Even as terrorists in Gaza fire hundreds of rockets and missiles at Israel, the media has not paid much attention to the fact that the genocidal group Hamas is partners in a Palestinian “unity” government with Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, which the press frequently characterizes as “moderate.”

It comes as no surprise then that the media has ignored the fact that Fatah groups are actively involved in launching rockets at Israeli civilians. Gatestone Institute reports:

Fatah has several hundred militiamen in the Gaza Strip who belong to various armed groups. Some, according to sources in the Gaza Strip, are former members of the Palestinian Authority security forces, who continue to receive their salaries from the Western-funded Palestinian government in Ramallah.

Shortly after Israel launched air strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday, Fatah spokesman Fayez Abu Aitah issued an urgent call to his men to take part in “defending the Gaza Strip against Israeli aggression.”

[…]

Abu Aitah’s call for joining the fight against Israel did not fall on deaf ears. Within minutes, at least two Fatah armed groups announced that they had started firing rockets at the “settlements” of Ashkelon and Sderot, cities inside the pre-1967 borders of Israel.

These are not rogue operators but sanctioned by Fatah leaders. On July 9, Fatah posted a video on their Facebook page, produced by the party’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Palestinian Media Watch reports that it warns Israelis in Hebrew to flee or face death:

Narrator: “A message to the Israeli government and the Israeli people: Death will reach you from the south to the north. Flee our country and you won’t die. The KN-103 rocket is on its way toward you.”[Facebook, “Fatah – The Main Page”, July 9, 2014
Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades’ YouTube channel, (in Hebrew) July 9, 2014]

The video shows footage of a man preparing to launch a rocket and close-ups of a rocket being aimed.

The watchdog group also reports that Fatah also posted on Facebook that the military wings of Hamas, Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are “brothers-in-arms,” united by “one God, one homeland, one enemy, one goal.” The post included this image of fighters from the three groups:

This is not an isolated posting. Fatah frequently posts similar messages on Facebook and Abbas advisor Sultan Abu Al-Einein posted a call to murder Israelis on his own Facebook page:

Let every hour of the settlers’ presence on our land be a source of threat and terror for them. Let us deprive their lives of security, so that the Palestinian land becomes a minefield against the occupation.

Calls to murder Israelis, declarations of unity of purpose with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, threats and even active participation in terrorist rocket attacks are not “moderate.” Fatah actively supports and takes part in terrorism against Israelis. Failure to report on this is journalistic malpractice. Where’s the coverage?

Watch the Fatah video threatening Israelis with rocket fire here:

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In March, Prof. Mohammed Dajani, head of the American studies program at Al Quds University in eastern Jerusalem, led 27 students on a trip to Auschwitz. The unusual visit and the uproar it caused among many Palestinian Arabs were reported by relatively few news media. One correspondent who did highlight Dajani’s effort was William Booth, Jerusalem bureau chief for The Washington Post.

Booth wrote that “the trip was explosive news to some, perhaps more so because it took place as U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians were in danger of collapse, and emotion surrounding the decades-old conflict is high. Controversy was also heightened by rumors—untrue—that the trip was paid for by Jewish organizations. It was paid for by the German government.”

The Christian Science Monitor also found the visit newsworthy (“For Palestinians, empathy with Jewish suffering in Holocaust is complicated,” April 28, 2014) and noted, almost in passing, the criticism Dajani received: “While Dajani anticipated some pushback, he was unprepared for the ensuing vitriol. He was lambasted as a traitor who was brainwashing Palestinians so that they would give up their rights; Al Quds was pressured to fire him, even though he led the trip in a personal capacity.”

Much of the CSM article emphasized Palestinian Arab suffering, to the point it seemed the newspaper was implying a comparison to the Holocaust. Of Palestinian participants, the paper wrote “but they also saw echoes of their own suffering, including in 1948, when more than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced out of their homes amid the chaotic fighting that surrounded Israel’s declaration of independence—an event Palestinians refer to as the nakba, or catastrophe.

“ ‘It’s a mixed feeling,’ says Hani Smirat, a trainer in conflict resolution who is also studying at Al Quds. ‘I need to feel as a human that what happened with Jews is not acceptable, and the other feeling that I face the same situation. So it’s a conflict between my story and the other story.”

The Monitor inflates the number of Palestinian Arab refugees. It was more likely between 420,000 and 650,000—the former an estimate by a U.N. official on the scene at the time, the latter the difference in Arab population between the last British and first Israeli censuses. It also omits the 800,000-plus Jewish refugees from Arab lands, nearly 600,000 of whom settled in Israel.

More important was the Monitor’s failure to note that Palestinian setbacks, then and now, have been largely self-imposed. From rejection of the 1947 U.N. Palestine partition plan for two states, one Jewish, one Arab through joining the Arab states in their losing war against Israel, which led to the Arab refugee problem, to rejection of two-state offers in 2000, 2001, and 2008 Palestinian Arabs—unlike European Jews in the 1930s and ’40s, primarily have themselves to blame.

