To suggest that Hamas, the internationally designated terror group that controls the Gaza Strip, cares about the rights of children is preposterous.
After all, Hamas stands accused of recruiting minors into its terror ranks, killing Palestinian kids by firing rockets from populated areas, and putting innocents at risk by converting schools into military bases.
Yet in its latest report from Gaza, entitled “A living ‘war museum’: Palestinian artists turn rubble of Gaza house into art exhibition,” France-based Euronews turns reality on its head by giving the terror organization airtime to falsely vilify Israel as a violator of children’s rights.
The June 11 propaganda video, complete with emotional piano music, reports on an anti-Israel exhibition in Gaza’s Deir al-Balah neighborhood. Staged in a house destroyed during last month’s IDF operation against Islamic Jihad terrorists, “Occupation kills childhood” charges Israeli forces with deliberately targeting minors in violation of international humanitarian law.
According to the uncritical captions accompanying the segment, the art “depict[s] the actual scene of what occurred.” However, basic journalistic due diligence would have quickly revealed that the Abu Obid family home housed an alleged Islamic Jihad command center, making it a legitimate military target under the law of armed conflict. Furthermore, as Israel had reportedly given advance warning, no children or other civilians were harmed in the May 12 airstrike.
But a closer examination of Euronews’ one-sided sources reveals an even more serious lapse in journalistic standards, casting doubt on the international channel’s stated commitment to “provid[ing]… viewers and readers with a variety of viewpoints while remaining grounded in factual reporting.”
What @euronews isn’t telling you…
On June 11, Euronews published a report about Palestinian artists creating an art exhibition out of the rubble from airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
Here’s the missing context 🧵 pic.twitter.com/dNtoQ2SHYM
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 12, 2023
Besides interviewing homeowner Eyad Abu Obid, Euronews speaks with Mohamed Thoraya, who is solely referred to as a “member of the exhibition’s organizing committee.” Crucially, viewers are left unaware of Thoraya’s sinister day job: Arab media previously identified him as the head of Hamas’ “artistic production department.” He also worked for Al-Aqsa TV, which the US State Department says “recruit[s] children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers.”
It is important to note that Thoraya’s purported concerns for the position of civilians in conflict can hardly be given credence. On Facebook, the Hamas member is a vocal supporter of violence against innocent Israelis, having saluted arch-terrorist Mohammed Deif in a 2017 post. A year earlier, he glorified the actions of Mesbah Abu Sabih, whose shooting attack left a police officer and a 60-year-old civilian woman dead. Thoraya moreover used social media to incite stabbings and shootings, in addition to sharing antisemitic cartoons.
The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists urges reporters to “identify sources clearly” as “the public is entitled to as much information as possible to judge the reliability and motivations of sources.” In other words: The fact that “Occupation kills childhood” is a propaganda initiative of a designated terror group should, at the very least, have been mentioned, if not have disqualified the exhibit as a subject fit for serious journalism altogether.
The 80-second video also proclaims that, “in 2023, Israeli forces have allegedly killed more than 150 Palestinians, including 25 children.” While this claim may be true, Euronews leaves out critical context that puts the casualty count into perspective.
A count by HonestReporting found that more than 75 percent of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces this year were members of recognized terrorist groups, or were neutralized as they carried out violent attacks. This figure includes several teens who, sadly, were groomed to become murderous terrorists.
Official:
Al Aqsa martyr's brigade announced that Omar Awadin, the 16 years old, was their operative https://t.co/GOrMUmEkHS pic.twitter.com/bHmQjU4PZP— Adin – עדין (@AdinHaykin1) March 19, 2023
We encourage our readers to reach out to Euronews to — politely but firmly — ask that the video be amended or deleted.
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Featured Image: Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images
