What the AP Doesn’t Say about the Palestinians and the Holocaust
In her article about the controversy among Jews and Arabs surrounding an Israeli Arab MK’s trip to Auschwitz today, AP’s Diaa Hadid reports:
The conflict over the Holocaust dates back to the founding of Israel in 1948.
At this point, readers knowledgeable about Mideast history and the Holocaust may have expected mention of the Palestinian Arabs’ close collaboration with the Nazis. Grand Mufti Haj-Amin El-Husseini, with his warm relationship with Nazi leaders, was instrumental in recruiting several SS divisions worth of Bosnian Muslims. It’s not for nothing that he’s been called Hitler’s “Muslim Pope.”
But Hadad does not mention the Palestinian Arabs’ role in the Holocaust here or anywhere else in the article. Instead she goes on to state:
But in the war surrounding Israel’s creation, about 700,000 Palestinians were fled or were driven from their homes, leading to a widespread feeling that they were forced to pay the price of the Nazis’ persecution of the Jews in Europe.
And Mahommed Barakeh, the Israeli Arab MK, is quoted:
“The Jews, who are the victims of the Nazis, are now practicing oppression against the Palestinians. . . I want to tell them: You must learn the real lesson, you must fight oppression and repression in all places and times.”
Haj-Amin El-Husseini’s role in the genocide of the Jews undercuts the claims by Barakeh and others of Palestinian “suffering at Israel’s hands.” Barakeh’s views are certainly worthy of reporting. But fair reporting requires that historical events directly relevant to the subject at hand — either Palestinian Arab collaboration with the Nazis or the Arab rejection of a Jewish state and the subsequent war launched by neighboring Arab states as well as the Palestinians themselves on nascent Israel, leading to the refugee problem — are also worthy of reporting, even if they contradict claims of Israeli responsibility for Palestinian suffering.
More from SNAPSHOTS
AP Avoids Calling Farrakhan Comments “Anti-Semitic”
November 9, 2018
For some mysterious reason, the Associated Press felt Louis Farrakhan's mutterings on international relations deserve close attention. "Louis Farrakhan, in Iran, warns Trump a Mideast war possible," a Associated Press headline announced, as if the [...]
Israeli Peace Offers, Palestinian Rock Throwing Are M.I.A in Post Report
July 26, 2018
A June 28, 2018 Washington Post report, “Prince William visit Jerusalem’s holy sites, concluding historic visit,” omitted key context and details about the Duke of Cambridge’s trip to Israel and areas controlled by the Palestinian [...]
Media Story About Ultra-Orthodox Responsibility for Lengthy El Al Delay Disputed
July 11, 2018
Israeli journalist Sivan Rahav Meir reports in The Times of Israel today ("That Ultra-Orthodox flight delay? It didn't happen") that media claims, based on a Facebook post by Israeli rapper Chen Rotem, that a group [...]
One Haaretz Page-One Sentence, Lots of Errors
July 11, 2018
One sentence in a page-one article of Haaretz's's English print edition yesterday packed in multiple errors. Headlined "Netanyahu: Israel to close commercial Gaza crossing over airborne firebombs," the article erred: Palestinians began flying the devices [...]
Media Largely Ignore Alleged Hamas Payment to Dead Baby’s Family
June 25, 2018
A New York Times caption which definitively claims that Layla Ghandour "fell ill after inhaling tear gas," despite the fact that the accompanying article itself acknowledges that the story involving tear gas was disputed Western [...]
PCUSA Stands By While Palestinian Activist Harassed by Extremist
June 20, 2018
Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid walks away from an aggressive and hostile “intersectionality” activist Bassem Masri outside the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly taking place in St. Louis. (Screenshot from Twitter.) Palestinian human rights [...]
AFP Whitewashes Gaza’s Serial Arsonists as ‘Activists’
June 19, 2018
June 20 Update: Multiple Media Outlets Amend Captions Calling Gaza Arsonists 'Activists' Numerous Agence France-Presse photo captions in the last couple of days misidentify Gazans responsible for airborne arson attacks which destroyed 28,000 dunums of [...]
Newsweek Headline Fail on Israeli Attacks in Syria
June 18, 2018
A grossly misleading Newsweek headline ("Israel Bombs Syria to Stop Refugees Fleeing to Europe, Netanyahu Says," June 14) falsely suggests that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is bombing Syria in order to [...]