Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Raid in Jenin: More Media Mess Ups
Israel’s large-scale operation in Jenin was concluded after 48 hours, dealing a major blow to Jenin’s terror networks.
While the fighting may be coming to an end, the media bias continues.
During the first hours of the operation, HonestReporting took several international media outlets to task for their biased and misleading coverage of Israel’s counter-terror raid.
As the operation continued, we were forced to call out more global news outlets for their skewed and biased coverage.
Here are just some more of the worst cases of media bias that we have addressed.
The Media’s Whitewashing of Terrorism
As Israel made clear at the outset of this counter-terror raid, the operational goal was to reduce the threat of terror emanating from Jenin.
According to the IDF, in the past year, 50 terror attacks have originated in Jenin, and there were 19 instances of terrorists escaping there after carrying out attacks.
However, this did not stop some international news outlets from downplaying the nature of Palestinian terrorism or whitewashing Palestinian terrorists.
The New York Times downplayed the vicious nature of Palestinian terrorism by claiming that Palestinian terror groups are focused on “targeting … the occupation” or by referring to terrorism as “Palestinian armed struggle” and “an ethos of defiance.”
These statements ignored the indiscriminate nature of Palestinian terrorism, as well as the fact that terrorists have targeted Israeli civilians in both the West Bank and pre-1967 Israel.
A “Bastion of Palestinian Armed Struggle.”
An “ethos of defiance.”
Could @nytimes headline writers try any harder to romanticize terrorism against Israelis?https://t.co/dt1g53ZSek pic.twitter.com/db3ZIrT0C2
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 5, 2023
In another example, the Associated Press interviewed Jamal Huweil, presenting him as a Jenin-based “political activist.”
However, this is a whitewashing of Huweil’s background: A former commander of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, who took part in the 2002 Battle of Jenin and who continues to glorify Palestinian terrorism today.
Quoted in a story from Jenin, Jamal Huweil is described by @AP as simply a Palestinian “political activist.” https://t.co/CzKAT5YzZO
But AP isn’t telling you who Huweil really is.
Hint: he’s more terrorist than “activist.” pic.twitter.com/PMaYY5rHCO— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 4, 2023
The BBC Plumbs New Depths
Over two days of coverage, the BBC produced countless pieces of biased journalism on multiple platforms, including giving free rein to Palestinian talking heads to spread anti-Israel libels.
This culminated in perhaps the most egregious example of a defamatory attack on the Jewish state, as BBC presenter Anjana Gadgil claimed in an interview with former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett that “Israeli forces are happy to kill children,” echoing the blood libels that haunted the Jewish people in history’s darkest moments.
Operation or Assault?
Both The Washington Post and Forbes misconstrued the nature of the operation by referring to it as an “invasion” and an “assault,” leaving the false impression that Israel launched an indiscriminate attack instead of a targeted anti-terror operation.
Forbes also mischaracterized the IDF’s targeted response to Hamas rocket fire as “airstrikes on Gaza.”
Unbelievable headline from The @WashingtonPost. A targeted counter-terrorism operation is not an “invasion.”
The 8 killed were terrorists.https://t.co/GKns0mv0LC pic.twitter.com/Vy9X8brT0S
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 4, 2023
Terrorism in Tel Aviv
On July 4, at the same time as Israeli security forces were operating in Jenin, a Palestinian terrorist drove his pickup truck into a Tel Aviv bus stop and then went on a stabbing spree, wounding eight before being neutralized by an armed Israeli civilian.
CNN, however, removed any reference to the perpetrator as a “Palestinian” or “terrorist,” instead applying the neutral descriptor of “car driver” to him.
The New York Times, meanwhile, referred to the attack and the launching of rockets from Gaza as “tit-for-tat violence,” effectively making a moral equivalence between Israel’s targeted counter-terrorism operation and the indiscriminate violence of Palestinian terrorism.
This is the fight that Israel is up against in the current media environment.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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