Israeli ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer wasted no time on this evening's Erin Burnett OutFront to hit CNN for bias by omission in its reporting on Palestinian casualties at a United Nations hospital in the Gaza Strip.
"I think it would be a disservice to your viewers for a [CNN] reporter from Gaza not to mention that in the last week we had two different UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Works Agency] schools where we had actually rockets found in the schools and handed over to Hamas," Dermer chided host Erin Burnett, who interrupted, "These are two different UN schools, you're saying." "That's correct," the ambassador replied, continuing his attack on the network's bias with a suggestion that the network was not properly doing its homework on the conflict (emphasis mine; watch video below page break):
DERMER: That's publicly available information. It's kind of an important fact for your reporter to mention. And in addition to that, he may have wanted to mention a statement that was made by, not by the Israeli ambassador, not by the spokesman of the IDF but by the UN Secretary General yesterday. And I want to read you what he said yesterday. Not last year, yesterday. He said this:"The secretary general is alarmed to hear that rockets were placed in an UNRWA school in Gaza and that subsequently these have gone missing. He expresses his outrage and regret at the placing of weapons in a UN-administered school. By doing so -- now listen, Erin, exactly what he says, -- By doing so, those responsible are turning schools into potential military targets and endangering the lives of innocent children, UN employees working in such facilities, and anyone using the UN schools as shelter.
This is yesterday.
Do you not think that it's relevant to report on CNN that the secretary general of the United Nations yesterday warned against the use of UN schools and shelter for rocket missile depots of Hamas?
BURNETT: Ambassador, it is relevant, and let me ask you this then --
DERMER: Well, I've been listening for two hours of reports on CNN. I have seen split screens, horrible pictures. Horrible pictures that any decent human being would be horrified by.
I have not heard a single person say what I just said to you now, and I think that that does a disservice to your viewers to not give them the context they need to make these judgments. Hamas is placing missile batteries in schools, in hospitals, in mosques, and there must be outrage by the world and Hamas to end this.
Correction: I initially had the wrong UN agency listed. It is UNRWA, not UNRRA. My apologies for the confusion.
