Finnish reporter confirms rocket fire from hospital but furious people quoted her
Claims her report being used for pro-Israel propaganda, has cousin arrested in West Bank
We reported on the Finnish reporter who disclosed that there was rocket fire from just behind Gaza’s main hospital, Hamas hides in, under and around Gaza’s main hospital, and the media covers it up (Video):
Also, a rocket attack was conducted from the “backyard” of the hospital at 2 o’clock in the morning. It (the rocket launch), in fact, happened somewhere close by because the noise right here at the hospital area was really loud. Indeed, these rockets launched here from the Gazan side (of the border) are headed into Israel.
Now, as reported by Sharona Schwartz at The Blaze, the reporter (name Aishi Zidan) has taken to Facebook to complain her words are being used as pro-Israel propaganda. She doesn’t deny, however, the accuracy of her report:
Don’t use me as your propaganda weapon
I spent a night at the Shifa hospital in Gaza two weeks ago. I was covering the situation in Gaza for my newspaper.
My story was about the Palestinian civilians who were victims of war. My article started with a story of four little boys who were killed on the beach the same day. They were playing on the beach when Israeli army hit them without any clear reason or warning. I interviewed a boy who survived from the attack. The Shifa hospital was full of women and children who were victims of this ugly war. I described their stories in detail.
During the night someone launched a rocket somewhere behind the hospital. Now this sentence from my article is spreading in the pro-Israeli medias. I mentioned this in my article because I’m a professional journalist. I try to cover the events truthfully as I see them and I strongly condemn these kind of actions.
But I find it very disgusting how this one sentence was taken out context to be used as an excuse to target civilians in Gaza. My story became quickly a tool of propaganda. The people sharing this story are not even trying to understand the situation as a whole. They are just looking for excuses to Israeli actions in Gaza.
I refuse to be part of this kind of propaganda.
Her anger at what she sees as being used is odd — she reported a fact which most reporters are covering up.
The anger may reflect that one of her cousins, according to her, was arrested by Israeli authorities (Facebook translation):
Today I cried a job in the bathroom. Actually wanted to scream. My father was called as soon as the morning after the meeting and told the news a summer vacation in the West Bank. 21-year-old cousin Zidan (yes, my cousin’s name is Zidan Zidan) was arrested during the night at three in the. Israeli soldiers had gone to pick him up from his home. They were commanded my uncle, his wife and my cousin in one room, the tail I broke them phones. Then they took Zidanin..
This is what we are up against when it comes to media reporting. All we want are the facts to come out about what Hamas has done, how it has used human shields, and how you cannot understand the situation without those facts.
Even the few reporters who report these facts end up deleting tweets, pulling down columns, and now, complaining that facts are used for propaganda.
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That last statement “…that facts are used as propaganda.” is indeed the critical thing. Her statement is NOT being used in such a way (from what I am aware of thus far). How can she not get that?
Reporting on facts, corroborating statements that are spoken – whether intended as such or not – are essential to reporting, to journalistic integrity. Yet she complains.
Why? Perhaps because she has a personal bias, a personal agenda. Does she mean to hide this, and is angry because the mask slips? Or is she by chance angry at herself, for letting some truth slip through in her reporting?
Sad, sad day for international journalism, and the truth.
She doesn’t understand that she has no right to control how her words are used. She doesn’t own them. She reported a fact, and that fact proves that Israel’s position is correct, so why wouldn’t it be used for pro-Israeli propaganda? It would be insane not to. If she doesn’t like it, because after all she’s an antisemite who wants Jews to die, that’s her tough luck.
She is under pressure, very similar to the pressure Saddam Hussein applied to CNN, and she is responding in the same way. Actually, she has better reason than CNN, because her family is being threatened.
Have mercy on her, and use the rest of what she said to publicize the threats against her family. It is the only way to give them a shred of protection.
The threats I write about do not come from the Israelis.
Why is the truth so difficult to hear? What is it about people who prefer slanted stories to hearing actual facts? How can people make informed decisions based upon erroneous information? What is wrong with people who prefer hearing lies?
Today, people are afraid of truth because of greed. War happens because Hamas leader commits Anger, Greed, and ignorance. People are afraid of death.
1/ Group 1: people are bright
2/ Group 2: People are bright and want to be brighter
3/ Group 3: People are from bright and go back to “dark”
4/ Group 4: People from dark, and become darker. The extremists in Palestine and Arab belong to this group.
5/ Group 5: People from dark to bright.
Palestine belong to group 4.
Human beings’ physical and verbal behavior can be good or bad depending on the thoughts, which is the third component. It is out thoughts, which usually arise from varying degrees of greed, anger, and ignorance that are precursors of our behavior.
Greed – our craving for material things and pleasant experiences, and much more – comes from our preoccupation with self. What begins as self-preservation, our need to meet basic requirements of shelter, food, and clothing, quickly expands to our desiring that which we do not need and more of what we already have. We equate the accumulation of things with happiness and success, and so fall into a cycle of wanting, obtaining, and more wanting.
Anger, like all negative emotions, seems to happen so naturally and spontaneously. Initially, we do not even notice it. It feels so normal to us – the emotions of being angry, being irritated, and being displeased. It happens so quickly that we hardly notice the rising rage. But before every action we commit and prior to every word we speak, there is a preceding thought. In our lack of mindfulness, we do not notice the thought of what we are about to say or do. if we can catch the thought as it arises, we will be able to refrain from acting out of anger. Ideally, by having a heart of loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity, we will stop anger from arising.
Why is it so important to eliminate our anger? Might not the expression of our anger get it out of our system, so to speak? No, because voicing or acting on our anger does not eradicate it. On the contrary, it leads to even more anger.
