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Despite Evidence, UK Media Outlet Parrots Claim That Israel Harms Children in Gaza

Terrorists in Gaza using humanitarian aid bags to prop up rockets. Photo: Screenshot

A UK Channel 4 News report by foreign correspondent Secunder Kermani includes video of a sick, emaciated eight-year-old Palestinian girl who died recently in Gaza. Those considering watching it should know that the images in question (which begin 23 seconds into the video) are disturbing. The suffering or death of children during wartime, be they Israeli or Palestinian, is especially tragic, and should never be minimized.

However, our focus is on the unevidenced suggestion made by the Channel 4 News presenter during the broadcast that the girl, Hanan Al-Zaanin, died due to starvation related to Israel’s ‘restrictions on aid.’

The initial story claiming that Al-Zaanin died in Gaza due to starvation was published by Al Jazeera. In fact, the short footage of Al-Zaanin shown to Channel 4 News viewers appears to be spliced from a report at Al Jazeera. Yet, viewers aren’t told that the story — including the relevant video footage — comes from the Qatari outlet.

The Al Jazeera report in question is by Hind Al Khoudary, who, as we’ve noted previously, is a freelancer at the Qatari outlet, as well as at Turkish state-run Andalou Agency.

Khoudary, who was one of the presenters in a Channel 4 Dispatches report (“Kill Zone; Inside Gaza“), has a record of glorifying terrorism on social media. She’s also remembered for her involvement in the arrests by Hamas of several activistsincluding a journalist — in Gaza four years ago.

In that case, the Palestinian activists were denounced to Hamas in a series of vituperative Facebook posts by Khoudary. Hours later, Hamas arrested them for the crime of pursuing “normalization” with Israelis.”

In addition, Khoudary works for the We Are Not Numbers project run by the Hamas-linked NGO EuroMed Human Rights Monitor (EMHRM). In fact, the Chairman of EMHRM, Ramzy Abdul, was found to have posted a literal antisemitic blood libel — writing on X that “Israeli has an insatiable appetite for the blood of Palestinian children,” before deleting the post.

We weren’t able to find any other mainstream media outlet which reported on the Palestinian girls’ death — not even the Guardian.

The merits of the claim

Though we weren’t able to gather any specific information on the girl or her death from reliable sources, it’s relevant to note a similar claim made earlier in the year involving an emaciated 10-year-old boy in Gaza named Yazan Kafarne.

Though images on social media suggested that Kafarne’s horrifying physical condition was the result of starvation, due to putative Israeli restrictions in aid, even a New York Times article featuring Kafarne acknowledged that he had a pre-existing condition, cerebral palsy.

In fact, the BBC was forced to correct an article published last week which — as detailed by David Collier — that omitted the fact that an emaciated and critically ill nine-year-old boy in Gaza, Yunis Jumaa, had spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, a serious pre-existing condition that caused his sickness. The BBC initially suggested that the boy’s illness was famine-related, and that he previously was healthy and had no pre-existing conditions.

Here’s the editor’s note which added to that story admitting the error:

Amended: This story originally reported on the health of Yunis Jumaa while including quotes which could be taken by readers to suggest that he has no pre-existing health conditions. The article has been updated to reflect that Yunis has cerebral palsy, which the BBC was unaware of at the time of publication, and to explain that children with pre-existing conditions are especially hard hit by malnutrition and contaminated water.

Though we don’t know for sure if the girl in the Channel 4 News report had such a pre-existing condition, it is notable that his mother, who appeared in the video, seems healthy, and clearly isn’t suffering from malnutrition.

The broader “starvation” narrative

The context provided by the Channel 4 News presenter to advance the desired take-away that Israel is responsible for the girl’s death, was his allegation during the broadcast that “starvation” is extremely common in Gaza. This claim was given credibility in the mainstream media following a March report by Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) alleging that famine was imminent and likely to occur by May in northern Gaza, and by July in other parts of the Strip.

However, as noted on these pages recently, the March IPC report has been contradicted by multiple studies and reports.

The Israeli government response to that report concluded that “the report contains multiple factual and methodological flaws, some of them serious,” and later provided further details on the flaws in the methodology.

In May, Israel’s Ministry of Health published a review of the IPC report from March which includes the following:

On page 4, the [IPC] report claims that “in January 2024, only nine humanitarian missions to the northern governorates were facilitated, dropping to six missions in February.” The OCHA report which is the source of this information states that it pertains only to missions by “the UN and its humanitarian partners”, while more than half of the aid shipments to northern Gaza since the beginning of 2024 were conducted by private sector actors, which are not counted by OCHA. [emphasis added]

In early June, media outlets including The Times of Israel and The Wall Street Journal reported on a study carried out by a group of Israeli academics and public health professionals.

