“Israel’s Gaza Strip”? PFP efforts lead to Washington Post correction
28 March 2003
“Israel’s Gaza Strip”? PFP efforts lead to Washington Post correction
One aspect of our work at Partners for Peace is to monitor the media and make sure they are accurate in their coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. A few minutes of work over the course of the last week led to the Washington Post correcting a reference to “Israel’s Gaza Strip.”
The cartoon referenced below was indeed one of the most revolting and racist we have seen in recent years.
Partners for Peace encourages supporters to monitor their local media for factual errors and to ensure that voices supporting Palestinian rights and freedom are heard. Currently there is a real need for voices from the peace movement to be heard on both Iraq and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
METRO
In Brief
March 20, 2003
MARYLAND
Cartoon in U-Md. Paper Draws Protest
About 40 students staged a sit-in at the University of Maryland student newspaper yesterday to protest an editorial cartoon that criticized an American pro-Palestinian demonstrator who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer.
The cartoon, drawn by a staff artist for Tuesday’s edition of the Diamondback, included a caricature of Washington state college student Rachel Corrie over a mock dictionary definition of “stupidity,” which the cartoonist described as “sitting in front of a bulldozer to protect a gang of terrorists.” Corrie was killed Sunday as she crouched in the path of a bulldozer to protest the destruction of Palestinian homes in Israel’s Gaza Strip.
Diamondback editors said they have received thousands of e-mails and phone calls complaining about the cartoon. Protesters said it was disrespectful of Corrie and implied that all Palestinians support terrorism.
Diamondback editor Jay Parsons said that although cartoons do not represent the opinion of the editorial page or newspaper staff, he upheld the cartoonist’s right to express his views. Parsons said the paper would carry an editorial today explaining its view.
Although the students who swarmed the Diamondback offices said they were willing to be arrested for civil disobedience, university police Maj. Paul Dillon said there had been no arrests.
_____Correction_____
March 28, 2003
A Metro in Brief item March 20 on a sit-in at the University of Maryland mischaracterized the Gaza Strip. It is not part of Israel, as the item indicated, but part of the Palestinian territories partially occupied by Israel.
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