This morning, I discussed the first part of a late September column by Gil Hoffman of the Jerusalem Post: “Foreign media outlets must repent for anti-Israel coverage – opinion,” by Gil Hoffman, Jerusalem Post, September 23, 2023. Now that the war is started, it is more important than ever to call out the longstanding media bias against Israel, which is largely responsible for the present conflict. Hoffman reminds us of numerous recent examples, including this:
Another example of media contrition occurred last October when a meeting with Amanpour and $5,000 were set to be the prizes for the 2022 Local Reporter Award given by the Thomson Reuters Foundation to Palestinian freelance journalist Shatha Hammad. The award was revoked after HonestReporting revealed that Hammad had a long history of making disturbing comments on her social media accounts, such as repeatedly joking about Adolf Hitler, lavishing praise on Palestinian terrorists who had murdered innocent Jews, and denying that Israel has any right to exist.
“Me and Hitler are friends,” she wrote in Arabic on social media. “We have influence over each other and share the same ideology, such as the extermination of the Jews.”
Her cheerful comments on good old Adolf Hitler — “me and Hitler are friends” — with whom she claimed to ”share the same ideology, such as the extermination of the Jews,” were enough to have that Local Reporter Award be revoked. But why were her damning social media posts not discovered much earlier, before she was named the recipient of that Local Reporter award? Whatever happened to the media’s due diligence? Does the Thomson-Reuters Foundation wish to apologize for that embarrassing — and easily avoidable — error?
Following the incident, 304 Palestinian and Arab journalists demonstrated a frightening lack of self-awareness by signing an open letter on the anti-Israel website Mondoweiss, criticizing HonestReporting for getting six Hitler- and Hamas-praising journalists fired. They can do some soul-searching, too, besides scrubbing their socials.
Shouldn’t some of those 304 Palestinian and Arab journalists who complained about HonestReporting for revealing that six journalists had praised Hitler or the terror group Hamas, which revelations got those six journalists fired, want to publicly “atone” for signing that letter? Do any of them now think, upon reflection, that those who praise Adolf Hitler as a soulmate with whom they agree “on the extermination of the Jews” are not fit to be journalists, much less given prizes? Won’t several of them step forward and express regret for signing that letter? Nary a one, among those 304?
Another journalist who should be apologizing to Israel is BBC News presenter Anjana Gadgil, who said, “The Israeli forces are happy to kill children” during an interview with former prime minister Naftali Bennett about the IDF’s recent counter-terrorism raid in Jenin.
While the BBC apologized for Gadgil’s remarks, she has not yet done so. Now is the time for Anjana Gadgil to “atone” publicly for that remark. And the BBC should explain why it has continued to employ her as a presenter, after she had made such an intolerable remark and, by not apologizing herself, appeared to stand by it.
Are the “Israeli forces happy to kill children”? Of course not. Hoffman notes that “the former commander of the British military forces in Afghanistan, Col. Richard Kemp, told the truth about Jenin when he said the complete avoidance of civilian fatalities over the two-day operation constituted a ‘remarkable achievement by the IDF,’ which is ‘probably unprecedented in modern warfare.'” It is Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad that use Palestinian children as hostages, hiding their own fighters, command centers, weapons warehouses, and rocket launchers n or near schools, hospitals, mosques, residential buildings. Israel, on the other hand, makes every effort to minimize civilian casualties — including, of course, minimizing harm to children. Before hitting a civilian building, the Israelis telephone, email, and leaflet to warn inhabitants to move away from the targeted site. They have even perfected the “knock on the roof technique,” which is the practice of dropping non-explosive or low-yield devices on the roofs of targeted civilian structures as a prior warning of imminent bombing attacks to give the inhabitants time to escape.
We have seen all this again since the war began: not just Israel’s scrupulosity in avoiding civilian casualties, but the same media lies and distortions that led up to the conflict in the first place.
garry pollack says
yes the “news” is definitely “owned” by Islam—which readers here know—European news won’t call out Allahu Akbar shouting terrorists in their borders…. the jihad in Nigeria & other surrounding countries receives no! coverage… Persecution of Christians in moslem countries eg Pakistan receives no! coverage. the deep state. CIA etc seems to set the marching orders… It’s the same in other areas… eg the vaxx. People think I M Looney Tunes when I tell them it was a DOD operation (Karen Kingston & Sasha Latypova) It has its roots in Denial/cognitive dissonance eg I don’t want to believe! eg my husband is molesting our daughter….so the story always comes out as Superman (Islamists) vs Lex Luther (the Jews) Ask Joseph Goebels…
James Lincoln says
The pictured muslima must feel like she’s very important – standing in front of all those microphones.