The study analyzed airdrops and food shipments delivered by land from January through April 2024, based on shipping details provided by international donors and recorded by Cogat, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. These records list the shipment date, consignee, weight and contents of trucks entering Gaza and include aid delivered from multiple sources such as national and private donations. Unrwa lists only U.N. aid through Kerem Shalom and Rafah, the latter now closed by Egypt, ignoring other crossings. In May, Cogat lists 6,335 trucks, OCHA counts 2,797 and Unrwa 1,656. Adding private-sector trucks to the OCHA figure brings the total above 6,000, close to Cogat’s count. [emphasis added]

The study revealed that the supply provided an average of 3,374 calories per person daily, well above the 2,100 recommended by the Sphere humanitarian movement as the minimum standard. It also confirms the daily availability of 101 grams of protein and 80.6 grams of fat per person, “in compliance with the standards.”

Finally, just last week, the IPC published a report titled “Famine Review Committee: Review of the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) IPC-Compatible Analysis for the Northern Governorates of the Gaza Strip.” As noted by commentators, that report concludes that the FEWS NET analysis published in March is not plausible, and points out the omission of certain categories of food deliveries.

The FEWS NET food availability analysis excludes the contribution of commercial and/or privately contracted deliveries, potentially between 1,820 with metric tons (MT) of food (low estimate) and 3,850 MT of food (high estimate) in the month of March and about 2,405 MT of food (low estimate) and 4,004 MT of food (high estimate) in the month of April 2024. While the intervals are extremely wide, indicative of a high level of uncertainty, this corresponds to the potential exclusion of about 25-76% coverage of the daily kilocalorie requirement in March and 34- 82% in April. Even a conservative approach towards the commercial and/or privately contracted food deliveries to northern Gaza, which the FRC considers possible, would still indicate a contribution of 25% and 34% coverage of the daily kilocalorie requirement in March and April, respectively.

FEWS NET food availability analysis excludes the contribution of WFP deliveries to bakeries in northern Gaza, including a reported 940 MT of flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in April. While the intervals are extremely wide, indicative of a high level of uncertainty, this corresponds to the potential exclusion of about 4% to 15% coverage of the daily kilocalorie requirement. […]

…the exclusion of all commercial and/or privately contracted deliveries and WFP deliveries of flour, sugar, yeast, and salt to bakeries, translates to the exclusion of food equal to as much as 38% to 49% coverage of the daily kilocalorie requirement in April. While FEWS NET estimated the caloric availability in the area as covering only 59- 63% of the needs (based uniquely on Humanitarian Food Assistance) in April, the review done by the FRC estimates that this range would be 75% to 109% if commercial and/or privately contracted food deliveries were included (157% if a higher estimate was used).

Finally, The Jerusalem Post reported that Columbia University Professors Awi Federgruen and Ran Kivetz analyzed available data and conducted research whose “findings demonstrate that sufficient amounts of food are being supplied into Gaza. [emphasis added]

The two professors examined the “hard data, available from such sources as COGAT and the UN” and noted that sufficient amounts of food are being supplied into Gaza. According to their research they “demonstrate that 250 truckloads suffice to feed the entire Gazan population, in accordance with a normal diet in North America.”

Tellingly, none of these studies refuting the IPC’s March findings of “imminent starvation in Gaza” have been reported by Channel 4 News to date, including Karmani’s report on the death of Hanan Al-Zaanin.

Adam Levick serves as co-editor of CAMERA UK – an affiliate of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), where a version of this article first appeared.

The post Despite Evidence, UK Media Outlet Parrots Claim That Israel Harms Children in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Ex-IDF Soldier Becomes First Republican in 50 Years to Win New York State Assembly Seat in Long Island District

Daniel Norber of 16th District of New York

Daniel Norber was elected in November 2024 to represent the 16th District in the New York State Assembly. Photo: Screenshot

A former officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) became the first Republican to win a state assembly seat in northern Hempstead, Long Island in more than 50 years. 

Daniel Norber narrowly defeated two-term Democratic incumbent Gina Silitti to capture the 16th District of the New York State Assembly. The district encompasses most of Nassau County, an area which maintains a significant Jewish population. 

