An article in the Independent by their new world affairs editor Sam Kiley (“How Assad’s downfall could turn Syria into a new haven for Islamist extremists“, Dec. 9) pivoted to Israel deep into the article, making the following claim:
Some 80 per cent of the 43,000 people killed by Israel in Gaza over the last 13 months have been women and children.
As we noted in a complaint to Indy editors, this statistic is wildly inaccurate.
The journalist is almost certainly basing his claim on a UN report which, in addition to containing serious methodological flaws, narrowly relates to the number of “verified” dead in the first six months of fighting between Israel and Hamas. As the UN has only been able to verify 8,119 of those allegedly killed in the territory during that period, this represents a fraction of the overall alleged Gaza death toll over the last 14 months.
Moreover, as an Associated Press study demonstrated, the death rate for women and children in Gaza declined dramatically beginning in April – that is, at the end point of the UN’s six month report on verified casualties. It’s therefore extremely likely that a study of war deaths in the territory in the eight months after April — even one carried out according to OHCHR’s skewed methodology — would produce a vastly lower ratio of fatalities for women and children.
(Further, the UN report in question claims that women and children represent nearly 70% of the total verified, not 80%, as the Indy claims.)
We, in fact, previously prompted a correction at the Indy last month to that same error, as did our CAMERA colleague at Voice Of America and Deutsche Welle.
We sent an official complaint to Indy editors about this most recent error, and are awaiting their reply.
The Indy is another violently antisemitic rag owned by The Grauniad (whose staff were in tears of disbelief when Donald won the US election).
The Indi is no better than the Grauniad or the BBC, all of whom are stacked full of indoctrinated antisemitic Islamists. I cannot wait for Donald to get his teeth into these half brains, they will all be squirming in their seats and having apoplectic fits soon
#defundthebbc #journalismisdead
Does your publication agree on the basic premise that one innocent life lost is too many? Grasping at straws here really. The place has been flattened.