(All translations, emphases and in-bracket remarks are by CAMERA Arabic unless otherwise specified)
Five Western Arabic-language media outlets – Sky News Arabia, France24 Arabic, Independent Arabia, Vice Arabia and Euronews Arabic – have falsely claimed, as if it’s a fact, that the “Israeli military” was responsible for the killing of Aljazeera reporter Shireen Abu Aqleh in Jenin, and have failed to issue corrections.
However, English versions of the same outlets have correctly refrained from determining the identity of the shooter. (The coverage of BBC Arabic and AP’s Arabic Twitter account was also highly problematic.)
Examples are as follows:
Sky News Arabia (strap line): “Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh was shot dead Wednesday morning by the Israeli military”. Another version is also available on YouTube: “Journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh shot dead by the Israeli military in Jenin”
Sky in English: “Shireen Abu Akleh: Al Jazeera journalist shot and killed during Israeli raid in West Bank”
France24 Arabic (YouTube): “Correspondent Shireen Abu Aqleh of Qatari channel Aljazeera shot dead by the Israeli military in Jenin”
Another item was published several hours later on both France24 Arabic’s website and on YouTube: “Who is the journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, whom the Israeli military killed ‘in cold blood?’”
France24 English (YouTube): “Al Jazeera journalist killed during Israel West Bank raid”
Independent Arabia: “’Aljazeera’ correspondent Shireen Abu Aqleh shot dead by the Israeli military in the [West] Bank”. Another version is also viewable on YouTube (0:06): “Shot dead on May 11th by the Israeli military in the city of Jenin”.
Independent in English: (correction prompted by CAMERA UK): “Shireen Abu Akleh: Al Jazeera accuses Israel of shooting dead journalist in West Bank”
Vice Arabia: “Aljazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Aqleh shot dead by the Israeli military”
Vice in English: “Veteran Palestinian Reporter Shot Dead While Covering Israeli Raid”
Euronews Arabic went even further, with the first paragraph reading: “Aljazeera channel journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh was killed on Wednesday morning by a direct bullet from an Israeli sniper”
Euronews in English: “A journalist for Al Jazeera was shot and killed while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin.”
While BBC Arabic’s on-time reports were in line with the Corporation’s English coverage, a magazine program published Friday, May 13th featured the following text (at the bottom of the screen) no less than 4 times in 16 minutes (4:25, 9:16, 15:12, 20:20): “This program was recorded before the announcement of journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh’s death by Israeli fire in Jenin.”
In an introduction to the program added later, host Seif ad-Deen ar-Ruba’i uncritically quoted (0:08) the Aljazeera “announcement” of Abu Aqleh’s death, ascribing it to the Israeli forces, without even noting that his own outlet’s reports consistently refrained from determining the cause of her death.
Additionally, Associated Press’s Arabic Twitter account uncritically quoted the Palestinian announcement accusing Israel of the killing: “Palestinian Ministry of Health confirms that Aljazeera news channel correspondent Shireen Abu Aqleh was shot dead by the Israeli forces […]” (CAMERA prompted an AP correction in English on the matter last week):
So does CNN.
Fuck them all.
Bloody Antisemites.
Regrettably, now has come the time when Israel needs to accuse others of such crimes – before it is itself accused. This applies to every incident that Israel’s enemies will seize upon to lie about and use to demonise Israel.