Norber’s victory came amid a huge surge in support for Republican candidates across the country. US President-elect Donald Trump won the 16th District by over 2,000 votes, assisting Norber, a dual US-Israeli citizen, secure victory in his history-making down-ballot race. 

The ex-IDF officer’s win also came in the midst of increasing antisemitism across the country. In the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, Jewish families in Nassau County have reported being targeted with hate crimes

In September, a Jewish family in Nassau County alleged that a suspect urinated on their front door and yelled antisemitic slurs. Months earlier in April, county officials denounced antisemitic graffiti which covered the faces of hostages taken captive by Hamas during the Oct. 7 onslaught. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who is Jewish, has also accused Civil Service Employees Association Local 830, an 8,000-member local union, of antisemitism for distributing flyers depicting him with devil horns.  

Silitti, Norber’s opponent, found herself in hot water with the local Jewish community after one of her staffers bashed Israel on social media. 

“She wasn’t sensitive to what was going on. I felt she was out of touch,” Norber, 45, told the New York Post.

Though Norber focused his campaign on domestic issues such as bolstering law enforcement and cutting taxes, he believes that his support for Israel also helped him establish valuable inroads with the local Jewish community. Moreover, his grandparents endured the Holocaust and his mother ran away from communism in the Soviet Union.  

Norber was also on the ground in Israel during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks with his wife and four kids. 

“It was the worst atrocity to Jews since the Holocaust. Israel is not the same anymore,” Norber said, according to the Post.

Norber has also touted a series of policies which would likely bolster Jewish safety in Nassau County. In the New York State Assembly, he aims to implement a statewide mask ban with the goal of preventing anonymity during protests — a popular tactic employed by activists during anti-Israel demonstrations to hid their identity. The lawmaker also wants to repeal cashless bail, with the intention of reducing the number of violent criminals on the streets.

The post Ex-IDF Soldier Becomes First Republican in 50 Years to Win New York State Assembly Seat in Long Island District first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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‘Challah for Ceasefire’?: Phoebe Maltz Bovy on watching the political tightrope in women’s media

In the before-times, a personal essay in a women’s magazine about home-baked challah, in which the writer discusses how this ritual connects them to their Jewish roots, would be a […]

The post ‘Challah for Ceasefire’?: Phoebe Maltz Bovy on watching the political tightrope in women’s media appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.

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Palestinian Filmmaker Who Accused Israel of ‘Genocide’ Wins Top Prize at Film Festival With Israel-Set Drama

A promotional photo from “Happy Holidays.” Photo: 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival

A Palestinian filmmaker who has accused Israel of “genocide” during the ongoing war in Gaza took home the top prize on Sunday at the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival for a family drama set in Israel that includes Jewish and Arab characters.

Director Scandar Copti won the Golden Alexander for best feature film and a 10,000-euro cash prize for his film “Happy Holidays,” an Arabic- and Hebrew-language film that follows four interconnected characters who “share their unique realities, highlighting the complexities between genders, generations, and cultures.” One character, named Rami, is a Palestinian from Haifa who must deal with his Jewish girlfriend’s sudden decision to change her mind about her planned abortion.

Copti directed and wrote the screenplay for “Happy Holidays.” He also directed the Oscar-nominated 2009 film “Ajami.”

“Happy Holidays” is Copti’s second film, and it premiered in early September in the 2024 Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section, where it won the award for best screenplay. During his virtual acceptance speech at the Venice Film Festival, Copti accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza, where the Israeli military has been waging a campaign against Hamas terrorists.

“Over the past 11 months, our shared humanity and moral compass has been tested as we witness the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” he said in comments which elicited applause from the audience. He talked about the “painful reality” in Gaza and said “Happy Holidays” examines “how moral narratives can bring us together as communities, but also blind us to the suffering of others. It explores how traditions and indoctrination can distort our values and make injustice seem acceptable.”

“True freedom is interconnected,” he added. “None of us are free until all of us are free, from all sorts of oppression.”

The jury at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival — which included filmmaker and producer Sara Driver, filmmaker Denis Côté, and producer Konstantinos Kontovrakis — applauded Copti’s film “for intricately weaving different narratives and perspectives that fully expose the complexity of national, gender, and class dynamics that can divide societies and for seeing the future in the face of a young woman.”

The post Palestinian Filmmaker Who Accused Israel of ‘Genocide’ Wins Top Prize at Film Festival With Israel-Set Drama first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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