Tom Gross highlights some positive and negative trends in coverage of Sharon. The good news is that Sharon has been “humanized” by certain traditionally hostile news services. The bad news is that inaccurate vilification continues, mostly regarding Sharon’s association with the 1982 Sabra and Shatilla massacre and his controversial 2000 visit to the Temple Mount:
Even amid this improved coverage, as Sharon lies fighting for his life many articles in the Western media have retailed untruths, almost in passing, as though they were incontrovertible historical facts: Sharon initiated the second intifada, Sharon ordered the Sabra and Shatila massacres, and so on….
Equally, there has been almost no reference to the fact that the Sabra and Shatila massacres were carried out by (Christian) Arabs against (Muslim) Arabs, in response to massacres by Muslims, and virtually no indication that the Palestinians themselves had carefully planned the 2000 intifada….
Most of the reporting has failed to supply any context – for example as to why Israeli troops entered Lebanon in 1982. I have seen hardly any references to past moves Sharon made for peace such as the 1982 dismantling of Yamit and 13 other settlements in the Sinai.
