Letter to The Washington Post

February 4, 2009

Foreign DeskCorrections
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20071

Dear Editor,

On the Jan. 7, 2009, front page, The Washington Post published an article entitled "Israel Hits U.N. -Run School in Gaza." The article, illustrated with a photograph, stated that Israel "fired mortar shells at a UN run school where Palestinians sought refuge from the fighting, killing at least 40 people, many of them civilians, Palestinian medical officials said." John Ging, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency was quoted as saying "'we are completely devastated. There is nowhere safe in Gaza.'"

But according to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, "UN backtracks on claim that IDF strike hit Gaza school" Feb. 4, 2009, "The United Nations has reversed its stance on one of the most contentious and bloody incidents of the recent Israel Defense Forces operation in Gaza, saying that an IDF mortar strike that killed 43 people on January 6 did not hit a United Nations Relief and Works Agency school after all."

I await a correction in The Washington Post regarding this story. I am surprised that The Post felt the story warranted front page coverage in the first place, given repeated instances through the years of Palestinian exaggeration and/or fabrication of similar events. The much-ballyhooed "Jenin massacre" and claims that Israel somehow killed Yasser Arafat, for example. I am even more surprised the necessary correction in this case has not been published yet.

It seems that The Post is quick to trust an anti-democratic regime in which those who dissent are often killed or maimed for speaking out against those in power. This has been documented on numerous occasions regarding the Hamas leaders in Gaza.

Sincerely,

Michael Berenhaus