Spraying bullets at a group of Jewish worshipers, planning a pipe bomb attack in Tel Aviv and kidnapping a gravely-injured Druze teenager are apparently just some of the activities The Times of London’s diplomatic correspondent Catherine Philp considers to be part of “Palestinian resistance to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.”
We must assume that Philp believes attacking unarmed civilians is a legitimate act of so-called “resistance” or she would not have used the word no fewer than seven times in only 15 paragraphs to describe the undertakings of the Jenin Battalion and Lions’ Den terrorist groups, which are behind scores of deadly attacks.
In the piece, ‘I was ready to die, says Palestinian fighter hit by drone strike,’ Philp strikes a creepily sympathetic tone as she introduces readers to the “new generation in the Palestinian armed resistance,” including teenage “fighter” Harbosh whose face, Philp observes, is “pockmarked by acne” as he is interviewed from his hospital bed recalling “how close he came to martyrdom” during the IDF’s recent counterterrorism raid in Jenin.
The word “resistance” appears 7 times to describe Palestinian terrorists in a 15-paragraph @thetimes story on Jenin — just one indicator of how, as @JakeWSimons points out in his 🧵, @scribblercat has effectively written a puff piece for terrorists. https://t.co/m0idlvbir2 pic.twitter.com/Qii3QBjwYJ
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 8, 2023
While giving a brief history of the Jenin Battalion, Philp describes this “militant coalition that has sprung up and thrived in the squalid surroundings of the Jenin camp where this week Israel began its largest military operation in the West Bank in two decades.”
She goes on to claim the group consists “overwhelmingly” of members aged between 16 and 22, all of whom have a “burning sense of grievance” having “grown up in an era when prospects for peace were in effect dead, in a moribund economy with few jobs, their only heroes martyrs whose images blanket the camp’s alleys.”
Aside from the obvious problem of Philp’s framing of Jenin terrorists as disenchanted youngsters with little choice in life other than to pick up an M16 rifle and start shooting, the presentation of the Jenin Battalion as a sort of grass-roots youth movement is simply bizarre.
After all, the terrorist group is well-funded by Iran (which Philp acknowledges) and comprises operatives from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (which Philp ignores).
Indeed, the whole piece is replete with language that serves to glorify and justify Palestinian terrorism, from Philp’s quoting the uncle of one Jenin Battalion member who gushes that the new “generation is more dangerous than the previous one,” to her subtly romanticizing the “daring [Gilboa] jailbreak.”
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The piece, unfortunately, appears to be part of a trend in which media outlets publish strange terrorism puff pieces following the Jenin raid.
For example, The Economist recently promised to take its readers “inside the Lions’ Den,” which it described as the “West Bank’s Gen Z fighters.”
The piece, which describes the group that planned a large-scale terror attack in Tel Aviv as a “Palestinian armed-resistance group,” is packed with jarring statements that appear to whitewash the motivations and actions of a group that has repeatedly sought to maim and murder innocent Israelis.
Among the most troubling lines in the financial magazine’s feature are the framing of the Jenin raid to destroy terrorist infrastructure as the “most aggressive assault on the West Bank in over two decades”; describing confirmed terrorists as “Palestinian resistance fighters;” reimagining the Second Intifada as a mere “uprising” in which Nablus became the “center of opposition” and claiming Lions’ Den terrorists are primarily motivated by their “frustrations with the Israeli occupation and an enfeebled PA,” as opposed to a blind hatred of Israelis and Jews.
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Meanwhile, Sky News ran a piece about a “bullish” Hamas, which it suggested was a part of the “resistance.” Like Philp at The Times, one must wonder which Hamas-perpetrated suicide bombings Sky News’ Alex Rossi thinks constitute resistance.
Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the United Kingdom, Egypt, Turkey and many other states.
Why is @SkyNews giving credibility to Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades by showing them referred to as "resistance" in its headline?https://t.co/twO9fIJva8 pic.twitter.com/0DknIFdU0l
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 9, 2023
Lastly, The Sunday Times was guilty of leaving crucial context out of a piece about bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families.
While the piece quotes the mother of a Palestinian man who died in Jenin in January, including a reference to her insistence that her son was “merely throwing rocks at Israeli troops” when he was killed, it fails to include the fact that he was claimed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and had reportedly opened fire on the IDF just before his death.
It’s worth noting that a fairly important bit of content is left out in this piece in @thetimes.
Muhammad Hushiyeh was a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
According to the IDF, he was shot after he opened fire on troops.https://t.co/P7btk8bUHH pic.twitter.com/5JoTW0aurd
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 9, 2023
The media’s recent tendency toward glamorizing terrorists is a disturbing trend.
And while journalists are free to write about whomever they want — regardless of how beyond the pale they are — editors should ask themselves why they seem to only give Palestinian terrorists a free pass.
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Photo credit: JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images