Although they recognized the trip itself as newsworthy, neither The Washington Post nor the Christian Science Monitor followed up to report on the severity of the criticism Dajani received. The Mideast Mirror did, depicting the intolerance Dajani experienced by reporting that “a Palestinian professor had to resign from al-Quds University in Jerusalem because he taught his students about the Holocaust. The courageous Mohammed Dajani received death threats after leading the first organized group of Palestinian university students to Auschwitz.” (“Return of the Cycle”, The Mideast Mirror, June 30, 2014)

Neither The Post nor the Monitor noted fact that Dajani was forced to resign from Al-Quds University, as reported by The Times of Israel, “Dajani had hoped the university would reject his resignation, sending a ‘clear and loud message’ to students, faculty, and ‘the Palestinian community’ that ‘the university supports academic freedom and considers my trip as an educational journey in search of knowledge.’ However, he was soon informed that the university had accepted his resignation and that it would take effect on June 1.” (“Palestinian lecturer who led Auschwitz trip quits after backlash”, Times of Israel, June 8, 2014)

Although not a major daily or broadcast network, National Review, a biweekly conservative opinion journal also reported that “[t]he trip was part of a program run in conjunction with Israeli and German universities and designed to promote tolerance, sympathy, and understanding. Many Palestinians understood: They threatened Professor Dajani with death until he resigned. He said he hoped that the university would not accept his resignation and instead stand up for his academic freedom. But they accepted, no doubt with relief.” (“The Week,” National Review, July 7, 2014)

The Post and CSM deserve praise for covering Dajani’s trip. Other media should have done so as well. Failure to report on the trip’s aftermath—the widespread, harsh criticism Dajani received, and his resignation from Al Quds, which he had hoped would defend him—by major media in general buried a revealing story about Palestinian readiness to acknowledge not just Jewish suffering but the legitimacy of Jewish claims in the land of Israel.—Ziv Kaufman

July 9 Update: New York Times Corrects: There Were Jerusalem Clashes

The caption for a large page-five photograph in The International New York Times yesterday (July 5-6) errs:

Thousands thronged Friday to Shuafat, the East Jerusalem neighborhood where Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 16, was abducted. The Israeli police braced for violence that did not materialize.

In fact, there was extensive violence in eastern Jerusalem, including Shuafat this past Friday. As the Associated Press reported that day:

Israeli police clashed with rock-throwing Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem on Friday as thousands mourned at the funeral for an Arab teen who Palestinians say was killed by Israeli extremists in a revenge attack. . . .

During the procession, scores of masked Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli police on duty nearby, and they responded with stun grenades, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. He said more than 2,000 people attended the funeral.

Rosenfeld said police also clashed with hundreds of Palestinian protesters in other neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city, which has been rocked by violence since Abu Khdeir’s burned body was found Wednesday in a forest after he was seized near his home.

At least 13 Israeli officers were injured by rock-throwers, with six taken to the hospital, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

The Red Crescent said about 30 Palestinians were hurt by rubber bullets fired by Israeli forces. Dozens of others were treated for tear gas inhalation. (“Clashes break out during Palestinian funeral”)

For instance, The Los Angeles Times reported: “After the burial [of Abu Khdeir], Palestinian youths resumed their clashes with the police.”

AFP reported July 4: “Before and after Abu Khder was buried in a local cemetery, Palestinians clashed with Israeli police near the procession and elsewhere in annexed east Jerusalem” (“Palestinians bury slain teen, clashes hit E. Jerusalem”).

Israeli Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld tweeted on Friday afternoon:

In addition, news photographs from that day depict the violence following the funeral, including in Shuafat:

Palestinians run for cover from tear gas fired by Israeli policemen following the funeral of Mohammed Abu Khder, 16, in Shuafat, in Israeli annexed East Jerusalem, on July 4, 2014. Abu Khder, a Palestinian teenager was reportedly kidnapped and killed, triggering violent clashes in east Jerusalem, in an apparent act of revenge for the murder by militants of three Israeli youths. Photo by Saeed Qaq/APAIMAGES_1055.05/Credit:APA IMAGES/SIPA/1407051101 (Sipa via AP Images)
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The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted last month to divest from three companies whose products are used by the Israeli defense establishment because the denomination does not want to profit from human rights abuses.

The GA voted to instruct officials responsible for the PCUSA’s investments to sell stock in Motorola Solutions, Hewlett-Packard, and Caterpillar.

Apparently, Israeli self-defense is bad but profiting from censorship in China and the destruction of water supplies in Mongolia is OK.

A quick perusal of the funds owned by the Presbyterian Foundation’s New Covenant Growth Fund reveals that in June of 2013, the church was invested in three China-based companies, two of which have questionable human rights records. (The Presbyterian Foundation oversees the endowments of local PCUSA churches and non-pension related investments owned by the denomination. The denomination’s Board of Pensions oversees employee pensions.)

According to a report issued on June 30, 2013, the Presbyterian Foundation owned close to $9 million worth of American Depositary Receipts (or ADRs) in Baidu, an internet company that, according to numerous credible reports, blocks Chinese citizens from accessing websites that criticize the Chinese government.
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The Australian news site news.com.au boasts:

Australia’s number one news site in 2013 and 2014, news.com.au reaches over 3.7m* Australians, delivering extensive breaking news and national interest stories thanks to our team of dedicated journalists plus the strength of the News Corp Australia network.

