A NYT article by James Glanz and Rami Nazzal seemed straightforward at first glance, discussing plans for the opening of a new Palestinian museum in Birzeit on Wednesday. The article appeared online on May 16 under the headline “Palestinian Museum Prepares to Open, Minus Exhibitions” and a day later, on the first page of the Arts & Culture section of the print edition, headlined “Palestinian Museum Is Set to Open, Empty of Art.”

When they noted that the museum’s opening ceremony was slated for “a few days after the 68th anniversary of what Palestinians call the Nakba, or catastrophe,” the reporters appropriately made it clear that this was the Palestinians’ terminology for “Israel’s founding and the conflict that followed.” But while they indicated that as a result, “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians were “displaced,” they did not explain the relevant circumstances, namely, that Arab leaders had invaded and declared war on the newly established State of Israel.

Worse, though, was that elsewhere, the authors themselves adopted the Palestinian narrative and presented it as fact in their own voices. They wrote:

In the West Bank, where Palestinians have for years struggled to build political and civic institutions while resisting Israel’s occupation of the territory, the fate of the exhibition may say as much about the realities of Palestinian society as any art collection could. [emphasis added]

Objective and knowledgeable readers may well recognize that “resisting Israel’s occupation” is the justification invoked by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups for carrying out murderous attacks on civilian targets in Israel, but others may be misled by what amounts to the reporters’ own stamp of approval on the biased language.

Deadline Detroit asks whether Michigan Public Radio was right to reject a donor’s request to wish Israel a happy birthday?

According to the publication, Michigan Radio, an NPR affiliate, offered one of their donors the opportunity to have a message of her choice read on air, but when it turned out she wanted to wish Israel a Happy Birthday in honour of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Michigan Radio demurred, arguing that such a message

would compromise the station’s commitment to impartiality and that it crosses over into advocacy, or could imply advocacy.

Donor Lisa Lis was upset and explained why:

Why would Public Radio need to be impartial about a legally recognized country other than the fact, many want her wiped from the face of the earth. Would it be a problem if it were the birthday of England, Norway or South Sudan?

Israel is a hot button country that the world has accepted as questionable and debatable and the major infraction Israel has committed is purely her existence. By the way, I truly look forward to expressing my same salutation when Palestine can celebrate her birthday.

Do you agree?

In a May 5th article in Politico’s U.S. Edition, entitled “State Dept. assures Leahy on Israeli human rights scrutiny“, author Nahal Toosi misleads readers as she downplays Palestinian terrorism, and transfers blame for the violence onto Israel She writes:

In recent months, Palestinians have staged numerous attacks, many with knives, against Israeli security forces, who have often responded with gunfire. The violence has put both sides on edge and has led to allegations of overreaction by the Israeli military.[emphasis added]

Does Toosi consider Eitan and Naama Henkin, the young couple murdered in front of their children on October 1st to be “security forces”? How about 22-year-old yeshiva student Aharon Banita-Bennet, who was stabbed to death on his way to the Western Wall with his wife and two young children, who were stabbed as well? Or 18-year-old Ezra Schwartz from Massachusetts who was shot to death on November 19 while doing volunteer work during his gap year in Israel? Or 21-year-old Hadras Buchris who was stabbed to death as she waited for a ride on November 22? Or 45-year-old Rabbi Reuven Eduardo) Birmajer who was stabbed to death on December 23 near Jaffa gate? Or Dafna Meir, the mother of six, who was stabbed to death inside her home on January 17? Or 29-year-old Taylor Force, an American tourist who was stabbed to death on March 8?

These are just a few of the civilians who lost their lives lost their lives after being targeted by Palestinian terrorists, not to mention the dozens who were wounded and nearly lost their lives in such attacks. Anyone acquainted with the events in Israel over the past 6 months is well aware that Palestinian terrorist attacks have not just been aimed at Israeli security forces but at innocent civilians, including women, children and elderly victims. These attacks, which include 147 stabbings, 87 shootings, 43 car rammings and 1 bus bombing, have killed 34 people, 28 of them civilians, including two foreign nationals and an off-duty policeman. Of the 447 who were wounded in these attacks, nearly 200 were civilians and included several Arab and foreign national civilians .

But by falsely suggesting that these Palestinian assailants were targeting Israeli security forces who responded excessively with “gunfire” , Toosi succeeds in twisting the events completely.

CAMERA contacted both the journalist and news editor at Politico who refused to correct the erroneous reference to Palestinian violence stating that they “believe the story can stand as is.”

