UPDATE: Following a message sent from HonestReporting to The Independent, and a strong reaction from our faithful readers, the offending headline has now been revised. It now reads, “Israel kills four Palestinians following attack at Gaza border.”
This is a significantly better headline, in that it makes clear that Israel acted in response to a clear threat on its borders.
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When is a terrorist not a terrorist?
Judging by a recent Independent headline, the answer would seem to be when they are thwarted in the act of staging an attack on Israel.
On Saturday morning, a large-scale terror attack was prevented when Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinians trying to infiltrate into Israel from the Gaza Strip.
The men were armed with rocket-propelled grenades, hunting knives, AK-47 rifles, hand grenades and bolt cutters. After one of them hurled a grenade at the Israeli soldiers, the soldiers returned fire, killing the four terrorists. A tweet from the IDF depicted the dizzying array of weapons carried by the would-be assailants.
These are the weapons possessed by the terrorists who attempted to infiltrate into Israel from Gaza last night.
Their (unfulfilled) objective: murdering Israelis. pic.twitter.com/sQbMPK59sX
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 10, 2019
Both the IDF’s tweet and a subsequent statement from Hamas which functionally distanced itself from what it termed “angry youth”, but also condemning “the occupation” for this “latest crime” (i.e. preventing the attack) served as evidence of the fact that an attack had indeed taken place.
Nevertheless, instead of referring to the men as terrorists or militants, The Independent’s headline left out a significant part of the story. “Israeli army kills four Palestinians attempting to cross Gaza fence” reads like a description of a totally different event.
Upon further investigation, HonestReporting noted that the piece was taken from the Associated Press. The original piece, however, had a different headline: “Israeli army kills 4 militants trying to cross Gaza fence.” Though this headline is also problematic, failing to note that the terrorists actively attacked Israeli soldiers, at least it correctly identifies them as combatants.
We've compared this article to the original @AP report. Spot the difference: pic.twitter.com/cjTysSLAYW
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 10, 2019
Clearly, someone at The Independent saw the Associated Press story and decided to run it — but not before changing the headline to obscure the fact that these men were terrorists carrying a substantial supply of bullets and grenades together with RPGs, rifles and knives.
Describing these individuals as merely “Palestinians” would seem to be a deliberate attempt to cover up for terrorists and is utterly unacceptable.
HonestReporting has filed a complain with The Independent and will be updating this page if and when any response is received.
