As I write this only hours after the dramatic announcement that a prisoner swap deal has been signed to bring Gilad Shalit home, it’s still too early to make a judgment of media coverage.
The facts and the history behind any story are important and particularly so when dealing with any aspect of the Mideast conflict. Five years after Shalit’s kidnapping and already it looks like some journalists might have forgotten exactly what happened back in June 2006.
According to Sky News:
Israel and Hamas have reached a deal to secure the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit – five years after he was captured in Gaza.
Shalit was not captured in Gaza, where there were no Israelis since the August 2005 Israeli withdrawal. Shalit was taken from Israeli territory after Palestinian terrorists tunneled into Israel and attacked an army outpost.
While some may say this is a minor point, the inaccuracy is not simply just poor journalism.
It’s another rewriting of history that makes it just a little easier for Israel’s enemies to find justification for Shalit’s kidnapping and five years in Hamas captivity.
UPDATE
Credit to Sky News for not only amending the story but also for adding a map and the following:
Staff Sergeant Shalit, 25, was captured in June 2006 near Kerem Shalom in Israel and is believed to have been held in Gaza ever since.
The article, however, fails to elaborate on any details of the violent incident that led to Shalit’s capture in the first place, a salient point given that it was Hamas terrorists who initiated the attack with the express intention of kidnapping an Israeli soldier.