CAMERA has long criticized BBC’s Jeremy Bowen for his biased reporting on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and in March 2009, the BBC’s highest body upheld a complaint by CAMERA that Bowen violated the broadcasters’ guidelines requiring impartiality and accuracy. (For a full analysis of that BBC ruling and the CAMERA complaint that led up to it, see here.) As CAMERA’s BBC-Watch often documents, Bowen has not since ceased his biased reporting.

The latest example comes in a May 4 web article and a World Service radio broadcast that aired on May 6 about the violence in Jerusalem in the wake of a bus bombing carried out by a Palestinian terrorist last month. After creating a tale of equivalent mutual hatred and violence on each side, Bowen attempts to dispel the Israeli charge that Palestinian attacks are a result of relentless incitement by the Palestinian leadership. The BBC journalist imposes a blame-Israel narrative on his audience as he “explains” the “core of the conflict”:

But hundreds of conversations with Palestinians over many years here have convinced me that the biggest factor that shapes their attitudes to Israel is not the incitement to hate but the occupation of the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, that started after Israel’s victory in the 1967 Middle East war.

When Palestinians who agitate against Israel find an audience, it is because of the way that the occupation, which is inherently violent, has overshadowed and controlled Palestinian lives for almost 50 years.

Not only does Bowen echo the Palestinian narrative by describing disputed territories meant to be defined in bilateral negotiations as “Palestinian territories” but he servilely obeys the PLO’s media advisory to journalists laying out what they should emphasize in their reporting, namely, that the conflict is totally and singularly about “the occupation.”

As long as the BBC continues to allow the PLO to dictate the terms of how the Arab-Israeli conflict is reported, readers and listeners cannot expect to be accurately informed about what is really going on in that part of the world.

For years now, CAMERA has been documenting Haaretz biased mistranslations for its English-language readers in a feature called “Haaretz, Lost in Translation.” An article by CAMERA Israel Director Tamar Sternthal, entitled “Distorted Haaretz English Translations on the Israeli Political Agenda.” explains how CAMERA and its Israeli branch, Presspectiva, have brought the problem to the Israeli public’s attention.

Presspectiva Editor Hanan Amiur exposes the extent of Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken’s anti-Zionist bias in an article published on “MIDA”, an Israeli news magazine focusing on the media. In the article, “Haaretz Publisher Amos Schoken: If Palestinian Stabber is a Terrorist, IDF Soldier is a Murderer,” available both in Hebrew and in English. Amior writes about his own communication with Schocken:

Presspectiva asked Amos Schocken, publisher of Ha’aretz, to explain why the paper has systematically concealed from readers of the English edition the fact that the Palestinian who was shot was a terrorist. In response, he referred us to two news items published in the English edition in which the Palestinian was, in fact, described as an “attacker.” He also added a more comprehensive explanation: “In many cases, the raw information in Hebrew reaches the editorial staff of the Hebrew and English editions at the same time, and then, the English edition translates it, and each edition edits the item separately. The result is that there are differences in both the wording of the item and the headlines.”

Schocken also added a surprising comment, noting that if he has an issue, it is with the editors of the Hebrew edition, who he believes are not sufficiently even-handed in their reporting. “Perhaps the presumption of innocence makes it necessary to be careful about reporting in this way: If they write ‘soldier,’ then they must write ‘Palestinian.’ If we ignore the presumption of innocence and write ‘terrorist,’ then we should write ‘murderer.’”

It seems whenever there is a rise in Palestinian terrorism, there is a concomitant rise in bad headlines attempting to reverse the roles of victim and perpetrator.

Yesterday, we told you that New Zealand TV originally headlined an AP story about three of the day’s terror attacks against Israelis perpetrated by Palestinians as follows:

But as soon as we contacted them about the problematic headline, they immediately amended it to the more accurate:

The International Business Times similarly weighed in with a role reversing headline and an article that erroneously minimized Palestinian aggression. The original IBT headline:

The article by Priyanka Mogul downplayed Palestinian violence by erroneously stating that

The attempted stabbings by Palestinians and shootings by Israeli forces occurred hours before US president Joe Biden arrived in Israel.

Contrary to her statement Palestinians did not just “attempt” to stab Israelis, nor was it only Israeli forces who “shot” with guns. Palestinians critically injured Israelis with guns and seriously wounded Israelis and murdered an American tourist by stabbing them.

We contacted the editors at the International Business Times, pointing out that their headline and article distort the news even as they claim to be “a trusted source of real-time news, intelligence and analysis.” The story and headline were subsequently updated to accurately reflect the facts. The headline now reads:

And the article now accurately relays the facts and identifies the perpetrator in the lede paragraph as follows:

An American tourist was killed and several others wounded in a series of attacks by Palestinians targeting civilians as well as Israeli security forces. The incidents took place on 8 March in Jerusalem’s Old City, in Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv and in the central city of Petah Tikvah, Israeli police said. Three Palestinians attackers were shot dead by Israeli security forces.

