneim "Har Homa," it also announced that several thousand units of housing would be constructed for Palestinians. On this, The Economist quoted former deputy Israeli Jerusalem mayor, Meron Benvenisti saying ""As with similar promises in the past, nothing will result." The Economist added "Moreover, even if the promise were kept, it would not make much of a dent in the Palestinians' housing shortage. According to Sara Kaminker, a former member of Jerusalem municipal council, the current shortage in East Jerusalem is 20,000 units." (March 1, 1997)

CAMERA also claims that in 1998, Israel demolished only 12 Palestinian buildings in east Jerusalem, and cites a story from Haaretz without saying whether the statistic represents a report by Haaretz, or a quote from a municipal official reported in Haaretz. In fact, Shuster explicitly included Israeli claims in his report in the form of a soundbite of Israeli Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert saying: "In 1997, I have issued 25 executive orders of demolition in the east and 14 in the west. I have carried out 12 in the east and 10 in the west, which shows that in the west we carry out a higher rate of those which we issue than in the east."

Shuster then goes on to say "Independent statistics are not available, but the view from the ground in East Jerusalem does not appear to confirm Mayor Olmert's assertions. In some neighborhoods -- Wadekadun for instance -- there is destruction everywhere, far beyond the meager numbers the mayor cites." Shuster's report also gave Israeli government spokesman David Bar-Ilan an opportunity to respond to specific charges against Israel made by human rights activists.

*Israeli human rights group B'Tselem estimates that 25 Palestinian houses were demolished in east Jerusalem in 1998, and a further 150 in the rest of the West Bank. It estimates that since 1987, Israel has demolished 2,200 Palestinian houses rendering 13,000 people homeless.

CAMERA further attacks Shuster for saying: "With its Palestinian East Side and its Jewish West Side, Jerusalem remains a divided city, but in recent years Israeli authorities have pursued policies that have made the city less Arab and more Jewish."

CAMERA responds with the following statement "FACT: Wrong again. Jerusalem is more Arab and less Jewish today than in 1967 when Israel united its capital. Then Arabs were 26% of the total; now they are 30%"

*What CAMERA fails to point out in the above statement, is that it is comparing apples and oranges. Since 1967, Israel has repeatedly expanded the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, in violation of international law, taking in large swathes of the West Bank, and whole Arab villages. The first such expansion of Jerusalem occurred on June 27, 1967, when Israel took over 72 square kilometers of the West Bank and annexed it to Jerusalem. East Jerusalem, as it was under Jordanian rule, made up only 8 per cent of this area. Since 1967 Israel has confiscated 23,500 dunams (23.5 sq.km) of mostly Palestinian owned land in the annexed area. (B'Tselem, Foundation for Middle East Peace, Seidemann)

*A Haaretz investigation in which it obtained long-secret interior ministry statistics (March 2, 1999) found that Israeli authorities cancelled the residency permits of 788 Palestinian Jerusalem families in 1998, forcing them to leave the city. Haaretz reported that the pace of such cancellations increased sharply in the second half of 1998.

Both the selective citations in CAMERA's ad, and its unsubstantiated, misleading statements suggest that it is less concerned with fulfilling its stated mission to "promote accurate and balanced coverage," and more concerned with intimidating journalists who dare to report on inconvenient facts about Israel.

Those who doubt the objectivity of Mike Shuster's report, should listen to it at NPR's website (click here to listen). Then please email NPR nprnews@npr.org and tell them you don't agree with CAMERA's inaccurate and slanderous attack.

Ali Abunimah
ahabunim@midway.uchicago.edu
http://abunimah.org

Copyright Ali Abunimah1999