Slandering Israel in Nabi Saleh
....The fact remains that the kind of images that went viral on Saturday are not unique and that these staged "protests" with the aim of provoking the IDF into reacting happen frequently.
In his book "Catch the Jew!" Tuvia Tenenbom becomes a witness to how these staged "protests" -- meant for the consumption of an international Western TV audience -- are produced. He goes to Bil'in where protests have been organized since 2005 against Israel's security fence. An audience has already arrived and NGO members from the U.S., France, Ireland, Norway and Germany are present. Tenenbom describes the setup as a regular show.
"The various actors take up their positions. First are the news people, journalists of European and Arab media. ... One of the news media I recognize easily is the British Sky News. I used to think news follows events, but I guess it's the other way around. As I can see here, journalists are actually the main players."
He also learns that the protest is a business in Bi'lin. Next to him, kids are selling nose covers -- from the tear gas that the IDF is expected to throw in their direction -- and keffiyehs, flags, onions (against the tear gas), etc....
....One thing that would contribute toward the ending of such incidents would be the emergence of some semblance of ethics on the part of the international media, which help manufacture these scenes, as is abundantly clear from Tenenbom's description of events at Bi'lin. It is an outrage that the media, which are supposed to be independent and critical, are such an active player in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,[font color = "red"] literally creating the news.[/font] And it is a disgrace that the general public continues to devour, uncritically, the skewed and shameful outpourings in newspapers and on TV as a result of this scandalous kind of "reporting."
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=13625