Fake Finnish journalist Jukka Huusko ‘reports’ from Bethlehem:
Da Jooos did dis, and da Jooos did dat, and da poor Palestians did nothing but be wictims. End of da report.
Here’s what Vasara Hammer has to say about this punk reporter:
The article is a textbook example of how the journalists twist the truth to suit their agenda.
1. In the beginning, state the comfortable facts, omit the uncomfortable ones. Don’t go overboard yet.
2. In the end, introduce the big lie. Don’t say it yourself, quote a local professional propagandist. Make him (or her in this case) look like a perfect representative of a persecuted minority (though she happens to be the mayor of Bethlehem and has Arafat and Abbas pictures hanging on the wall).
3. Don’t introduce any background, let the readers believe the big lie. It’s the Jews’ fault.
One of the central themes in the tawdry piece was insistence that the depletion of the Christian population in Bethlehem was solely due to Israel’s defensive security fence/wall (and other security measure) that snakes through the many areas of Bethlehem. Hey, they even got an Arab Lutheran pastor to state it, so it’s got to be true!
“Where are all the world’s Christians? By building the walls Israel will kill Bethlehem forever.”
And where are all the Christians of Bethlehem?
When Israel declared its independence in 1948, Bethlehem’s inhabitants were up to 85 per Christian. Today, Christians are a 25 percent minority.
Prof.Justus Reid Wiener however says differently:
“Nobody will give you actual census figures, because then they’d have a lot of explaining to do,” he said.
“The percentages are what’s important. The percentage, if you went back to 1948, maybe 80% of the population of Bethlehem was Christian, more or less. It declined precipitously during the Jordanian 20 years [1949-67] and that puts the lie to the implication that it’s all Israel’s fault.
“Israel wasn’t there, but the economics of a declining community were there, and even in the post-’67 era, the Christian population has continued to decline at a varied pace.”
The lying Huusko worm continues:
Some Israeli politicians have argued that the mass exodus of Christians is caused by Muslim persecution.
This is a blatant lie, say Babu and pastor Raheb.
“Extremist Jews and Christian Zionists use the Palestinian Christians stick horse to justify islamkammoaan” Raheb says.
Prof.Weiner says otherwise:
They had endured theft of their land, extortion, pressure to wear Muslim clothing, forced marriage or conversion to Islam, and the vandalism or destruction of holy sites, he said. […]
“There’s no legitimate way in which I or anybody else can quantify [this persecution],” he said. “Even the mediocre efforts at doing a census, I wouldn’t put much trust in them.”
Converts to Christianity are the most vulnerable, especially when coupled with suspicions of collaboration with Israeli security forces. He called conversion in these conditions “a lonely decision.”
But Huusko and the Helsingin Sanomat were not after the facts, just the narrative that they want to import to their ever dwindling list of subscribers, so of course Prof.Justus Reid Weiner, a man who has spent years in highlighting the plight of Christian Arab under Fatah and Hamas rule, was not consulted for his opinions on anything.
NOTE: Huusko the worm was in the Helsinki University auditorium during the Avi Shlaim seminar, during which time the then Israeli ambassador, Avi Granot, delivered the following wise words of advice. Huusko the worm was seen sitting up towards the back, check at the 13 second mark whose head can be seen behind the man Amb.Granot was speaking to.
