Talk:Qana massacre

May05, from a tactical point of view it is really not a good idea to put that image here, because the many Israel sympathizers here may add pictures of bus-bombings and so on in retaliation, and this is not want we want. I suggest a compromise: simply provide a link to the pictures at the bottom for people to follow if they want. Ok? -- Viajero 17:15, 18 Feb 2004 (UTC)

• I understand and accept your compromise. You know I'm new in here, and needed a little time to know how a truce is made in here :) Sorry for any inconveniences. Regards, May05 23:58, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Removed Fisk paragraph

I removed the following paragraphs from the article:

Robert Fisk, a British journalist for The Independent was among the first to arrive there. He wrote:

It was a massacre. Not since Sabra and Chatila had I seen the innocent slaughtered like this. The Lebanese refugee women and children and men lay in heaps, their hands or arms or legs missing, beheaded or disembowelled. There were well over a hundred of them. A baby lay without a head [...] A French UN trooper muttered oaths to himself as he opened a bag in which he was dropping feet, fingers, pieces of people's arms.

This does not add any information of encyclopedic value to the article, and was just included to stir emotions. There is no dispute that an artillery shelling of unprotected people has terrible results - and there is no need to go into the graphic details, either by means of pictures or a verbal description.

Also, Fisk is hardly an NPOV source - he is known for his anti-Israeli writings. I kept the link to his full article in the "links" section in the bottom, together with other accounts of the events.

-- uriber 13:04, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thanks, uriber. before you made this change, I had added a clause about Fisk being known for, among other things, his anti-Israeli writing. You can see Zero's resulting reversion of that "stupid slur" note in the change comments. However, I think you gave in turn too much space to quotes from Israel's denial of intent; better to let the documents speak for themselves. +sj+ 13:47, 2004 Feb 21 (UTC)

If the eyewitness description does not account then what does?. Isn't the aim of any source of knowledge (encyclopedia, research,...) to reaveal the truth and make an image in the mind?? That's why the eyewitness is an important factor, if not the most important, in any legal investigation. If one word from the quotation is wrong then I agree to change, but simply it is the truth. And changing the article that way is hardly an NPOV!!! And tell me, what is more neutral to write down what I've seen myself or what a journalist saw??! STOP DISTORTING THE TRUTH. May05 18:45, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)

The eyewitness testimony of carnage is indeed part of the truth, however in an encyclopedia article like this it is inappropriate. So I support its removal. Something else that should be added is the story about the unmaned observation drone which Israel had in the area during the shelling. Another possibility (which I have two minds about) is the interview published in Kol Ha'ir with people from the unit that did the shelling. "A few arabushim die, there is no harm in that" (etc). As for Fisk, the "stupid" comment I removed was indeed stupid but the reason for removing it was that it was just the POV of the writer inserted into the article contrary to how we are supposed to write articles. The reason Fisk gets such slurs is that he writes about things like Qana. Anyone who actually follows his work over time will know that he is constantly criticising Arab governments as well. --Zero 00:38, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)