A few days ago, when Israeli President Isaac Herzog addressed the media from Bondi Pavilion after laying a wreath to honour the victims of the Bondi terror attack, he was asked the following question by one of the journalists:
President Herzog answered the question, but he would have been well within his rights to object to the very claim upon which the question was predicated: that protesters were planned for those “mourning 70,000 killed in Gaza, including 20,000 children” (in fact, I wish he had). This is a highly biased, misleading question:
- The protests were protesting President Herzog’s very presence in Australia – claiming he is a genocide advocate – and not those merely “mourning” those killed in Gaza
- The vast majority of the protesters are not “mourners”; they oppose Israel’s very existence and want it supplanted by a palestinian state
- The question paints the protesters as solemn and peaceful and not the rabid mob we saw calling to “Globalize the Intifada” and other vile chants
- The numbers of casualties in Gaza have not been independently verified, with the 70,000 and 20,000 being numbers supplied by the Gazan Ministry of Health, run by the untrusthworthy Hamas
- Framing the question to mention the alleged total number killed – as if all innocent civilians – is highly misleading and dishonest, given as many as 25,000 of those killed could have been terrorists
And who was the journalist who asked this question? It was Farid Farid, a reporter for Australian Associated Press (AAP).
AAP describes itself as Australia’s independent national newswire service “renowned for its factual, impartial reporting.” They claim to be “committed to truth and accuracy” and are “accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network.”
Journalists are free to ask tough questions. They are not free to smuggle in contested claims as settled fact, especially not at a solemn memorial for terror victims.
If AAP wants to trade on the language of impartiality and fact-checking accreditation, then it should hold its own reporters to that standard.
