CLARIFICATION
A source at AP has confirmed that the original version of the story included the sentence “Some 200 Palestinians were killed during the same period, most said by Israel to be attackers.” The words in bold pointedly do not appear in Sky News Australia’s edited version.
While AP’s story still raises serious issues as outlined below, Sky News Australia is responsible for editing out important context that most of the Palestinians killed by Israelis were involved in violence at the time. Our call for action at the end of this post has been updated to reflect this.
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In an article on Israel’s response to recent attacks, the Associated Press vastly under-counts Palestinian terrorist attacks. The AP writes:
Palestinians have carried out dozens of attacks since September, killing 34 Israelis and two visiting Americans. Some 200 Palestinians were killed during the same period.
How many attacks have Palestinians carried out during this time period? According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
There have been 155 stabbing attacks (including 76 attempted attacks), 96 shootings, 45 vehicular (ramming) attacks and one vehicle (bus) bombing.
That is a total of 297 attacks. In the AP’s language, that would be almost 25 dozen.
In addition, the AP seems to disconnect Palestinian deaths from these attacks. The news wire service simply says how many Palestinians were killed during the “same period.” But unless it directly states that the vast majority of Palestinians killed have been terrorists neutralized by Israelis defending themselves, it creates the impression that Israel is acting with vastly disproportionate force against innocent Palestinians — something very far from the truth.
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Another sentence, devoid of all meaningful context seems to justify the Palestinian attacks. Describing the disputed territories, AP simply writes:
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war.
While this is technically true, readers who do not have a background in the history of the region might assume that Israel came to be in control of those areas as a result of its own aggression. As Dan Diker of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs says in our latest Red Lines video (“Missing Context“):
It is a matter of fact that Israel was defending itself, the United Nations said in 1967 through UN Security Council Resolution 242, that Israel was the defender in that (the 1967) war. So it is incumbent upon foreign reporters to write one line — six words — that Israel conquered the eastern side of Jerusalem and the former Jordanian held West Bank in a war of self-defense… “in a war, of self-defense” — could add a whole lot of context to a report.
It would not have taken many words for the AP to accurately state how many Palestinian attacks there have been, that most of the Palestinians were killed during terrorist attacks, and that Israel only captured the disputed territories after being attacked. Instead, it chose to leave out crucial context and misinform its readers.
Please contact the AP to complain about this story. Please also send your comments to Sky News Australia about this version of the story.
