The Un's False News Industry

Over in our RIGHT NOW column, we are featuring a news story from Canada's Globe & Mail carefully debunking allegations that Israeli shelling killed people inside a UN school in Gaza.

While it seems to be true that 43 civilians were killed when three Israeli mortar shells landed in a street near the school, journalist Patrick Martin - a veteran reporter on things Middle Eastern and anything but an uncritical admirer of Israel - reports:

"While the killing of 43 civilians on the street may itself be grounds for investigation, it falls short of the act of shooting into a schoolyard crowded with refuge-seekers."

It was this non-existent act of butchery that was broadcast around the world by the BBC and other news services.

As disturbing as this media defamation is, a careful reading of the story suggests an even more troubling fact: While the news services may have misreported, they were also knowingly misled by officials of the United Nations.

When the initial misreport was spread by aid workers, UN officials who knew the truth ordered their staff not to contradict the false news. And John Ging, UN operations director in Gaza, continues to defend this misinformation by non-denial as serving Israel right:

[I]n its daily bulletin, the World Health Organization reported: "On 6 January, 42 people were killed following an attack on a UNRWA school ..."

The UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs got the location right, for a short while. Its daily bulletin cited "early reports" that "three artillery shells landed outside the UNRWA Jabalia Prep. C Girls School ..." However, its more comprehensive weekly report, published three days later, stated that "Israeli shelling directly hit two UNRWA schools ..." including the one at issue.

Such official wording helps explain the widespread news reports of the deaths in the school, but not why the UN agencies allowed the misconception to linger.

"I know no one was killed in the school," Mr. Ging said. "But 41 innocent people were killed in the street outside the school. Many of those people had taken refuge in the school and wandered out onto the street.

"The state of Israel still has to answer for that. What did they know and what care did they take?"

Who will disagree that the state of Israel, like any state, should answer for its actions? But Israel is uniquely held to account for its non-actions - and indeed for deliberate falsifications of its actions by others, the UN at the head of the list. Which (again) raises the question: When will the UN ever be called to answer for this relentless campaign of propaganda and deception against this single one of its member states?