Hamas’s staged, six-week long provocation on Israel’s border titled the “Great Return March” which began on March 30th took months of planning and siphoned off an estimated $10 million from government coffers, funds that of course could have been spent on infrastructure and other projects to relieve the suffering of the enclave’s population.
But, actually, if you look at it another way, $10 million is a bargain if you factor in how much more the government would have had to cough up for public relations if they weren’t confident that the Western media would parrot the terrorist group’s talking points.
The fact that 10 out of the 16 Palestinians killed since Friday have been verified by the IDF as members of terrorist groups, or that the border protests have included the throwing of Molotov cocktails, the planting of IEDs and – in at least two cases – shots fired at Israeli forces hasn’t hampered the desired media narrative: a ‘disproportionate’ Israeli response to ‘peaceful’ Palestinian protesters.
Here are just a few examples that we tweeted today in response to articles published at the Guardian and Independent.
“773” Palestinians shot with live ammo: Hazem Balousha and Oliver Holmes at The Guardian
Extremely misleading @guardian headline.
The claim that "773" Palestinians were shot with live ammunition is an unsubstantiated claim by Hamas authorities, one that the reporter acknowledges he was "unable to independently verify". pic.twitter.com/0um5llhrot
— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) April 1, 2018
Hamas’s “peaceful protest”: Hazem Balousha and Oliver Holmes at The Guardian
.@guardian repeats Hamas propaganda, calling the march on Israel's border "peaceful", despite the fact that Gazans have placed IEDs at the border, thrown hundreds or Molotov cocktails and, in two cases, opened fire at Israeli forces @olireports @iHaZeMi https://t.co/lNyd6wwb3x pic.twitter.com/6aKTEIZ8ZB
— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) April 1, 2018
Palestinian shot whilst picking parsley: Simon Tisdall at The Guardian
.@guardian No, Simon Tisdall, not even Gaza Health Ministry claimed that Omar Samour was killed whilst he was innocently "picking parsley in his field". As the article you link to notes, that's just the claim of an anonymous "eyewitness". Ministry says he was killed in 'clashes' pic.twitter.com/dNK7AMuwgs
— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) April 1, 2018
Violent protest morphs into a civil rights-style “sit in”: Clark Mindock at The Independent
Do you think it's consistent w/ the accuracy clause of the editors' code to describe the Hamas led march – which has included Molotov cocktails and IEDs – and at least two cases of Palestinians opening firing on IDF forces – as protesters engaged in a "sit in"? pic.twitter.com/lf9TYfXMst
— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) April 1, 2018
Parroting Hamas’s language: Sara Helm at The Independent
Then, of course, there's @SarahHelm1 at @Independent parroting Hamas propaganda in referring to a Palestinian killed during the riots as a MARTYR, and comically characterising the orchestrated violent riots as PEACEFUL https://t.co/FFr9bs7x5C pic.twitter.com/k4RMhiKnPj
— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) April 1, 2018
Here are a few other errors we flagged today:
Number of terrorists killed: Anshel Pfeffer and Louise Callaghan at Times of London
Hi @louiseelisabet and @AnshelPfeffer Your article at @thetimes published today states that 5 of the 16 Gazans killed were members of terror groups. However, yesterday, the IDF released detailed info stating that 10 of the 16 were terror members. https://t.co/PFrLnJEFO9 pic.twitter.com/6yOUszQIMZ
— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) April 1, 2018
Number of terrorists killed: Alex Mathew-King at The Independent
Hi @AMatthewsKing Actually, Israel identified 10 of the 16 killed in clashes as terrorists, not 8 as you claim here https://t.co/hjzOAiLOM4
See this report https://t.co/Uxz0swPWD7 and attached graphic pic.twitter.com/okG8JRsW37
— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) April 1, 2018
Palestinian ‘refugee’ claim: Raf Sanchez at The Telegraph:
.@rafsanchez @Telegraph is one of the more objective journos we cover, but he misleads in this passage. As over 99% of Palestinian "refugees" are only descendants of '48 refugees, & not refugees themselves, few (if any) of those protesting this weekend ever had a home in Israel pic.twitter.com/cMfY7NeSez
— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) April 1, 2018
Hamas-led provocation characterised as a “sit-in”: Sky News
Another media outlet (this time @SkyNews) surreally characterises the staged, Hamas-led provocation on Israel's border – which has included molotov cocktails, IED's and other forms of violence – as a (civil rights style) "sit-in" https://t.co/jf7rD2EOKw pic.twitter.com/KyAUR0uAuF
— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) April 1, 2018
We’ve lodged complaints regarding several of these misleading or inaccurate claims and will update this post when we receive replies or secure corrections.