Our anger with a particular person goes back a long, long time, we believe it goes back over uncountable lifetimes. Most of the time when we are speaking with another, we fail to be mindful of what we are saying. We may carelessly say something and hurt the others’ feelings without realizing it. In so doing, we have just contributed to planting another seed of anger in the consciousness of the other person.
The recipient of the angry outburst may not think anything of it, at least not until we meet again, and the seed matures. This next time the other person will say something to us with just a slight trace of animosity. Again, this incident is registered in both our consciousness. This enmity is passed back and forth each time our paths cross, and each time it increases and grows more serious. At some point it will turn into hatred. Eventually that hatred will explode and one of us will lash out at the other physically.
This is why voicing our anger to eliminate it does not work. It only allows the anger to grow. Anger is not to be acted upon, but faced, acknowledged, understood, and then released. When our anger and our self-centeredness are gradually reduced, we will get along better with others and we will begin to find out hearts of loving-kindness, compassion, and joy.
If you want to see the proof of this, look carefully into the face of someone who is always angry. Then gaze upon a person who is serene. Decide which one you would like to look like, which one you would like to be.
As we improve in our practice of discipline, we will gradually lessen what Greed, Anger, and Ignorance mean and which we all have to some degree. if left unchecked, this greed and anger of ours will grow and spread, eventually consuming us. Not understanding what is happening, we allow this to happen because we are ignorant. This ignorance is not the lack of intelligence or a derogatory comment about someone’s abilities. Ignorance is a lack of understanding of the underlying truths of what is happening to us and around us.
It is not knowing, or perhaps, not believing in causality or in the impermanent nature of everything that is created. It is believing that we exist independently of everything around us, rather than realizing that everything is interdependent. It is thinking that happiness comes from outside of us: that it lies in other people, possessions, or ideas. It is the belief that it is okay to differentiate between those we like and dislike, that it is correct to look out for ourselves at the expense of others, and that it is reasonable to judge others based on personal opinion and not on facts.
When we think and act from ignorance, it becomes inevitable that we will make mistakes and not know how to fix our problems. As we begin to replace our ignorance with understanding, we will find that our greed and anger slowly dissolve. This is how we can get along better with others, becomes less self-absorbed, and develop the mind of joy.
So, her family also is coming down on her now because she illiberally reported an inconvenient fact.
Once upon a time journalists took pride in putting the truth first.
I’d arrest a man with 3 arms also….
Funny how this event is so much like this one about the financial markets over at ZeroHedge:
Let’s get real here. I have reported that for 2 years speaking and communicating with people on the House Financial Services Committee (banking), they were telling me that the NSA was sweeping up even their emails and phone calls way before Snowden. I was told that point-blank and not in confidence. Therefore, EVERY journalist had that SAME info and refused to report it. Snowden had to go to the Guardian in Britain to get the story out because WE HAVE NO PRESS WITH INTEGRITY that is still standing in the United States.
That’s been true for decades. Back in the last century I used to read the overseas edition of the Guardian (that was when it still said Manchester Guardian on the front page) because it was much better than the American press about reporting things happening in America.
They weren’t reported well, or even competently, but they were at least reported.
If you report “Hamas’ version”, you get to stay and “report”. If you report the Truth, you get harassed, thrown out of Gaza or worse.
Journalists these days are cowards. It’s merely a job that feeds their egos and pays the bills, truth be damned.
And if they’re REALLY GOOD little lapdogs, they might get an invite to be a member of the White House Press Pool or, gasp!, maybe even get to go to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner and rub elbows (or something) with The One!!
Our fair Finnish reporter departs Helsinki for the short flight to Stockholm.
American undergrads board simulators piloted by their professors. Here, even though the flight may take four years, there is no need for connecting syndromes.
Finnish names can sound bizarre to American ears, but somehow I don’t think “Aishi Zidan” is one of them. In fact, I don’t think Aishi Zidan as a Finnish “Finnish reporter.” More likely a Muslim who doesn’t want to live in an Islamic country, but aims to turn Finland into an Islamic country — because the weather in Finland is so great, or something.
Finnish names can sound bizarre to American ears, but somehow I don’t think “Aishi Zidan” is one of them.
There’s lots of Middle Eastern Moslem “refugees” in all of the Scandinavian countries (yes, I know Finland is not considered “Scandinavian” by all). FWIW, our wonderfully helpful IRS Commissioner has a nice Finnish-sounding name: John Koskinen.
When the narrative is the obligatory truth, true truth is propaganda.
In that context the young woman’s lament is wholly consistent with her philosophy.
We are using her words as propaganda in the rubric of that philosophy where the obligatory narrative is the god.
It is fundamental to know that this is a war between incompatible philosophies.
Give her over to the poor oppressed islamists for a night.
Maybe then she will get it.
So, she’s really worked up that because she said rockets were being fired from the backyard of a hospital, people think rockets were being fired from the backyard of a hospital, which is nothing but vile Israeli government propaganda.
No no no! I can’t believe you people. We need journalists like Aishi Zidan to shield us from uncomfortable truths that upset the Narrative. See, its all so very complex and nuanced, and we are just stupid proles who would get distracted by silly things like terrorists using hospitals and UN schools as launch sites.
Move along now. And please write to Big Brother (through your local Community Organizer) and praise Aishi Zidan as a doubleplusgood information broker.
If you permit combatants to use your facilities to shoot off rockets at civilians in a neighboring nation during a war, you are legally an enemy combatant
This girl is certainly the daughter of a Palestinian father and a Finnish mother