A Jan. 28th ITV News video report by their Washington Correspondent Robert Moore focused much of his analysis of the new US peace plan on the immediate Palestinian rejection of what President Trump termed “the deal of the century”.
Whilst some of the criticism he cited seems uncontroversial, he included one line of argument that’s somewhat bizarre, not to mention highly misleading.
Yes, that’s right. The journalist is complaining that the US map doesn’t compare favourably to the 1947 UN partition plan, a plan that Jews accepted, and Palestinians not only rejected, but launched a war to prevent its implementation – inspired by an opposition not merely to those particular boundaries, but the entire idea of any Jewish state in the region. (Even pro-Palestinian activists typically only advocate a return to the boundaries as they were after the 1948-49 war – not the borders proposed by the UN in 1947.)
Of course, Moore doesn’t inform readers of these inconvenient facts, nor that Palestinian leaders have rejected every serious peace plan offered to them since 1937.
Here’s a map of what was offered to Palestinian leaders, but they rejected, in 2008, offering almost everything they’ve ever asked for:
Whatever one’s views on Trump’s plan, the failure of media outlets like ITV to provide such basic facts on the history of Palestinian leaders’ rejectionism denies news consumers the important context they need to fully understand the PA’s reaction.
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- BBC’s Guerin gratuitously inserts ‘occupation’ into Holocaust remembrance coverage (BBC Watch)