Post by Teddy Bear on May 21, 2013 19:28:56 GMT
Does anybody remember seeing any positive article about Israel on the BBC website? Even those that should be, like when Israel treats wounded Syrian civilians, are turned around to make Israel look devious, or else they ignore it altogether.
But the BBC have no problem running stories that can show Palestinians in a good light, but inevitably they will use it to also vilify Israel. So as soon as I saw this one on the BBC Mid-East webpage, I knew it was going to follow suit.
Keeping alive Gaza's culinary traditions
Despite food shortages and irregular power supplies, people in Gaza are finding ways to keep their culinary traditions alive - and eat their own distinctive spicy dishes.
Amid the loud whir of fans and clatter of plates in his kitchen, Asad Abu Haseera ladles a rich, tomato and chilli sauce over the fresh prawns sizzling in a pan.
When the mixture is simmering, he pours it into a traditional clay bowl - or zibdiya - and slides it under the flames lapping around an open grill.
A few minutes later, as the top of the stew bubbles like molten lava, the young chef removes it from the heat and sprinkles on some crushed pistachio nuts. This is zibdiyit gambari, a cherished Gazan dish.
"People in Gaza love to eat fish and seafood of all kinds. It's good for the health and full of vitamins," says Abu Haseera, who trained under his father at the family restaurant from the age of 13. "We say it's the best tonic and can even give you sexual energy."
The first couple of words in the opening sentence tells you really how this 'human interest' story is going to be slanted. I'll cut to the chase and just give you what the BBC really want you to know inserted in it.
1. The Gaza Strip is a small, coastal sliver of land that is home to over 1.6 million Palestinians. Most people's primary associations with it probably involve its Islamist Hamas government, militants fighting Israel and the Israeli border blockade.
And the reason for this blockade is???
Well to find that out you will either have needed to remember the incidents at the time Gaza was given over to the Palestinians, or look elsewhere. They don't even mention that Egypt has also blockaded its borders with Gaza recently following their security staff being kidnapped.
2. "An overhead view of a bombed-out building, something exploding, people wailing or a masked gunman, those are kind of the images that are conjured up when one sees Gaza in the news," she says.
Does missiles and rockets being fired out of Gaza have anything to do with it? But this is clearly too complicated for the BBC.
3. There is also diversity in dishes because the majority of Gazans are descendants of refugees from a wide area of historic Palestine, where there were different tastes and ingredients. They were displaced in the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel.
Now Wikipedia tells us this: After the dissolution of the All-Palestine Government in 1959, under the excuse of pan-Arabism, Egypt continued to occupy the Gaza Strip until 1967. Egypt never annexed the Gaza Strip, but instead treated it as a controlled territory and administered it through a military governor. The influx of over 200,000 refugees into Gaza during the war resulted in a dramatic decrease in the standard of living. Because the Egyptian government restricted movement to and from the Gaza Strip, its inhabitants could not look elsewhere for gainful employment.
Clearly the BBC doesn't want to overload their readers with too much information though - only complicates things.
4. In recent years, it has often been hard to keep culinary traditions alive in the Gaza Strip because of food shortages and power cuts. Israel tightened its ground and naval blockade of Gaza in 2007 after the takeover by Hamas, which it views as a terrorist organisation. Restrictions were partly lifted three years later
Here's a website where you can see some pictures of Gaza supermarkets, as for power cuts, perhaps Hamas firing rockets at the Israeli power station providing much of it would make the supply more stable. Still no mention by the BBC for just why Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organisation, or the fact that so does the United States, Canada, the European Union, and Japan also classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.
5. "Two-thirds of the Gazan people are considered poor. Those need assistance from (the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees) UNRWA or other international humanitarian organisations. Unemployment is officially 45% but in reality it is much higher," says economist, Omar Shaban.
Somehow this hasn't deterred the Gazan population from being the 7th fastest growing in the world. Even the BBC acknowledged the high population growth in 2009, but don't bother to mention it in this article. If they're poor, then perhaps they should examine the factors that make this more likely to continue. Prior to the intifada, Palestinians enjoyed the highest standard of living in the surrounding Arab lands. Did they really think that attacking the source of this wealth was going to help their cause?
