UPDATE
As a result of the publication of this post and complaints from HonestReporting and its readers, The Independent has amended Ben White’s opinion piece, which now refers to a “lens” rather than a “sniper lens.” A small change but a significant one within the context of White’s charge.
The Independent has a long track record of publishing commentators who have no problem stretching the truth until it breaks when it comes to attacking Israel.
We’ve found two recent examples relating to the Gaza protests.
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Ben White’s Distorted Binocular Lens
Ben White is a notorious activist so committed to his niche Israel-bashing agenda that he disregards reality to make his dubious points.
He has authored a number of books, whose titles make his views on the Mideast conflict all too clear, including “Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide,” and “Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy.” That he has a soapbox in The Independent is a stain on that media outlet.
In his latest piece, he writes:
Another army spokesperson tweeted an image of a sniper lens over protesters, adding: “We see you clearly”.
This is the tweet he links to, in an effort to prove that the IDF is threatening to shoot protesters:
Except IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee’s Arabic tweet is an image of binoculars, not a sniper lens, which would have included a cross hair. Even the Khaled Diab tweet that White links to doesn’t claim that the image is of a sniper lens.
This lie belongs to Ben White.
Sarah Helm’s False Ben Gurion Quote
Sarah Helm last came to our attention after publishing a Guardian op-ed that was chock full of errors and distortions, including statistics and figures that appeared to have been plucked out of thin air.
Given her apparent reluctance to use attributable sources, it comes as no surprise that in a piece for The Independent written on the first day of the Gaza protests, she includes a false quote:
As the years passed the refugees’ claims were set aside as unresolvable and David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, expressed the hope that “the old would die and the young would forget”.
False, decontextualized or selectively edited quotes attributed to Israeli historical figures are often employed by anti-Israel activists and hate sites to “prove” that these Israelis harbored malevolent attitudes.
So when such a hate site actually disavows a quote, it’s crystal clear just how dubious that quote is. In 2013, Electronic Intifada published an entire article examining the veracity of the very Ben Gurion quote used by Helm:
This quotation has made it into several draft submissions to us at The Electronic Intifada over the years, with some making it to publication.
But more recently, we began removing it from drafts during the editing process. Despite looking hard, we have been unable to locate a primary source for the quotation. No one yet has one, to our knowledge.
If even Electronic Intifada won’t use the quote, it appears that Sarah Helm has been looking in even darker places to find her anti-Israel sources.
The Independent is entitled to publish opinion pieces even if they may be disagreeable. It is not entitled, however, to publish outright lies and falsehoods.
Please contact The Independent through its online complaint form asking for Sarah Helm’s March 30 article and Ben White’s from April 10 to be addressed.
