In a stunning display of misleading journalism and demonstrating its anti-Israel agenda, Reuters promotes the myth that restrictions on Gaza are somehow comparable to global quarantines defending against the COVID-19 coronavirus.
'Dear world, how is the lockdown?': A sly dig at the international community, this is just one among a torrent of social media posts that has emerged from the blockaded Gaza Strip in the wake of the #coronavirus pandemic https://t.co/lEpcFVYLMu via @NidalAl
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 18, 2020
In the article, Reuters shares a number of tweets from Gaza residents such as this one:
We in Gaza have been living this for 14 years.
Reuters did not commit an ethical breach by sharing tweets from Gaza residents: Gaza is a part of our world and is deemed newsworthy. However, as a body of professional journalists, Reuters has a duty to also share context and balance. For example, Reuters:
- Makes no mention of the 11,560 rockets fired from Gaza into Israel that necessitated a blockade in the first place.
- Shares no balancing tweets from the Israelis who have lived (and died) under that rocket fire.
- Makes no mention of the massive arms shipments from Iran that the Gaza blockade has prevented, nor how many innocent Israeli lives were saved as a result.
- Fails to mention that Hamas (the group that rules Gaza) is officially designated as a terror organization by Australia, Canada, Egypt, the EU, Israel, the UK, and the United States.
- Fails to mention that the Hamas founding charter commits the terror group to the total destruction of all of Israel.
- Does not even mention the significant cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian health officials.
For a quick peek into some of Israel’s containment measures and general updates, here’s a recording of a “livestream” we broadcast on Monday. Though the situation is continuing to change, this gives at least a bit of an insight into the evolving nature of daily life in Israel.
There are many international stories relevant to COVID-19: Italy’s desperate measures, South Korea’s massive testing, the UK and its backtracking from a unique “herd immunity” approach, even Israel with its aggressive containment strategy and furious work toward a vaccine.
However, this Reuters article is not relevant to COVID-19 nor is it newsworthy in that context . Instead, this article reads like like a transparent excuse to say something negative about Israel at any cost: even at the cost of basic journalistic ethics.
Related reading: The Gaza Blockade: An Explainer
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