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Journalistic Malpractice: CBS under Fire for "60 Minutes" Segment Attacking Israel

(Washington Free Beacon) Adam Kredo - Christian leaders, Middle East experts, and observers on Capitol Hill are crying foul on a CBS News report that they say erroneously blamed Israel for the persecution and migration of Palestinian Christians. The report by "60 Minutes" contributor Bob Simon blamed Israeli security policies for the outflow of Christian Palestinians from historically Christian areas such as Nazareth and Bethlehem. CBS mischaracterized a polemical Palestinian Christian document, labeling it a harmless call to resistance. The document in question, "Kairos," decries the Israeli "military occupation of our land [as] a sin against God and humanity," and accuses Israel of being an "apartheid" state. "The piece failed to present any contrary views to Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb, who denies the document is anti-Semitic, saying it 'doesn't ask for violence' or 'revenge,' only hope, love, and faith," B'nai B'rith International President Allan Jacobs said in a statement. "But 'Kairos' demonizes Israel alone, calling the presence of Israeli Jews in disputed territories a 'sin against God' and denying the very legitimacy of the Jewish state." The report employs questionable statistics in its examination of Palestinian Christian demographics and fails to mention the 2002 seizure of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem by Palestinian radicals. "This isn't news, it's political indoctrination," said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser on Iran and Iraq who studies religious rhetoric in the Middle East. "One of the questions '60 Minutes' didn't ask is why the flight of Arab Christians occurred after Israel transferred the areas back to the Palestinian Authority."
2012-04-25 00:00:00
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