UPDATE
The Mail Online responded to our complaint and amended the story. The word “notorious” has been removed while it now refers to Israel and Hamas rather than “Palestine” agreeing a ceasefire.
While not all of our concerns were addressed, this is nonetheless a substantial improvement.
There is nothing notorious about Israel’s Iron Dome unless you are a disappointed Palestinian terrorist. Not according to the Daily Mail’s Mail Online:
Israel has reportedly deployed its notorious Iron Dome defence system ahead of the Eurovision Song Contest later this week.
Notorious?
What on earth was the writer thinking? Israel’s Iron Dome is, of course, a vital means of protecting Israelis against incoming rockets launched by terrorists.
It’s not the only oddity in the story however.
Last Monday, Israel and Palestine agreed a ceasefire following a ferocious missile exchange which saw nearly 700 rockets fired across the border.
There’s certainly a case to be argued over any reference to “Palestine,” but in this case, it’s wholly inaccurate. Hamas, the terror organization involved, is not Palestine and Palestine is not Hamas.
The sentence doesn’t even make clear who was responsible for the nearly 700 rockets or over whose border they were fired. It’s simply a “ferocious missile exchange,” which aside from being technically inaccurate, also creates a moral equivalence between Hamas rockets and Israeli responses.
Further demonstrating a lack of background knowledge on the subject, the story, quoting a figure of around 690 rockets, states:
But of the hundreds of projectiles fired into the country, the Iron Dome only intercepted 240, according to Haaretz.
Now security experts in Israel are questioning why the Iron Dome was not more successful in intercepting more projectiles launched at civilian targets – striking fears of it failing if an attack were to take place during Eurovision.
Iron Dome is designed to calculate the trajectory of incoming projectiles. If a rocket is heading for open space or an unpopulated area, Iron Dome simply doesn’t waste any of its interceptors. Thankfully a significant percentage of Palestinian rockets fell in such areas. Hence Iron Dome obviously didn’t take out all of the 690 rockets – it didn’t need to.
Unfortunately, Mail Online is notorious for careless reporting and this is just another example.
We’ve requested a correction. Watch this space.
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