On Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted a raid on the well-known West Bank terrorist hub Jenin with the goal of arresting a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander known as Bassam al-Saadi, who allegedly organized numerous acts of terror and is said to have offered wannabe terrorists some $300 for perpetrating attacks where Israelis died.
In addition, al-Saadi was thought to be in contact with PIJ’s backers in Iran, who supplied him with cash and weapons to be used for the murder of innocent civilians.
When the property in Jenin was raided, Israeli soldiers also arrested al-Saadi’s son-in-law and aide, Ashraf al-Jada, and, during an exchange of gunfire, shot dead Dirar al-Kafrayni, 17, who was also at the address.
In the hours after the arrests and al-Kafrayni’s death, US-designated terrorist group PIJ identified the deceased teenager as one of its militants and praised him as their “heroic martyr.” They also declared the “readiness” of its fighters to respond.
Yet, this was how the Qatari state-owned media outlet Al-Jazeera chose to summarize the events of Monday night’s raid, ‘Israeli forces kill Palestinian teenager in raid on Jenin camp.’ It is only in the subheading that the reader is given the slightest inkling as to why the IDF was there that night: “Israeli army kills 17-year-old and arrests a senior Islamic Jihad leader during a raid in the occupied West Bank.”
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The first few paragraphs also focus on the death of al-Kafrayni and fail to mention that the primary purpose of the raid was to apprehend al-Saadi or the many horrific crimes of which the PIJ commander is accused.
Rather, an oblique reference is given to al-Saadi being a “former prisoner who spent many years in and out of Israeli jails.”
The pictures included in the article also serve to bolster what is evidently a misleading narrative, such as the top image that shows female mourners weeping at the funeral of al-Kafrayni, while an embedded Twitter image is of the young man sporting braces on his teeth smiling broadly at the camera.
Perhaps Al Jazeera decided the other available image of al-Kafrayni in which he is brandishing an assault weapon would not fit its carefully curated narrative.
المجد للشهيد المقاتل ضرار الكفريني.. pic.twitter.com/mlAEarkfoS
— Khaled Affif (@AffifKhaled) August 1, 2022
Related Reading: Reality Check, Washington Post, AP: Jenin is the Epicenter of Palestinian Terrorism
The omissions and distortions do not stop there.
While Al Jazeera acknowledges al-Saadi’s senior role in the Islamic Jihad, the reader is offered no further details of this organization’s unpalatable history. For example, we are not told that PIJ is banned by the entire Western world, or that it has perpetrated numerous terrorist atrocities against innocent Israelis, including the Maxim restaurant suicide bombing which killed 22; the June 2002 Meggido junction suicide attack which killed 17, and the 2006 Tel Aviv shawarma restaurant bombing which left 11 dead.
To its credit, Al Jazeera does make clear that Jenin is a hub of terrorism, although this is rather ambiguously described as “armed resistance in the city’s refugee camp, where the armed wings of the PIJ and the ruling Fatah party are active.”
The piece then reminds readers that it was at another raid in Jenin that Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead in May.
Lest we forget that just hours after the Jerusalem-born reporter was shot dead and while in possession of just a handful of witness statements, Al Jazeera felt it had more than enough factual evidence to release a statement accusing Israel of “blatant murder” during what it described as the assassination of Abu Akleh in “cold blood.”
Related Reading: After the Bullet: Re-Examining the Media’s Reporting on the Death of Shireen Abu Akleh
This assertion, which was promptly broadcast around the world by numerous other media outlets, was later proven false when an independent investigation by the United States concluded that while she was likely shot by an Israeli soldier during a gunfight with Palestinian militants, she had not been deliberately targeted.
It appears, then, that Al Jazeera has an unfortunate habit of twisting the truth when it comes to its Israeli reportage.
Perhaps it is time for other news outlets to take the publication’s “news” stories with a pinch of salt before parroting them wholesale.
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