The Times amends article that whitewashed the PFLP terror group

Yesterday, we complained to the Times about an article, written by Richard Spencer and Oliver Marsden (“Palestinians defy Israel’s ban on celebration as Prisoners freed“, Jan. 20), which included the following, whitewashing the PFLP terror group and their history of carrying out deadly attacks dating back to the 1970s:

[The list of freed prisoners] included Khalida Jarrar, a senior figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical secular group, and a former member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. She has been jailed in the past for membership of a banned organisation

The article didn’t include a word about the PFLP’s history of terror, nor the fact, as we noted in our post, that PFLP – which participated in the Oct. 7th massacre – is a proscribed terror organisation in the US, EU and Canada.

The same Times report, we noted, included a paragraph about Marwan Barghouti, while omitting that he was a leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade terror group during the 2nd Intifada and was convicted, in 2004, for his role in planning terror attacks that killed (at least) five Israelis.

Here’s the relevant Times paragraph:

Marwan Barghouti, the man many imprisoned Palestinians view as their leader, is not on the list. He is viewed as the mastermind of the Intifadas or uprisings against Israeli rule in the late 1980s and early 2000s. As a result he is a hero to many Palestinians but a terrorist to the Israelis, who sentenced him to five life terms.

Today, we noticed that the article had undergone significant changes, and the problematic paragraph about Marwan Barghouti had been completely removed.

It also now includes this about the PFLP:

[it has been] historically involved in attacks against Israel in the 1970s but which later scaled back its militant actions

In the early hours of the morning those gathered to celebrate the [Palestinian prisoner] releases chanted, “this is what we learnt from Saadat, kill and hit the hotels”, in reference Saadat’s husband [PFLP leader Ahmad Saadat, aka Abu Ghassan] and the killing of Rehavam Ze’evi, Israel’s minister of tourism, who was shot in the head in Hyatt Regency Hotel in Jerusalem by two Palestinian gunmen in 2001.

The PFLP claimed responsibility for the assassination, stating that it was revenge for the killing of the PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa earlier the same year.

While the correction is welcomed, unfortunately there’s no editor’s note – as is recommended by the UK media regulator IPSO – acknowledging the substantial changes made to the article as the result of our complaint.

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