UPDATE
Following our complaint to The Independent, the text has been revised and now, accurately, refers to the “right-wing Likud party.”
Appending labels on Israeli politicians is a favorite pastime for some media. Descriptions such as “hawks,” “hardliners,” “ultra-nationalists,” “firebrands” and the like are used with wanton abandon when journalists wish to place Israeli politicians on the political spectrum.
The double-standard at play is evident from the descriptions deployed for Palestinian politicians. By virtue of Hamas being perceived as extremists, Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are branded as “moderates” even though many of their policies are anything but.
While the media is prepared to label Palestinian figures and organizations comparative to where they stand next to each other politically, it appears that Israelis and their parties are not treated in the same way. Instead, some journalists make a judgment according to their own personal politics.
Take The Independent‘s Bethan McKernan who writes, referring to Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely:
In Israeli political terms, the Likud is considered to be a mainstream right-wing party. It is not even regarded as the most right-wing party when compared to others such as Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home or Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, and certainly not considered to be far-right by the Israeli electorate. Not to mention parties that have run in previous elections on platforms considered to be genuinely far-right but failed to get any representatives elected to Knesset.
We’ve contacted editors at The Independent to ask for a correction and to remind Bethan McKernan that opinion disguised as news shouldn’t have a place in objective and balanced reporting.
