US envoy to Israel trying to ‘bully’ and ‘gaslight’ media – Israeli journalist to RT

June 5, 2018 in News by RBN Staff

 

Source: RT

 

An Israeli soldier pushes back Palestinian journalists during a protest, West Bank May 6, 2018. ©Mohamad Torokman / Reuters

 

The US ambassador to Israel is trying to “bully” media into not reporting on Gaza atrocities, and to control the spin on events, an Israeli journalist told RT after the infamous comment on reporters keeping their “mouths shut.”

Journalist David Sheen was responding to a speech made by the American Ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman, in which he warned journalists to “keep their mouths shut” and stop criticizing Israel in their reporting of events on the Gaza border.

Holly🌻🌹@HollyBlomberg

Astounding to read this knowing that Israel is using internationally banned “dum dum” bullets and snipers against unarmed protestors. Cognitive dissonance on Ambassador Friedman’s part or merely an effort to stifle media coverage of Israel’s war crimes? https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-envoy-to-reporters-keep-your-mouths-shut-on-criticizing-israel-over-gaza/ 

US envoy to reporters: ‘Keep your mouths shut’ on criticizing Israel over Gaza

Friedman says the media should either figure out how anyone could have better dealt with the border protests or stop its negative coverage of the Jewish state

timesofisrael.com

“Essentially it’s gaslighting; trying to bully the media into stopping all reporting” of Israel’s attacks on Gaza, Sheen told RT.

“We’re living in an era when it is nearly impossible for anyone to criticize the Israeli government’s actions no matter how deplorable they may be, because they will be instantly be accused of racism— instead of examining are the actions of the government based on racism,” he added.

Sheen said that even Jewish Israeli journalists like himself get branded as racists when criticizing the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Sheen said it was “horrific” that unwarranted claims of “anti-Semitism” were being used to “shut down the conversation” about the Israel-Palestine conflict.

James J. Zogby

@jjz1600

It’s called the liberal’s “the Israel exception”. They shun racists worldwide, but make an exception for bigots. And they will mobilize against human rights violatiors worldwide, but if the victims are they fall silent. https://twitter.com/davidsheen/status/1003685130559516673 

In his comments, Friedman claimed that reports which criticized Israel were “creating impressions” that had “no basis in fact” and simply fit an anti-Israel “narrative” and a specific agenda. “It’s not reporting, because it’s not based on hard, factual analysis,” he said.

But Sheen argued that both history and facts demonstrate that the Israeli government “isn’t just trying to defend itself,” as it claims, but is “actually trying to destroy any idea of Palestinian nationalism, any idea of the chance that there could be some measure of equality.”

The journalist also criticized the Trump administration for supporting “the apartheid solution” to the conflict. The “one-state solution,” in which Israel “controls all the land” and Jews have “more rights than non-Jews.”

Friedman’s warning to journalists comes amid international condemnation of Israeli violence in response to the Palestinians’ ‘Great March of Return’ protests that have seen 119 Palestinians killed since the end of March. No Israelis were killed during the latest round of violence.

Israel’s use of deadly force during the protests has been slammed by a number of human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and UN groups. But Israel has defended using live rounds and tear gas against demonstrators as the only way to protect itself from attempts to breach the border barrier, and it claimed that dozens of those killed were members of Hamas, which Israel considers a terrorist organization.

Watch David Sheen’s full interview with RT below: