Following the murder of an Israeli man, 32-year-old Evyatar Borovsky, by a Palestinian terrorist in a stabbing attack at a bus stop in the northern West Bank on Tuesday, the Guardian’s Harriet Sherwood reported on the incident, as well as on subsequent retaliatory attacks by “Jewish settlers”.
The Jewish ‘attacks’ evidently occurred near the Yitzhar community where Borovsky lived, as well as in the Palestinian villages of Burin, Hawara, and Orif – and a nearby highway (route 60). According to multiple reports, some Israelis threw rocks at Palestinians and some set Palestinian fields ablaze.
The claim that there were some retaliatory attacks by Jews following Borovsky’s murder doesn’t appear to be in doubt.
However, the Guardian also published a video story on May 1, with the following title:
Here’s the video caption:
A group of masked Jewish settlers set fire to a house and fields across villages in the West Bank before attacking Palestinians. Palestinian villagers clash with the settlers on a hill overlooking the village of Orif. Israeli soldiers arrive to disperse the crowd with stun grenades. The attack was in retaliation to the killing of Israeli settler Eviatar [sic] Borovsky
However, upon viewing the one minute and six second Guardian video, we couldn’t help but notice the absence of any clips actually showing ‘Jewish settlers attacking Palestinians’, despite text on the bottom of the screen at various moments stating that such attacks were taking place.
Here’s the video in its entirety.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGw56F0bTx4]
Here’s what we just saw:
- Israeli soldiers on patrol
- Israeli soldiers talking to what appear to be Palestinians
- Tear gas and stun grenades are employed by Israeli forces
- A Palestinian man (at the 54 second mark), purportedly injured, being carried to an awaiting ambulance
Here’s what we did not see, despite claims made in the title and accompanying text:
- Jewish settlers attacking Palestinians
- Jewish settlers burning Palestinian fields
Whilst the events described by the Guardian may have indeed occurred, the video they produced and posted certainly did not present any visual evidence to buttress these claims.
Though there have been far more egregious examples of ‘Pallywood‘ in action (i.e., intentionally misleading or doctored Palestinian film footage; and the staging of certain scenes) it is reasonable to ask why the Guardian editor who published this video failed to engage in basic journalistic critical scrutiny of what the clips were claiming to document.