Gaza Edition

Sent to NPR:

Dear Sir/Madam,

As a regular listener to Morning Edition I want to start by thanking you for the generally excellent news coverage you provide. In a marketplace marked by its failure to cover the significant issues of our day, NPR and Morning Edition in particular are a pleasant and important respite.

This week I have listened with interest to your coverage of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. I have been glad that this immensely significant event has warranted so much attention, but I feel that too much airtime has been given to the “woes” of the settlers who are being asked to withdraw without appropriate consideration that they (or their ancestors) knew they were settling in illegally occupied land.

The illegal nature of the occupation and settling is a significant part of the context for this withdrawal and completely changes perceptions of the situation. The US media has long been overly occupied with the plight of Israelis with scant attention to the very real suffering of the Palestinian people and the failure of the world’s governments to enforce UN resolutions and other international edicts against Israeli occupation. NPR has performed considerably better than most other outlets in that regard, and that is why I have been disappointed by the skewed coverage I have heard this week.

Perhaps while covering the aftermath of this week’s events and exploring its implications for the Palestinians who, we hope, will now be able to live in greater security, you could provide more coverage of the history of the Gaza occupation or of the impact on Palestinian lives that increasing settler encroachment has caused?

yours,

James Stewart Grand Rapids, MI