A story in The Guardian opens with the following paragraph:
Binyamin Netanyahu has threatened to expel families of Palestinian attackers to Gaza after a five-month wave of violence against Israeli citizens and targets that has met with deadly retaliation from security forces.
The story is attributed to Guardian staff and agencies. Since we can find no major press agency e.g. Associated Press, Reuters, AFP, that has used this language, we can assume that it is The Guardian’s own decision to refer to “deadly retaliation” by Israeli security forces.
The simple dictionary definition of retaliate is “to do something bad to someone who has hurt you or treated you badly : to get revenge against someone.”
Israel is not taking revenge against Palestinians, which implies some level of malevolent intent or malice. And Israeli security forces taking actions to defending Israeli citizens or themselves from Palestinian terrorists or rioters is not inherently “bad,” it is legitimate self-defense.
Language is important. While Palestinian actions are described as a “wave of violence,” Israeli counter-measures are deemed to be “deadly retaliation.” It is just this type of language that skews the current Palestinian wave of terror, turning Palestinian assailants into victims and Israelis into perpetrators.
A complaint has been sent to The Guardian. You can add your voice by emailing the Guardian’s readers’ editor – [email protected]
