Reporting, at its essence, should be a fairly straightforward task. Even the most inexperienced journalist knows that any story should cover basic details such as who was involved, what happened, when it occurred, and should identify who did what.
But for some reason when it comes to reporting about Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens and soldiers, the identity of the perpetrators is all-t0o-often osbcured.
Take for example the events of Sunday, in which a Palestinian woman clutching a knife approached a group of soldiers and, after trying to stab the troops, was shot dead. Hours later, three Israeli teenagers were injured, two of them seriously, in a drive-by shooting at a bus stop in the northern West Bank. The area has repeatedly been the scene of Palestinian terror attacks over the years, and the car used by the assailants had a Palestinian license plate.
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Nevertheless, the headline of a Reuters article on Sunday’s events , “Palestinian woman killed, two Israelis wounded in West Bank violence,” failed to comply with basic journalistic standards by stating, without context, that a “Palestinian woman” was “killed”, and that Israelis were wounded, without making clear how.
Today, Israeli soldiers were forced to shoot a knife-wielding Palestinian woman. Later, Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a busy intersection, seriously wounding two Israelis.
This @Reuters headline fails spectacularly at identifying the source of the "West Bank violence." pic.twitter.com/1FLjsPlxTA
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 2, 2021
The story has since been republished several times with the original headline, including by Yahoo News, which remains one of the most highly-trafficked sites on the internet.
This ethical failure is evident in the Associated Press’ article too. Its headline, “3 Israelis wounded in West Bank shooting ambush,” had the effect of excising Palestinian terrorism from the narrative.
This article, too, was reprinted by numerous media outlets around the world, and was recycled by ABC News, as well as the Washington Post the following day in its digest of global events.
This is an area in which Palestinian terrorists have repeatedly shot at Israeli civilians and soldiers alike.
Even if the assailants remain at large, the @WashingtonPost should make clear to readers that this was likely an act of Palestinian terrorism. pic.twitter.com/7drhOEIXj7
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 3, 2021
Common to all these failures is an unwillingness to clearly identify the attackers as Palestinians. Some may argue that the reason for this is because, in the case of the shooting, the assailants managed to get away. As a result, the argument goes, the identity of the attackers was initially not known for certain. But that argument doesn’t hold up: journalists routinely attribute attacks to Israel without certainty.
Take this example, from today, of Radio New Zealand stating that “Israel attacks” Syrian towns, despite relying on a single unreliable source and not having any confirmation that this was the case.
Fatah’s Glorification of Terror Overlooked
Within hours of the West Bank drive-by shooting, the Nablus branch of Fatah — the ruling faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas — posted to its official Facebook page (as translated by Palestinian Media Watch):
“Our lauded people, honored members of our people, we call on you to get rid of the contents that were stored in the [security] cameras of your homes or your businesses today, and not to transfer any media content among yourselves that the occupation [i.e., Israel] is spreading.”
The post also hailed the terrorists: “We salute you and your struggle.”
It should be noted that this is the same Fatah that is regularly described in the media as “moderate,” but which remains involved in planning and glorifying attacks like these.
Nevertheless, those reports that were written about Sunday’s violence all failed to include this angle. For Reuters, the only quotation came from the Israeli army: “The Israeli army said it would be sending additional troops to the West Bank following a ‘situational assessment.’”
