Please sign our letter to Emmanuel Hoog, the CEO of Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Please add your name to the letter that appears at the end of this article.
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The unholy alliance between anti-Israel non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the press is clearly evident in AFP’s story “Israeli security forces ‘killed 25 Palestinian children’ in three months, UNICEF says.”
Twenty-five Palestinian children were killed in the last three months of 2015 during a wave of violence, the United Nations’ children’s agency says.
A report by UNICEF said it was concerned with the excessive use of force in incidents where Palestinian children were shot dead by Israeli security forces after allegedly carrying out stabbing attacks.
It said more than 1,300 Palestinian children were injured during the spike in attacks, almost all in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, while three Israeli children were hurt in the West Bank and west Jerusalem.
While the actual report is credited to UNICEF, the AFP fails to note that it is a quarterly bulletin produced by a UNICEF-led working group that includes a veritable who’s who of NGOs with a history of politicized activities against Israel:
- Defense for Children International-Palestine
- B’Tselem
- Médecins du Monde – Suisse
- Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
- Save the Children
- War Child Holland
- World Vision
- UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
- United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
- United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
- United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
- United Nations Mines Action Service (UNMAS)
- World Health Organization (WHO)
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There is little pretense at any balance in either the report itself or AFP’s one-sided coverage. Instead, Israel is portrayed as a killer of Palestinian children:
Out of the 23 Palestinian children killed, 22 were killed by Israeli Security Forces (ISF) with live ammunition and one by Israeli settlers; no arrests have been made or indictments issued in relation to any of these killings so far.
Arrests or indictments would only be made in the event of criminal actions. The UNICEF report therefore makes a blanket assumption that any Israeli who has killed a Palestinian aged 12-17 has committed a criminal act.
AFP writes:
UNICEF cited the example on October 25 in Hebron in the West Bank of a 17-year-old girl who was “taken by IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers for a search, shot with at least five bullets and killed”.
“Israeli authorities said that she had attempted to stab a policeman, however an eyewitness stated that she was not presenting any threat at the time she was shot, and was shouting that she did not have a knife,” it said.
The implication here is that a helpless Palestinian girl was taken and then shot while in IDF custody. And based on an “eyewitness” statement (presumably a Palestinian).
Here’s how the story was reported on the day in the Israeli press:
A terrorist tried to stab Border Police Officers at the entrance to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron Sunday after she aroused the suspicion of officers.
The woman was waiting to enter the holy site, but was acting suspiciously. She was asked for identification but suddenly took out a knife and started walking toward the police, while screaming at them.
The officers fired at her and she was killed. She did not manage to injure anyone at the scene.
Is a 17-year-old armed with a knife really a “child” in the purest sense of the word? Did Israeli security forces see an innocent child when they opened fire? Of course not and nor would they have been expected to question the assailant’s age in the midst of a terror attack.
AFP continues:
UNICEF also voiced alarm over the number of Palestinian children aged between 12 and 17 detained by the Israeli army.
It said the tally stood at 422 at the end of December according to the Israeli prison service, the highest recorded since March 2009.
Perhaps the real alarm should be the number of Palestinian juveniles who are involving themselves in acts of terror or violence against Israeli soldiers and civilians. Shouldn’t UNICEF be voicing its alarm at the Palestinian incitement on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, that is encouraging these young people to endanger their own lives and the lives of others?
But neither the UNICEF report nor AFP is prepared to include an alternative to the blood libel that Israel is simply and criminally shooting dead Palestinian children.
Please sign our letter to Emmanuel Hoog, CEO of the AFP below:
To Mr Emanuel Hoog, CEO, Agence France-Presse:
We are writing to express our concern about an AFP article covering the release of a UNICEF report accusing Israel of killing Palestinian children. That report was based on completely one-sided information that leaves out important context. Almost all the young Palestinians who were killed were terrorists attempting to murder innocent Israelis. Among the groups that contributed to the report are many with well established histories of bias against Israel. Why did the AFP not include a source critical of the UNICEF report?
We urge you to correct the deficiencies in the article and take steps to ensure AFP reporting on Israel meets the standards of balance in professional journalism.
Image credit: Knife vector via Vecteezy!