A Reuters article about the demolition of the homes of 2 Palestinian terrorists who murdered several innocent civilians — Israelis, an American and a Palestinian — adopted the Palestinian position about recent violence.

While the article presented both the Israeli claim that such demolitions serve as a deterrence to would-be terrorists and the Palestinian claim that the demolitions are collective punishment, when it came to explaining the recent wave of Palestinian terrorist stabbings, shootings, slayings and rioting, the article relayed the Palestinian position as fact, not claim. It asserted that:

The recent violence has been stoked by various factors, including a dispute over Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound and the failure of several rounds of peace talks to secure the Palestinians an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory.

This indirect shifting of the blame for violence onto Israel may be what the Palestinian leadership claims, but it is not what the Israeli leadership believes and is certainly not a given fact, as the article suggests. It is not an agreed upon fact that the failure of peace talks is what motivates terrorists to kill innocent cvilians, or that Israelis visiting the “al Aqsa mosque compound” has caused Palestinians to attack Israelis with knives and guns. Indeed, Israelis view the “al Aqsa mosque compound”, otherwise known as “The Temple Mount,” as the holiest site in Judaism and they cling to their right under the status quo to visit, just like members of any other faith. Israelis do not see this as the issue stoking Palestinian violence, despite efforts by the Palestinian leadership to claim it is.

Although the article’s last paragraph notes that “Israel says young Palestinians are being incited to violence by their leaders and by Islamist groups calling for Israel’s destruction.” this is presented as a “claim” by Israel, unlike the earlier paragraph where the Palestinian position is presented as fact.

It is just these sort of subtle difference that can tinge an article with bias and skew the story toward one side’s position.

Kuwaiti journalist Abdullah al-Hadlaq, a columnist for the Al-Watan newspaper has come out vocally in support of Israel several times before. In October, he ignited a firestorm of condemnation on Arab social media when he defended Israel’s right to defend itself against the “terrorism of [Palestinian] knives” in an Al Watan column.

Al-Hadlaq has now written a column criticizing the Arab media and defending Israel’s position for the Israeli media, published today in Israel Hayom.

He notes that

The Arab media has become afflicted with stupidity and delusion and has lost its ability make true distinctions. The words “wisdom” and “reason” are no longer part of its lexicon. It has become debased and mentally challenged. It considers the victims of battles in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. “casualties,” whereas the Palestinian terrorists killed in the Gaza Strip or in the West Bank are dubbed “shahids” (martyrs). This same media, which is biased in favor of a group of people called “Palestinians,” neglects every human, Arab, or Muslim issue and associates shahada (a martyr’s death in the name of belief) with them only….
…

Why, when Palestinian terrorists and murderers holding knives and rocks are killed by Israeli soldiers, who are forced to open fire in cases of legitimate self-defense, do these debased Arab media outlets twist the truth and call the Palestinian terrorists “shahids”? By what right did they earn that exalted rank, while being murderous terrorists and criminals? The accursed Arab media outlets that warp and make things up, glorify the murderers and terrorists as well as Palestinian crimes, and give them, exclusively, the title “shahid.”

Read the entire column here.

UN “Human Rights” Council spokeswoman Cécile Pouilly expressed grave concern “at the unrelenting violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and in Israel.” While she acknowledged the “unacceptable” wave of Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car rammings that kill and injure Israelis, she reserved her deepest condemnation for Israelis’ attempt to defend themselves, expressing “deep concern over reports of excessive use of force by Israeli forces” and calling for “prompt, independent and impartial investigations” of every instance where Israeli use of force resulted in the “death or injury” of Palestinian assailants. She also condemned Israel’s deterrent demolition of Palestinian terrorists’ houses.

There are numerous videos showing how terrorists charging at their intended victims with knives or other deadly weapons have been killed in self defense. The UNHRC’s equation of aggressive terrorism with self-defense and its condemnation of the latter provides yet another example of the virulent bias of this UN body and explains why the UNHRC has rendered itself meaningless.

Israel seized a shipment of 4,000 masked, rock-throwing dolls, like the one above, headed to the Palestinian Authority. The dolls were smuggled in a purported shipment of clothing and rugs from the United Arab Emirates. Customs officials seized this along with other smuggled items. Israeli government officials have suggested these dolls, sporting an image of the Al Aqsa mosque on their scarves, are part of a PA campaign to foment anti-Israel hatred, encourage violence and indoctrinate Palestinian children. An investigation is ongoing. Read more about it here.