Our readers want to get to the point of the stories that really matter, so we bring this to them with timely news updates around the clock.

We say what people are thinking and cover the issues that get people talking. We balance Australian and global moments – from politics to pop culture. We live to engage with readers and at appropriate times provide an alternate angle on the news that involves humour when least expected.

Editors apparently seek to engage readers, at the expense of accuracy and accepted norms of journalistic practice regarding news reporting, with a sensationalist and false headline concerning the murders of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaar, and Naftali Frankel and surrounding events.

Today’s article is headlined:

The bolded first sentence repeats the falsehood that the Palestinian casualty yesterday was the result of a “revenge killing.”

Further down in the otherwise fair and balanced article (for which no byline can be found), there is an additional vague reference to the alleged victim of the so-called “revenge killing”:

The man killed on Tuesday was the first casualty since the bodies were found.

Who is this unfortunate victim of an alleged “revenge killing”?

According to Haaretz:

A 19-year-old man was killed Monday night in the West Bank, during an arrest in the Jenin refugee camp. According to an Israel Defense Forces officer, the man was shot after he threw a grenade at soldiers.

(The Associated Press adds that family members maintain that Yosuf abu Zaghah, 20, was carrying eggs when he was killed.)

There is no justification for the tendentious and unfounded labeling of Tuesday’s fatality during an arrest operation a “revenge killing.”

A note at the bottom of the news.com.au article indicates that the original headline for this piece had been “Murdered Israeli teens laid to rest,” a perfectly factual and impartial title.

Meanwhile, the overnight discovery of the body of 16-year-old Muhammad Hussein abu Khdeir of eastern Jerusalem has fueled suspicion that this was a “revenge.killing” by Israelis . The perpetrators have not been identified and there is an ongoing investigation.

The Huffington Post reports:

“We have not yet been able to determine if the motive was nationalistic or criminal,” Jerusalem police chief Yossi Parienti said. “We are investigating every possibility.”

“I ask Jerusalem residents and everyone else not to jump to conclusions, to wait for developments. There are conjectures and working assessments, we are not hurrying to say one way or another. I ask everyone to show responsibility, understanding and patience.”

UPDATE, July 2, 4:55 EST: Huffington Post UK Corrects: No West Bank Airstrikes

A Huffington Post UK headline yesterday falsely claims that the West Bank has been subject to airstrikes. A screen capture of the headline follows:

In response to rocket fire emanating from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel over the last several days, Israel has launched airstrikes against targets in that coastal strip. It has not carried out any airstrikes in the West Bank.

In addition, the accompanying article by Paul Vale erroneously reports:

The deaths [of the three Israeli teens] led to a night of bombing by the Israeli Air Force, after Netanyahu promised Hamas would pay for the killings.

But, as previously noted, the airstrikes in the Gaza Strip were a response to the rocket fire coming from there, not to the murder of the three teens. The Huffington Post article is itself hyperlinked to an Associated Press story, also on the Huffington Post site, which notes that the Israeli military said it was rocket fire from the Gaza Strip which led to the airstrikes there:

Early Tuesday, Israel carried out an especially intense series of airstrikes in Gaza, saying it had struck 34 targets across the Hamas-controlled territory. The military said the airstrikes were a response to a barrage of 18 rockets fired into Israel since late Sunday.

The last media outlet to report on non-existent airstrikes in the West Bank was The Financial Times. We urge Huffington Post UK to correct the record, as did The Times.

A poll commissioned by The Washington Institute and conducted by a leading Palestinian pollster shows that a clear majority of Palestinians, 60.3%, believe that their main five-year national goal “should be to work toward reclaiming all of historic Palestine, from the river to the sea.” That means the elimination of Israel.

According to the think tank:

The poll comprised face-to-face interviews with a standard random geographic probability sample of 1,200 adult Palestinians, yielding results with a 3% statistical margin of error. The responses indicate that fewer than 30% of Palestinians now support a “two-state solution”: a West Bank/Gaza Palestinian state in lasting peace with Israel.

Furthermore, only 31.6% of Palestinians agree that if a two-state solution were achieved, it “should be the end of the conflict” while 64% believe “resistance should continue until all of historic Palestine is liberated.” And were such a two-state solution reached, 65.2% of Palestinians believe it would be only part of a “‘program of stages’ to liberate all of historic Palestine later.”

This hardly sounds “moderate.” And, since it doesn’t fit with the popular media narrative that the Palestinians are moderate while the Israelis are “hard-line,” it should come as no surprise that this survey has received zero coverage in the mainstream press.

The Israeli press, some blogs and Web sites did cover the story, as did Commentary Magazine which concluded:

This is not what those who have made a career out of blaming Israel for every problem in the Middle East, if not the world, want to hear. But if they want to know what’s really going on, they should listen to the Palestinians. If they do, they will understand that there is nothing Israel can do to end this conflict so long as Palestinians are committed to their destruction.

Yes, exactly because they do not fit with the story journalists believe and repeat, these maximalist hard-line Palestinian attitudes are news. So… Where’s the coverage?