Advocacy journalist Sarah Helm has a history of lies and distortions when it comes to reporting on Israel. In recent years we’ve called her out for using a quote falsely attributed to David Ben Gurion and lying about Israel’s Gaza border fence in The Independent. We’ve also taken Helm to task for an opinion piece in The Guardian that was littered with bias and blatant falsehoods. Other examples of Helm’s bias have been cataloged at UK Media Watch.
So it’s hardly surprising that Helm has appeared in The Independent and The Guardian that regularly display overt hostility towards Israel. Unfortunately The Sunday Times, a more balanced media outlet, has now given Helm a platform to disseminate her anti-Israel bias. While this latest article is behind a paywall, thus limiting its reach, it is nonetheless worthy of a response.
Helm tells the story of Bilal Masoud, “shot in his legs and right arm by Israeli soldiers at the border fence separating Gaza from Israel. Now he was unable to do anything for himself or feed his birds.”
UPDATE: Shortly after the publication of this post, more information about Bilal Masoud was revealed. Read more: Exclusive: Gaza ‘Victim’ Exposed With His AK-47
Even the way that Masoud and other Palestinians in the story are referred to by their first names is a deliberate attempt to elicit sympathy for their plight. Indeed, that Masoud eventually commits suicide is undoubtedly disturbing. It is also legitimate to feel some level of sympathy for Palestinians whose lives have been ruined as a result of reckless or violent behavior, incited by Hamas terrorists to riot at the Gaza border fence.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
But Helm doesn’t bother examining what’s really motivating Palestinians like Bilal to risk their lives or even actively seek to end them.
Bilal rushed to the fence, knowing that Israeli troops would open fire if he got too close. He was badly maimed by the shots; his injuries so unbearable that ultimately he chose another way to end his life.
Bilal is one of thousands shot by Israeli soldiers since the Great March of Return protests began near the fence in March last year.
…
The Great March of the Return protests marked Palestinians’ desire to go back to their families’ former homes in what is now Israel.
So Israel is simply shooting thousands of Palestinians who merely “desire to go back to their families’ former homes.” This is a narrative that ignores the very violent intentions of many of those driving the weekly demonstrations at the border fence, least of all Hamas, which barely warrants a mention.
Helm writes:
People in Gaza say the majority of the dead and injured are poor young men without hope, many of whom are unarmed, who go to the border with the aim of getting shot and dying. “This is a kind of mass suicide, the result of despair among Gaza’s youth,” says a head teacher at a UN school. His words are echoed up and down the strip.
If Palestinians are deliberately aiming to get fatally shot, it is worth noting that Israel is not obliging them. The IDF has intentionally avoided killing thousands of rioting Palestinians, hence the number of non-fatal injuries to limbs as opposed to actual deaths.
And why would Gazans feel so suicidal and hopeless? According to Helm:
Since the Israeli siege has tightened, jobs have become scarcer. President Trump has cut all US funding for aid. With unemployment at 60% among the young, the “shebab”, as the young are known, sit around the streets on plastic chairs, wondering when they’ll get a job and have the money to get married.
What kind of “siege” allows in huge amounts of fuel, gas, goods, medical supplies and allows thousands of trucks to cross into Gaza and thousands of Gazan residents to enter Israel each month? A siege is typically a form of war meant to starve a population into submission. Israel’s (and Egypt’s) blockade is specifically for security reasons.
Related reading: The Gaza Blockade: An Explainer
Nowhere does Helm hold Hamas accountable for the situation in which Gaza finds itself.
Furthermore, Helm writes:
When the Great March of Return was announced in spring 2018 there was a brief spell of euphoria. The demonstration was timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, “the catastrophe” as it is known in Gaza, when Israel was created and Palestinian Arabs were driven out. Of the 2m Palestinians who live in Gaza, 1.4m are refugees or descendants of refugees expelled from villages by Israeli forces during the 1948 war.
This is nothing more than a blatant attempt to claim that Israel ‘ethnically cleansed’ Palestinians in 1948. In reality, while some Palestinians were forced out during fighting, many Palestinians fled as a result of the war and not due to any Israeli plan to expel them. Today, over a million Israeli Arab citizens are testament to the fact that Israel did not embark on a campaign of expulsion.
Ultimately, Sarah Helm’s profile of the death of Bilal Massoud is tragic. But this is a tragedy that is certainly not Israel’s responsibility alone. Hamas is responsible for so much of the tragedy of Gaza. While Palestinians such as Massoud grew desperate, Hamas preferred to spend its money on rockets and attack tunnels as well as encouraging its people to approach the Gaza fence in the hope that enough deaths and injuries would spawn sympathetic media pieces such as Helm’s.
Given Helm’s previous form, it’s hard to know just how far this tale has been spun to suit her pro-Palestinian advocacy and anti-Israel bias. Shame on The Sunday Times for giving her a platform.
