The Art of Alleged
April 24, 2006 | Aussie Dave | Comments 5
AP have published this rather gruesome photo with the following caption:
Palestinian medics tend to the body of an alleged Palestinian militant killed by an undercover Israeli army unit during an operation in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Sunday, April 23, 2006. Israeli undercover soldiers killed one Palestinian militant and arrested two others, Palestinian sources said. According to Palestinian sources the undercover unit ambushed the vehicle in the center of the town. The Israeli military was yet to make comment. (AP Photo/Magnus Johansson-MaanImages)
Read it carefully and focus on the parts in red.
Notice anything?
The status of the palestinian as a “militant” (i.e. terrorist) is only “alleged”, yet those who killed him are certainly Israeli undercover soldiers – despite the fact that palestinian sources are behind this assertion, and the IDF has not confirmed it.
What makes AP’s reliance on the palestinian version of events even bolder is the current Hamas-Fatah violence, which makes it even more likely that the pictured terrorist was killed by a rival terrorist group, and the palestinians are attributing the death to the Jews (much like palestinian victims of car accidents are mysteriously included in combat casualty figures).
Whether or not Israel, or fellow palestinian terrorists are, in fact, behind the death of a terrorist is really besides the point. In the absence of facts, a mainstream media organization such as AP should not be taking sides, in clear contravention of journalistic ethics and standards.
Filed Under: General
About the Author: An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.
Maybe the ‘alleged’ is attached to the “Palestinian.” Perhaps the militant was only alleged to be Palestinian. Maybe it was one of those Kadima militants — who can say until the IDF confesses? Nice analysis.
reporting used to be based on facts..now it is based on creativity…when there is DOUBT use the word alledged.Thanks for pointing this out
And in a freaky coincidence, the initials for “alleged palestinian” are AP (cue Twighlight Zone music).
Militant? That’s too harsh! Maybe they meant to say dissident.
Shy Guy
As I was the one taking the photo mentioned above and i can confirm that it was Israeli undercover forces that killed him. I was on the spot together with other journalist less than 5 minutes after the ambush. When you read captions to pictures like this you can be sure that the photographer on the spot sees whats going on and will put it accuratley in the caption. If you see the rest of the pictures from the same event you would see how Israeli soldiers arrest the other two militants (one was dragged naked and half dead around on the street by Israeli soldiers). The reson why it say “alleged Palestinian militants” is that 2 of them was unarmed and that they might have been just a driver or relative to the militants. Since we did not have the name of all 3 involved in the incident it was better not to say that they all are militants.
Magnus Johansson