Lecturer pleads for US to halt aid to Israel

Alison Weir visits with students Trevor Borseth, left, and Alex Kellerhals Oct. 2 in Cary deWit's Geography of Europe class.

“Come to Palestine with me and see how your tax dollars are spent,” urged Alison Weir, founder of If Americans Knew, in a lecture at UAF Oct. 1.

At the invitation of the UA Geography Program and sponsorship by the Alaska World Affairs Council, Weir presented her findings concerning the conflict in Israel. “We are supplying the weapons that are destroying lives,” Weir said. “Weep with me for our victims and our guilt and then say no more.”

Weir, on her first trip to Alaska, warned the audience at the beginning, “This is not going to be a fun, entertaining lecture. It’s a serious topic.”

Nine years ago she knew very little about Israel and Palestine, she said. “The Middle East seemed distant to my daily life,” she said. “I skimmed headlines and accepted the confusion I found.” In 2000 she decided to seriously follow the news coverage for that area of the world. “Quickly I noted as a journalist that we were getting one-sided coverage. We were hearing from and about Israel, as we should. I expected to hear about Palestine too but that news came much less frequently. I felt we weren’t getting the whole story.”

Her organization conducted two-year studies of the New York Times, the three major television news networks, Associated Press, and regional newspapers to determine coverage of children’s deaths in Israel and Palestine. Major news outlets reported on Israeli deaths at a rate fourteen times that of Palestinian children. “This bizarre pattern is what we found again and again,” she said. Regional newspaper coverage was worse. She even found on one occasion that the San Jose Mercury News had “reversed” the news, claiming that the number of Palestinians killed actually applied to the Israelis, and vice versa. “I was astounded,” Weir said. “What if they had reported the Super Bowl backwards? These reversals had to do with life and death and no one noticed.”

When they studied National Public Radio there were surprising results. “Many pro-Israeli people accused NPR of being pro-Palestinian,” she said. Weir found NPR to be “distorted” in its coverage of the conflict, but the distortion was again pro-Israeli in nature. Seth Ackerman of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting wrote an article about this called “The Illusion of Balance.”

Calling the coverage “manipulative reporting,” Weir said, “The suicide bombings in Tel Aviv are reported. The Palestinian rockets we know about. We should also know about Palestinian children being killed. Eighty-two Palestinian children were killed before one Israeli child was killed. Many Americans think the chronology is reversed.”

She said Americans are getting half-truths in the news. “A major phenomenon in Israel is going virtually unreported,” she said. “The most significant omission is that American taxpayers are sending $7 million per day to Israel.” She urged the audience to be informed about issues they are involved in. “We are involved,” she said. “Our country has insufficient money for programs here and we are sending money to one of the smallest countries and one of the richest countries. This is not being reported.”

Her main point about the history of the region was that when the Zionists decided to claim Palestine’s “uninhabited” land as their own, it was already heavily populated. “This is an ancient crossroads of civilization,” Weir said.

She has visited Israel and the Gaza Strip, which she labeled a prison, many times, becoming more and more astounded and outraged. In her travels she busted many myths. She discovered that the Palestinians welcomed her, invited her to stay in their homes, and told her their stories. She visited hospitals and attended funerals; she even endured gunfire in one home. “I have no doubt the Israeli soldiers saw me and wanted me to go. They have killed journalists before.”

To sum up, Weir stated, “I saw a people and a land being destroyed. That’s newsworthy, especially since I am paying for it.”

The day after the lecture when asked what Americans can do to help, she said educating other people about the issue is the first priority. “Tell your friends. Write letters to the editor. Contact your elected representatives. Tell them you want policies that are rational and moral and based on American principles and American needs. End all aid to Israel immediately.”