An open letter to American 'journalists'
By Anthony Joseph Geha Yuja

Florence January 12 2002

Gentlemen,

Although Robert Fisk's excellent article was published in The Independent more than 8 months ago, it is still very pertinent to the tragedy that has been unfolding in recent months in the occupied territories and occasionally in Israel proper when young palestinian kamikazes manage to strike in desperate retaliation for their people's predicament, with scores of innocent lives lost on both sides.

How can your editorial staff justify that, the daily massacre of Palestinians by Sharon's troops and death squads is almost totally ignored by your correspondents on the ground who describe a situation of "relative calm" only because no Israelis died in the last few weeks whilst scores of palestinians, mostly civilians and a few children were being slaughtered , whilst tens of homes were being demolished etc....

Unlike the european media, where a minimum of journalistic honesty and balance are constantly displayed, US mainstream media like yours regretfully ignore the daily killing, brutalization and harassment of the palestinians living under a ruthless israeli military occupation that is at variance with traditional values of morality and justice of the jewish people; not too long ago the jewish people suffered the same fate they are now inflicting with impunity on their palestinian victims.

The tragic irony of history is that the oppressed of yesterday have become the oppressors of today, not of their former tormentors but of the palestinian people because they happen to live in a land, fundamentalist deceitful militant jews pretend to be exclusively their own.

Sharon on the other hand, whose criminal indictment for his glaring command responsibilities in the Sabra and Chatila massacres in 1982 has been called for by none less than Amnesty International, and whose terror tactics will eventually prove catastrophic not only for the Palestinians but for his own people as well, is cosmetically labeled "hawkish" or " hard line" . For Arabs and Moslems as well as many decent and knowledgeable Americans and Europeans, as well as Israelis, Sharon is obviously a zionist Bin Laden!

I once believed that journalism was one of the noblest professions on earth in defense of the truth: the sorry spectacle we see today , with few exceptions like Robert Fisk (UK) or Charley Reese (US), or WRMEA , MMN are journalists who have sold their conscience and become propaganda clerks , on behalf of the aggressor against its victim or the highest bidder.

How can we honestly expect to achieve true security and peace on this planet if we continue to tolerate or cover up for so much injustice, oppression, double standards and constant distortion of the truth so close to us all in defense of selfish short term interests?

Is there no hope that also as a result of the September 11 tragedy where thousands of innocent Americans died, a long overdue change will take place in US foreign policy and in the way important influential media channels like yours treat facts and events particularly since very often the images we manage to see are not at all reflected by the comments we hear or read?

Sincerely,

Anthony Joseph Geha Yuja