Gilad Shalit: Sky News Rewrites History
October 12, 2011 0:57 by Simon PloskerAs I write this only hours after the dramatic announcement that a prisoner swap deal has been signed to bring Gilad Shalit home, it’s still too early to make a judgment of media coverage.
The facts and the history behind any story are important and particularly so when dealing with any aspect of the Mideast conflict. Five years after Shalit’s kidnapping and already it looks like some journalists might have forgotten exactly what happened back in June 2006.
According to Sky News:
Israel and Hamas have reached a deal to secure the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit – five years after he was captured in Gaza.
Shalit was not captured in Gaza, where there were no Israelis since the August 2005 Israeli withdrawal. Shalit was taken from Israeli territory after Palestinian terrorists tunneled into Israel and attacked an army outpost.
While some may say this is a minor point, the inaccuracy is not simply just poor journalism.
It’s another rewriting of history that makes it just a little easier for Israel’s enemies to find justification for Shalit’s kidnapping and five years in Hamas captivity.
UPDATE
Credit to Sky News for not only amending the story but also for adding a map and the following:
Staff Sergeant Shalit, 25, was captured in June 2006 near Kerem Shalom in Israel and is believed to have been held in Gaza ever since.
The article, however, fails to elaborate on any details of the violent incident that led to Shalit’s capture in the first place, a salient point given that it was Hamas terrorists who initiated the attack with the express intention of kidnapping an Israeli soldier.
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Yair
2:27 am
Oct 12, 2011
Blatant lie. Who can sue them?
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Harry Orenstein, FRICS
1:21 pm
Oct 12, 2011
In the late session on Tuesday, the Israeli cabinet approved the deal with only 3 right-wing ministers out of 29 voting “no” and, seemingly, all the heads of Israel’s intelligence agencies and the army chief-of-staff all signed-off on the deal! Minister Uzi Landau, who voted against the deal, called it “a victory for terror” and a blow against Israel’s deterrence.
Honest Reporting, desperately needs to put the facts on the table:
1. Those being released are, plain and simple, terrorists – tried and convicted according to due process of law for heinous crimes!
2. The agreement to release hundreds of terrorists is part of the continued erosion of international legal principles and human rights.
3. The case of Gilad Shalit highlights that Muslims, without compunction, blatantly violate human rights and we should call upon the entire Muslim world (as well as, UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network & the lnternational Red Cross) to condemn this blatant violation of international law and human rights by Muslims!
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Karen Hessellund
1:53 pm
Oct 12, 2011
TV2 news also referred to Gilad as a POW – but the newscaster was corrected by Steffen Jensen( TV2 ‘s journalist in the middle East) who told the newscaster that in order to be a pow it has to be a country that captures you and Hamas is a terrorist organization – in the eyes of both EU and Israel. Also a pow is visited by the red cross – and Gilad has been visited by noone… I was very happy the Steffen Jensen corrected the news caster – just a shame he is not always around to do so…
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Jonathan
5:04 pm
Oct 12, 2011
What I’m hoping to see and I know this will sound cynical, is that once Gilad Shalit is free, the IDF go into Gaza and re-arrest and re-try all those that have been released.
Lets hope it happens.
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Mr. Light-Bright
6:48 am
Oct 13, 2011
“IDF go into Gaza and re-arrest”Ha! It’s possible seeing as some of those prisoners probably have a high-tech tracking device inside them. Well I wouldn’t get angry at the Israelis if they try that. It’s not like they didn’t give Gaza a huge deal in their favour.
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Gilad Shalit: Sky News schreibt Geschichte um « Medien BackSpin
8:43 pm
Oct 12, 2011
[...] HonestReporting Media BackSpin, 12. Oktober 2011 [...]
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R Wallage
8:10 pm
Oct 13, 2011
They’ve updated & corrected the post…
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George
4:02 am
Oct 14, 2011
I find it interesting that previously Hamas declared that they are not the ones holding him hostage so they can’t release him. Suddenly they can?
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Leonard Kahn
9:56 pm
Oct 20, 2011
Please Honest Reporting– straighten Sky News and other media out to stop referring to the Arab murderers as ‘milatants’
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