This week, Israeli forces entering the city of Jenin on an undercover mission to apprehend terror suspects came under fire. In self-defense, they fought back and killed four of the Palestinian assailants. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade later confirmed that the dead were members of their respective organizations.
Guess how media reports cast the story?
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First, the facts.
The identity of those killed is decidedly not a matter of dispute. Both Israel and Palestinian sources have identified those killed as members of terrorist groups.
Two shooters, 21-year-old Saleh Amar and 19-year-old Ra’ed Abu Seif, were identified by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades as being members. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which has been designated a terror group by the United States, European Union, Canada, Japan and others, is the “military wing” of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah faction.
A picture of another gunman, Nour Jarrah, showing him aiming an assault rifle, was distributed by the Al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad’s military wing. A statement released by the terror organization acknowledged that Jarrar was a member and vowed that, “The blood of our martyrs will not be spilled in vain.”
For its part, Hamas on Monday released a statement released claiming the fourth gunman, Amjad Husseineh, as one of its own who died amid “heroic fighting at dawn in Jenin.” It, too, threatened that, “The blood of the heroic martyrs in Jenin and in every quarter of Palestine is the fuel that lights our torches on the path to freedom, the end of the occupation, and the expulsion of its [Israeli] settlers.”
“Massacre” and “Heinous Crime” Claims
Despite the Palestinians themselves acknowledging the connections of the “martyrs” with terror groups, Palestinian officials were quick to point an accusing finger at Israel, describing the incident as a “massacre” and employing other strikingly incendiary terms. The Times of Israel reported that Akram Rajoub, the governor of Jenin, told the official Palestinian Authority broadcasting station, “This was a massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation. All the accounts disseminated by the occupation are falsehoods.”
The English-language site of China’s Xinhua News also cited Rajoub as characterizing the incident as having occurred “after the [Israeli] soldiers stormed the city and clashed with dozens of Palestinians.”
In its report, Associated Press (AP) quoted another senior Palestinian official, Hussein al-Sheikh, who accused Israel of a “heinous crime.” The article also mentioned a tweet sent by al-Sheikh: “The international community should be ashamed of its silence about this and its failure to provide protection to the Palestinian people from this oppression.”
Those words were quoted verbatim in The Guardian, which republished the AP piece. Meanwhile, the BBC cited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who called the killings “an ugly crime” and warned it could lead to a further escalation of violence.
Terror Ties Omitted From News Reports
Omissions are one of the most insidious forms of media bias. Whereas a respectable news outlet may, potentially, apologize or retract a faulty claim, it’s rare for media sources to acknowledge a failure to provide crucial context. The reporting of this story represents a classic example of the tendency of the media to excise critical aspects of an incident which, in turn, serves to promote a narrative that’s hostile to Israel.
While numerous reports did label those killed as “gunmen” or “attackers,” not one of those mentioned above referred in any way to the statements put out by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, despite the fact that photos and videos showed a number of the deceased clutching assault rifles.
And another… pic.twitter.com/bPl0UgdbYG
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 16, 2021
Update: And this video of one of the four also came to light yesterday.#Incriminating. pic.twitter.com/wbOJa8PNcA
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 17, 2021
Arguably, France 24’s report was the worst of the bunch, including an opening paragraph that not only obscured the connection of the Palestinians to terrorist groups, but also gratuitously shoehorned in mention of a hotly-disputed Jewish community in the West Bank (emphasis added):
Four Palestinians were killed on Monday in clashes with Israeli security forces at Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, where violence has escalated over a wildcat Jewish settlement.“
Meanwhile, the Evyatar outpost was weeks ago evacuated as part of a deal with the government, but this has not put an end to Palestinian-initiated violence.
The year may be 2021, but it may as well be 2002: Nothing much seems to have changed since the libelous Palestinian claim claimed that there was a “massacre” in Jenin.
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