“The Lebanon story, like Gaza”, observed Robert Satloff, “is a tale of legitimate Israeli retaliation for an unprovoked attack”, adding that “just as Hamas eventually disappeared from many reports of the Gaza fighting, which often depicted a vengeful Israel purposefully killing innocent civilians, so too is Hezbollah disappearing from the Lebanon narrative”.
An article in The Times (“Joy at ceasefire in Lebanon turns to despair as families head home”, April 18), written the Beirut-based Sally Hayden, who contributes to the Irish Times, represents another good example of this pattern within the British media.
Though the piece runs over 1,400 words, the word “Hezbollah” is used only six times, and never concerning any of their fighters, or the death of anyone in Lebanon associated with the Iranian proxy group.
In fact, Hayden seems to intentionally avoid the issue of Hezbollah operatives killed during the war, writing that “At least 2,294 people have been killed in Lebanon since March 2, including 274 women and 177 children, according to the country’s ministry of health.”.
While the Lebanese health ministry – which is controlled by Hezbollah – doesn’t distinguish between combatants and non-combatants in their reported death tallies, Hayden chose to ignore IDF reports listing the number of Hezbollah terrorists killed at 1,800 – thus representing the overwhelming majority of Lebanese fatalities.
Another example of the reporter’s decision to erase Hezbollah from the story appears in the following text and photo:
However, our colleague in CAMERA’s Arabic department confirmed that the tombstone describes Fadel Serhan as a “martyred Jihad fighter”. (Our colleague further notes that other tombstones in the photo do not have that writing, as the language used clearly distinguishes between martyrs who engaged in “Jihad” and those who did not.)
He’s referred to as a “Jihad fighter” here as well.
We complained to Times editors asking that the article be amended to note that Serhan was a terrorist, not a civilian medic.
