As we’ve noted previously, CiF Watch has been able to leverage information we obtained from the Israel Justice Ministry on the 104 pre-Oslo Palestinian prisoners, who are to be released as a concession to resume peace talks, to prompt corrections to false characterizations of these Palestinians as “political prisoners” at the Guardian and Independent.
We demonstrated conclusively (per a detailed report on the prisoners translated and published exclusively by CAMERA) that most of the 104 Palestinians were convicted in Israeli courts (before the signing of the Oslo Agreements in September 1993) for murder, attempted murder or being an accessory to murder. Thus, British media efforts to paint these violent criminals as “political prisoners” (a term which refers to those imprisoned for their political beliefs) were impossible to defend.
Whilst the corrections we obtained thus far were prompted by communication between CiF Watch and the editors of the British papers in question, yesterday we noticed that the Guardian issued a correction, to an Oct. 31 report by Matthew Kalman on the recent release of the latest round of 26 pre-Oslo prisoners, before we contacted them.
Yes, they indeed “erred”, but we’re glad to see the correction.
Though this may seem like a narrow issue to some, it needs to be understood as part of the British media’s increasing tendency to submit to the corruption and politicization of ordinary language by radical ideologies which attempt to turn truth, logic and moral common sense upside down.
It is quite urgent that we continue to resist efforts to mainstream such horribly misleading euphemisms, so please contact us if you see other examples of British media reports on the Palestinian prisoner release issue which employ such propagandistic terms.
contactus@cifwatch.com
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COMMITTEE FOR ACCURACY IN MIDDLE EAST REPORTING AND ANALYSIS
The Guardian corrects false Palestinian “political prisoner” claim
As we’ve noted previously, CiF Watch has been able to leverage information we obtained from the Israel Justice Ministry on the 104 pre-Oslo Palestinian prisoners, who are to be released as a concession to resume peace talks, to prompt corrections to false characterizations of these Palestinians as “political prisoners” at the Guardian and Independent.
We demonstrated conclusively (per a detailed report on the prisoners translated and published exclusively by CAMERA) that most of the 104 Palestinians were convicted in Israeli courts (before the signing of the Oslo Agreements in September 1993) for murder, attempted murder or being an accessory to murder. Thus, British media efforts to paint these violent criminals as “political prisoners” (a term which refers to those imprisoned for their political beliefs) were impossible to defend.
Whilst the corrections we obtained thus far were prompted by communication between CiF Watch and the editors of the British papers in question, yesterday we noticed that the Guardian issued a correction, to an Oct. 31 report by Matthew Kalman on the recent release of the latest round of 26 pre-Oslo prisoners, before we contacted them.
Though this may seem like a narrow issue to some, it needs to be understood as part of the British media’s increasing tendency to submit to the corruption and politicization of ordinary language by radical ideologies which attempt to turn truth, logic and moral common sense upside down.
It is quite urgent that we continue to resist efforts to mainstream such horribly misleading euphemisms, so please contact us if you see other examples of British media reports on the Palestinian prisoner release issue which employ such propagandistic terms.
contactus@cifwatch.com
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