Reuters Plays Loose With Numbers of Palestinians Evicted

A Reuters report that appeared in media outlets including the Irish Times states:

Israeli soldiers evicted several hundred Bedouins from a village in the occupied West Bank today after the army declared the area a live-fire training zone.

We looked into this figure and were informed by military sources on the ground that some tens of Bedouins had been removed from their village. Not several hundred as Reuters would have you believe.

Where exactly did Reuters come up with this figure?

But not only that. Reuters failed to mention that the IDF is allowing the evictees to return to their homes following the conclusion of the one-week training exercise.

This is a crucial point that has been omitted along with any background over the legality of the Bedouin village.

While Reuters states that the village is located in what is known as “Area C” of the West Bank, it fails to elucidate the status the area’s status beyond that of being under full Israeli control. To expand, Area C is under full Israeli civil and military control, as agreed under the Oslo Accords. The Bedouin village of Wadi al-Maleh, where this eviction took place, has been illegally built on Israeli state land according to the terms of the Oslo agreements and is subject to a number of demolition orders.

Yet, despite this, the IDF is allowing the residents to return even in the knowledge that their presence there is illegal.

While clearly there may be readers who disagree with Israel’s presence in the West Bank, Reuters has produced a one-sided piece of reporting that does nothing to inform the readers of the facts behind the case and purposely sets out to portray the IDF is the worst light possible.

(H/T: Regavim)