World media falls short covering Arab-initiated violence

World media is reporting on the violence, but leaving out key details.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

The disproportionate press coverage given Israel has surfaced again following violence in Jerusalem and the unprovoked rocket attack by terrorists in Gaza.

Several weeks of developments in the Israeli and Palestinian arenas culminated with violent clashes on the Temple Mount, and major media outlets tended to fall short when challenged to present an accurate picture of the events.

With rockets raining down on Israel, media reports are focusing on the immediate news and leaving out the details so that audiences do not have the complete context behind what is going on, and in some cases getting it wrong.

Britain’s Sky News tweeted about the attempted lynching of Israelis by a Palestinian mob in Jerusalem by making it seem like it was the fault of the Israelis, describing it thusly: “A car was driven into a group of Palestinian protesters throwing stones, as tensions continued around Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque.”

The tweet was accompanied by a link to a detailed Sky News story that carried no mention of the lynching incident, in which a mob of Arabs hurled rocks at an Israeli car and beat the Jewish occupants, trying to drag them from the vehicle.

The driver lost control after being hit in the head by one of the rocks and drove off the road, where the attackers continued to beat the occupants of the car, who were finally rescued by a lone police officer.

Tensions had been rising in the city for several weeks before Jerusalem Day, especially after Arab youth had started filming themselves attacking Jews and uploading the videos to social media.

The New York Times, despite the ongoing attacks by Arabs over the last month, chose to limit the background, saying that Monday’s rioting came “after a week of rising tension.”

There have always been tensions surrounding the issue of the Temple Mount, but the Times reporters chose to use only a comment from one Palestinian alleging that “Israel is starting a religious war,” yet failing to either corroborate that allegation or provide the Israeli position.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments on the violence were not included in the article, nor was there any other Israeli reaction.

Of the near-lynching of the Jewish driver, the Times used a picture of the incident with the lukewarm caption: “A Palestinian man scuffled with a Jewish man.”

In the past two weeks, as the Palestinians sought an excuse to cancel the long-awaited elections that had been scheduled for May 22, both the Fatah party and its arch-rival, Hamas, have been stoking anti-Israel rhetoric.

The Associated Press and Reuters reported on the growing tensions, quoting both Palestinian and Israeli officials, including Netanyahu. However, neither mentioned the internal Palestinian tensions springing from the cancellation of the Palestinian elections. To the Times credit, it did mention the elections.

The wire service reports both appeared to be comprehensive in a bid to get reactions from Israeli and Palestinian officials, however Reuters failed to mention the overnight rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, nor any Hamas role in encouraging violence.

The Wall Street Journal coverage came across as the most comprehensive attempt to hit all the notes, mentioning, albeit not in great detail, the rising tensions in the city. In addition, the Journal report was the only one that acknowledged that Palestinian officials were encouraging violence.

“Both Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Fatah in the West Bank have called on Palestinians to step up confrontations with Israeli authorities and push back against Israeli activity in Jerusalem,” the Journal reported.

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