Henriette Chacar is, according to her social media accounts (see here and here), the deputy editor of +972 Magazine, which has produced articles accusing Israel of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing” and “Jewish supremacy.” The outlet’s mission statement makes clear that the site and, as a corollary, its journalists, “actively opposes” the “Israeli occupation.”
Now, Chacar has started reporting for Reuters, a wire service whose materials are reproduced by more than 2,000 news outlets in 128 countries.
Chacar has for years disseminated disinformation about Israel, including accusing the country of “blatant and systemic racism” and claiming that “racist, fascist talking points are now mainstream.” In one tweet, she called Israel “a [racist] light unto the nations,” a play on the Jewish adage to be a positive example and a force for good in the world.
Chacar has suggested that Israel implemented “racist, segregationist policies” — although, somewhat ironically, the self-defined “Palestinian journo from Jaffa” was educated at IDC Herzliya, a top academic institution.
In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post, Chacar called the two-state solution — that is, the international community’s preferred framework for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict, “an outdated, irrelevant vision that ignores years of Israel’s de facto annexation and apartheid policies.” [emphasis added]
HonestReporting this week proved that this apartheid libel is demonstrably false.
In an attempt to stop the Palestinian Authority from compensating political prisoners and families of attackers, the U.S. government decided to cut most aid to the PA and assume all Palestinians resisting the occupation are terrorists. My latest: https://t.co/4C3fc7Vfpm
— Henriette Chacar هنريت شقر (@HenrietteChacar) May 25, 2018
In a 2018 op-ed for The Intercept, which HonestReporting has critiqued (see here and here), Chacar defended the Palestinian Authority’s “Pay-for-Slay” program that provides stipends to convicted terrorists and their families, with more money being doled out to those who shed the most blood.
The piece, titled “U.S. Law Cutting Aid to Palestinians Punishes Any and All Resistance to Israel’s Occupation,” slammed American counter-terrorism laws that preclude providing financial assistance to Ramallah so long as it continues its policy of rewarding terrorists with monthly “salaries.”
In it, she writes:
The [US] law cuts off all financial aid to the Palestinian Authority until the body stops making payments to political prisoners and the families of those killed by Israeli security forces.” [emphasis added]
Conveniently omitted is any information about who these “political prisoners” are and what crimes they were convicted of.
And no mention that, in this context, those “killed by Israeli security forces” had their lives ended while in the process of committing attacks.
One can only imagine what Chacar means by “any and all” forms of “resistance.”
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During May’s 11-day Hamas-initiated conflict with Israel, Chacar’s biases appear to have directly seeped into her reporting when she asserted that: “Jewish militias threw a molotov cocktail at a Palestinian [Arab] home in Jaffa, wounding two children and burning the house.”
The comment was an apparent reference to an attack that severely injured a 12-year-old Arab Israeli boy and lightly wounded his 10-year old sister.
Jewish militias threw a molotov cocktail at a Palestinian home in Jaffa, wounding two children and burning the house. The mosque near my parents' home just instructed people to remove any signs that could reveal they are an Arab family, such as decorative Ramadan lanterns.
— Henriette Chacar هنريت شقر (@HenrietteChacar) May 14, 2021
However, the Israel Police stated the same day that it was unclear whether Arabs or Jews were responsible. Following a month-long investigation that included DNA testing, police arrested three Arab residents of Jaffa after concluding that the suspects intended to firebomb a home inhabited by Jews but who had chosen the wrong target.
Chacar never corrected her erroneous “Jewish militias” assertion. Her inaccurate post received over 2,200 retweets.
Accidentally named Israel's security agency "shit bet" instead of "shin bet" in a draft.
— Henriette Chacar هنريت شقر (@HenrietteChacar) August 13, 2020
On at least two occasions (see here and here), Chacar expressed support for the so-called “Right of Return” of millions and millions of Palestinian “refugees” to Israel. As HonestReporting has repeatedly detailed, this could spell the end of Jewish self-determination.
Refugees who were expelled or internally displaced in 1948 (and their descendants) still cannot return to their original homes, even though that right is enshrined in international law. https://t.co/kuLT50dnuX
— Henriette Chacar هنريت شقر (@HenrietteChacar) January 29, 2020
Reuters’ Trust Principles demand “freedom from bias in the gathering and dissemination of information and news.” Moreover, Reuters’ guidelines insist that it “expects journalistic staff in all branches of editorial to be keenly sensitive to the risk that their activities outside work may open their impartiality to questioning or create a perception of bias.”
Indeed, given Chacar’s history, HonestReporting formally questions whether she can be trusted to objectively report on Israel-related matters.
We have therefore reached out to Reuters for clarification on how it intends to uphold its journalistic standards and encourage you to do the same by — politely but firmly — contacting the outlet’s Jerusalem bureau or its Ethics & Standards Department in New York.
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