Remember this 'human interest' story is about Gazan culinary skills, at least that's the 'sandwich' the BBC wants you to eat, with Israel as the indigestion.
But the BBC have no problem running stories that can show Palestinians in a good light, but inevitably they will use it to also vilify Israel. So as soon as I saw this one on the BBC Mid-East webpage, I knew it was going to follow suit.
Keeping alive Gaza's culinary traditions
Despite food shortages and irregular power supplies, people in Gaza are finding ways to keep their culinary traditions alive - and eat their own distinctive spicy dishes.
Amid the loud whir of fans and clatter of plates in his kitchen, Asad Abu Haseera ladles a rich, tomato and chilli sauce over the fresh prawns sizzling in a pan.
When the mixture is simmering, he pours it into a traditional clay bowl - or zibdiya - and slides it under the flames lapping around an open grill.
A few minutes later, as the top of the stew bubbles like molten lava, the young chef removes it from the heat and sprinkles on some crushed pistachio nuts. This is zibdiyit gambari, a cherished Gazan dish.
"People in Gaza love to eat fish and seafood of all kinds. It's good for the health and full of vitamins," says Abu Haseera, who trained under his father at the family restaurant from the age of 13. "We say it's the best tonic and can even give you sexual energy."
The first couple of words in the opening sentence tells you really how this 'human interest' story is going to be slanted. I'll cut to the chase and just give you what the BBC really want you to know inserted in it.
1. The Gaza Strip is a small, coastal sliver of land that is home to over 1.6 million Palestinians. Most people's primary associations with it probably involve its Islamist Hamas government, militants fighting Israel and the Israeli border blockade.
And the reason for this blockade is???
Well to find that out you will either have needed to remember the incidents at the time Gaza was given over to the Palestinians, or look elsewhere. They don't even mention that Egypt has also blockaded its borders with Gaza recently following their security staff being kidnapped.
2. "An overhead view of a bombed-out building, something exploding, people wailing or a masked gunman, those are kind of the images that are conjured up when one sees Gaza in the news," she says.
Does missiles and rockets being fired out of Gaza have anything to do with it? But this is clearly too complicated for the BBC.
3. There is also diversity in dishes because the majority of Gazans are descendants of refugees from a wide area of historic Palestine, where there were different tastes and ingredients. They were displaced in the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel.
Now Wikipedia tells us this: After the dissolution of the All-Palestine Government in 1959, under the excuse of pan-Arabism, Egypt continued to occupy the Gaza Strip until 1967. Egypt never annexed the Gaza Strip, but instead treated it as a controlled territory and administered it through a military governor. The influx of over 200,000 refugees into Gaza during the war resulted in a dramatic decrease in the standard of living. Because the Egyptian government restricted movement to and from the Gaza Strip, its inhabitants could not look elsewhere for gainful employment.
Clearly the BBC doesn't want to overload their readers with too much information though - only complicates things.
4. In recent years, it has often been hard to keep culinary traditions alive in the Gaza Strip because of food shortages and power cuts. Israel tightened its ground and naval blockade of Gaza in 2007 after the takeover by Hamas, which it views as a terrorist organisation. Restrictions were partly lifted three years later
Here's a website where you can see some pictures of Gaza supermarkets, as for power cuts, perhaps Hamas firing rockets at the Israeli power station providing much of it would make the supply more stable. Still no mention by the BBC for just why Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organisation, or the fact that so does the United States, Canada, the European Union, and Japan also classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.
5. "Two-thirds of the Gazan people are considered poor. Those need assistance from (the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees) UNRWA or other international humanitarian organisations. Unemployment is officially 45% but in reality it is much higher," says economist, Omar Shaban.
Somehow this hasn't deterred the Gazan population from being the 7th fastest growing in the world. Even the BBC acknowledged the high population growth in 2009, but don't bother to mention it in this article. If they're poor, then perhaps they should examine the factors that make this more likely to continue. Prior to the intifada, Palestinians enjoyed the highest standard of living in the surrounding Arab lands. Did they really think that attacking the source of this wealth was going to help their cause?
Remember this 'human interest' story is about Gazan culinary skills, at least that's the 'sandwich' the BBC wants you to eat, with Israel as the indigestion.
