Apartheid Wall

US media adopting Israeli language by calling wall a
'fence' 

http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/mediocrity/displayCall.asp?essayID=184
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
PMWATCH - July 29, 2003 -- The US media has become
accustomed to using descriptions of "Separation Fence"
or "Security Fence" to describe Israel's Wall of
Separation.

Consider this: even US President George Bush suggested
the mommoth barrier was a "wall" and not a mere
"fence", saying after last Friday's talks with
Palestinian Premier Mahmoud Abbas that it was
difficult to build confidence "with a wall snaking
through the West Bank." (AP Quote)

President Bush's pre-coaching straight talk (he is now
using the word "fence") did not go unnoticed or sit
well with official Israel. 

As reported by an AFP story: "The Israeli official
took issue with Bush's use of the word 'wall' even
though the barrier does take that form for part of its
length. 'It is a shame that President Bush did not use
the correct term security fence,' the official said.
'Israel is not contructing a wall -- it's the
Palestinians who use that term in a bid to persuade
the world it's some sort of Berlin Wall.'" (AFP July
26, 2003)
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/030726/afp/030726082849top.html

But here are the facts: Israel's Wall of Separation in
most places is 25 feet high and is already 150 miles
long, with the total length of the wall planned to be
550 miles.

This is 2 times higher than the once infamous Berlin
Wall and when completed will be almost SIX times as
long as the Berlin Wall (the Berlin Wall was 96 miles
long). 

For details on the Berlin Wall, see:
http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/history/index.htm

Would the US media have dared to call the Berlin Wall
"The Berlin fence", or used Soviet-sounding euphemisms
such as "Security Fence"? Indeed, not even the East
Germans or its Soviet allies dared call the wall a
"fence"!

So, is the US media once again going to take the safe
and easy way out and just adopt the vocabulary
proclaimed by the Israeli government? Is the US media
again going to be afraid of being called anti-Semitic
just because it dared call a wall by its name?

You may send a letter directly from the PMWATCH site
by going to:
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/mediocrity/displayCall.asp?essayID=184

For more on the Apartheir Wall, please see:
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/mediocrity/displayCall.asp?essayID=164

To make a phone call, please go to:
         
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/contact/media.html

Palestine Media Watch
http://www.pmwatch.org/
(610) 993 - 0608
 
 


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