The Fanonite

BBC published a report on its website entitled “Israel warns of Gaza ‘holocaust’” where Israel’s deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai was repoted threatening Gaza with a ‘holocaust’. However, if you visit the same report now, you will notice that the headline has been modified to read “Gaza militants ‘risking disaster’”. This is clever: an Israeli threatening ‘holocaust’ may be unpalatable for those who routinely invoke its spectre to deflect criticism from the Jewish state’s Nazi-like behavior. The ‘holocaust’ reference redacted, the current headline shifts culpability neatly into the hands of ‘Gaza militans’ instead. (I just checked and BBC has changed the headline yet again to now read “Israel warns of invasion of Gaza”; checkout the excellent NewsSniffer to keep track of any further changes to the original report).

Sadly for the BBC, some of us keep an eye. Search for the original article and you’ll notice that it is still there in the cache. But once you click on it, you will be transferred to the santizied page. I have taken a screen shot, just in case.

BBC is a truly transnational agent; while its operations are underwritten by the British taxpayer, it frequently serves as a propaganda organ for a foreign state.

On the Israeli threats Ali Abunimah writes:

Israel’s deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai has threatened Palestinians in Gaza with a “holocaust.” The BBC which reports this fact says that the word “‘holocaust’ is a term rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi genocide during World War II.

Here is the country, supposedly the built from legacy of the Nazi holocaust now openly threatening genocide against another people.

What will the response of the world be? What will the response be of all those hypocrites that preach human rights and international law but praise Israel as the finest, most upstanding, most faultless nation on earth, or who know of its crimes but are afraid to act against it?

What will the EU, NATO, the United States, the Arab League do? What will Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International do? What will the Save Darfur campaign do? What will those who express daily outrage about the statements of Ahmedinejad do? What will Ban Ki Moon and Javier Solana do?

What will “stalwart” supporters of Israel, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain say?

Israel is by its own admission all that it claims to abhor.’

Here’s the report.

Israel air strikes pounded targets in Gaza for a second night

Israeli leaders are warning of an imminent conflagration in Gaza after Palestinian militants aimed rockets at the southern city of Ashkelon. The deputy defence minister said the stepped-up rocket fire would trigger what he called a “bigger holocaust” in the Hamas-controlled
coastal strip. Israeli air strikes have killed about 30 Palestinians, including six children in the past two days.

Israel has activated its early warning system in Ashkelon for the first time. One rocket hit a block of flats in the city of 120,000 inhabitants about 10km (six miles) north of the Gaza Strip breaking through the roof and slicing
through three floors below.

No-one was injured, but another rocket landed near a school, wounding a 17-year-old girl.

“The more [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves,” Matan Vilnai told Israeli army
radio. Correspondents say the “holocaust” is a term rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi genocide during World War II.

Separately, the chairman of the parliamentary defence and foreign affairs committee said Israel troops must topple the Hamas movement in Gaza and take over areas used to fire rockets.

“The state of Israel must make a strategic decision to order the army to prepare quickly,” Tzachi Hanegbi told Israel Radio.

Code red

Israeli aircraft launched at least three raids on Gaza overnight. In one attack in the Jabalya area at least four people were wounded including two children. One Israeli civilian was killed in rocket fire on Wednesday. Of the Palestinian fatalities, about half have been civilians, including at least six children.

Hamas has called on Palestinians and Arabs to hold protests after Friday prayers against Israel’s raids on Gaza.

Israeli security officials said that the rockets fired at Ashkelon have been Grad-type imports made in Iran with a range of about 22km.

It is the first time Israel has ordered Code Red sirens to be sounded in Ashkelon as well as Sderot, the town almost abutting Gaza territory where the civilian was killed.

Reports say dozens of soldiers in orange berets from the Israeli military’s Home Front Command have been hanging posters around the city instructing residents on what to do when the warning sounds.

“It’s a city with large facilities - a huge soccer stadium, and a basketball stadium, and a beach. No-one is ready for this,” Ashkelon mayor Roni Mehatzri told Israel Radio.

Israel’s leadership has been under pressure in some quarters to launch a ground invasion of Gaza to end the rocket fire. However, a recent opinion poll also indicated a majority of Israel’s favour a negotiated truce with Hamas. Hamas has been shunned by the West for refusing to recognise Israel’s legitimacy, it beat the Fatah faction in a parliamentary election two years ago. Hamas says it will cease fire if Israel stops military operations in Palestinian areas. It is also demanding an end to the Israeli-led blockade of Gaza that has cut supplies to its 1.5m inhabitants.