Readers of a May 3 Indy op-ed by Ramallah based academic Amjad Abu el Ezz were told that a Palestinian man named Fawaz Hamayel was “murdered” by Israeli occupation forces” last month in “cold-blooded execution” – meaning, for no reason at all.
Here’s the headline and strap line of the op-ed:
Here’s a paragraph from the piece:
This is a lie.
Fawaz Hamayel was killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers near Nablus on April 13th in the context of ongoing counter-terror actions in Beita and other northern West Bank locations in response to a wave of deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis. According to reports, including even in the Guardian, Hamayel was killed while participating in a violent riot, which included throwing petrol bombs at soldiers.
Even the official Palestinian Authority’s official news outlet WAFA, and Iran’s PressTV, avoided describing Hamayel’s death as a “murder” or “execution”, instead writing that he was killed during “clashes” with Israeli soldiers. It’s one thing to say that events surrounding his death are disputed, but the op-ed’s characterisation of his death, as if it’s a fact, as a “murder” and “cold-blooded” Israeli “execution” clearly should have been flagged by editors.
The lies continue, as the Indy contributor asserts that Hamayel wasn’t affiliated with a political party or organisation.
Again, even the Guardian acknowledged that this isn’t true, noting, in an April 22 article by Ben Lynfield, that Hamayel “played an active role as a nationalist, simultaneously as an official dealing with Jerusalem affairs in the Palestinian Authority, an activist in Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah organisation”.
Here’s further evidence that he was a Fatah operative:
Fawaz Hamayel, a Fatah opretive from Nablus, has succumbed to injuries he sustained during a violent clash with the Israeli forces few days ago pic.twitter.com/V90dIRFOjs
— Adin – עדין (@AdinHaykin1) April 14, 2022
Here’s an announcement of his death by an official Fatah account, which says that Fatah celebrates “its hero martyr”.
🛑 بمزيد من الفخر والإعتزاز تنعي حركة التحرير الوطني الفلسطيني فتح اقليم نابلس شهيدها البطل/ فواز حمايل " ابو قيس" الذي ارتقى شهيداً اليوم جراء الإصابات التي تعرض لها برصاص قوات الاحتلال الصهيوني يوم امس اثناء معركة الدفاع عن أراضي بيتا الشهداء. pic.twitter.com/iQDIK5dl7Q
— الإعلام الفتحاوي – العاصفة (@palestfateh1965) April 14, 2022
We’ve complained to Indy editors, asking that they correct the op-ed to note that Hamayal was a Fatah operative and to delete the fabrication that the IDF’s carried out a “cold-blooded execution”.
H/T Tomer Ilan
UPDATE, May 8: Though editors refused to correct the claim that Hamayal was “executed”, they deleted the sentence falsely asserting that he didn’t belong to “any faction or political party”.
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