The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan begins her latest r̶e̶p̶o̶r̶t̶ pre-determined anti-Israel conclusion in search of evidence (“Palestinian reporter’s death highlights weakness of Israeli army investigations“, June 15) by citing an example putatively showing that the IDF can’t be trusted to conduct fair military inquiries into Palestinian deaths:
In August 2020, 23-year-old Dalia Samoudi was killed when a bullet came through the window of her home in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, during an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raid on a nearby house.
Al Jazeera reported on the incident, in which witnesses said she had been killed by an IDF soldier firing in the direction of Palestinians throwing stones.
…
Despite the overwhelming circumstantial evidence suggesting the IDF was responsible… Israel initially blamed Palestinian militants.
“I was standing next to her when it happened,” said [a witness]. “Dalia was feeding the baby. She went to shut the window to shut the teargas out.
“The Palestinians in the street were not carrying guns. It is very clear what happened. But two years later, the investigation is still going on and I have no idea what [the Israelis] are doing.”
McKernan – whose reporting on the Samoudi’s death is cited in the context of the killing of Al Jazeera’s Shireen Abu Akleh – fails to provide readers with information contradicting the desired narrative. For instance, as Reuters, and even the fringe anti-Zionist site Mondoweiss, reported, the IDF insisted they didn’t use live fire during the incident in question – an arrest raid. “Palestinians fired live fire, hurled rocks and explosive devices towards the troops. The troops responded with riot dispersal means,” Reuters quoted an army spokesman as saying.
Additionally, and representing a far more egregious omission, McKernan failed to disclose that Hamas issued a mourning notice for Samoudi, claiming she was a Hamas operative.
Islamic resistance movement Hamas mourns its ‘martyr daughter’ Dalia Ahmad Suleiman Samoudi, who ascended [to heaven] by the occupation’s bullets in the city of Jenin, at the northern West Bank (Translation via CAMERA Arabic)
Once again, Bethan McKernan has demonsrated that she has little if any interest in providing readers with anything resembling fair, impartial and balanced reporting on the region. We’ve complained to the Guardian Readers’ Editor asking that the article be amended to include the army statement as well as Samoudi’s terror affiliation.
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Impartiality is no longer taught to journalists, journalism has become a mouthpiece for whatever cause the journalist identifies with #defundthebbc