V – Villagers vs. Settlers
The multi-layered effort, in which the mainstream Western media is an active participant, to delegitimize the Jewish homeland of Israel starts with replacing historical names – Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria – with new names devoid of association with Jews – “East” Jerusalem, “West Bank.” It then proceeds to differentiate, pointedly, “Palestinian residents” of “neighborhoods” and “villages” from “Jewish settlers” in “settlements.”
*** 6/16/14 Philadelphia Inquirer photo caption: “Israeli soldiers search the West Bank village of Beit Einun, near Hebron. They were looking for three teenagers who went missing near a settlement.”
*** It was only a 10-paragraph article by a Nasser Ishtayeh of the AP from a place called “Karyout” on Wednesday this week in the Inq (Inq, Wed, 1/8/14, A5, AP, “Crowd Detains Settlers”), but it came packed with lessons for us in adroit use of labels.
Paragraph 1 led: “Karyout, West Bank – Palestinians on Tuesday chased and grabbed more than a dozen Israeli settlers who witnesses said had attacked Palestinian farmers near a West Bank village.” This set the contrast: “Israeli settlers” versus “Palestinians” and “Palestinian farmers near a West Bank village.”
Paragraphs 2 and 3 referred four times to the Israelis exclusively as “settlers,” while referring to the Arabs twice as “people.” E.g., “People kicked and spit at the settlers….”
Paragraph 4 referenced “attacks by militant settlers on Palestinians” and called Tuesday’s incident the first time “settlers were captured and held by Palestinians.” Paragraph 5 indirectly quoted the Israeli military that it had learned of “a stone-throwing clash between settlers and Palestinian farmers” and that it had evacuated the “settlers.”
Paragraph 6 identified “the West Bank village” where the incident occurred, according to a member of the “village council.” Paragraph 7 said “settlers” attacked “farmers in an olive grove,” injuring “a Palestinian boy,” and that the “farmers called for reinforcements and about 100 youths arrived from the village.” Paragraph 8 added: “The settlers ran away and the villagers gave chase” said a “village resident.”
Paragraph 9 said some of “the settlers” sought cover near the edge of a “village,” and paragraph 10 said “villagers” caught them and held them along with other “settlers” they’d chased down.
“Settlers” is a dirty word, but “villagers” and “farmers” aren’t. “There once the embattled farmers stood ….”
String these 10 short paragraph’s contrasting terms together: “[1] West Bank … Palestinians … Israeli settlers … Palestinian farmers … West Bank village … [2] settlers … settlers … [3] settlers … people … people … settlers … [4] militant settlers … Palestinians … West Bank … settlers … Palestinians … [5] settlers … Palestinian farmers … settlers … [6] West Bank village … village council … [7] settlers … farmers … Palestinian boy … farmers … youths … village … [8] settlers … villagers … village resident … [9] settlers … village … [10] villagers … settlers.” Get the idea?
EXHIBITS: 1, 4, 7, 8, 13, 20, 25, 33, 39a, 42, 52, 53, 55, 62, 63, 64, 66, 68