Headline at Forbes.com Wildly Misleads

There’s been a lot going on between the IDF and Palestinians this September. In Gaza, Palestinians are again on the march — though not nearly with the same numbers as during the Great March of Return that they conducted from 2018 to 2019, in an attempt to breach the security fence between Gaza and Israel. In the West Bank, the IDF has been conducting raids to arrest terrorists in Jenin and Jericho. And as usual, the media have done themselves proud in misrepresenting the situation, as they portray the IDF as a villain and the Palestinians as their victims. More on a recent example of this can be found here: “Forbes.com Won’t Face Facts About Palestinian Terrorists in Push For Punchy Headline,” by Rachel O’Donoghue, HonestReporting, September 21, 2023:

Summarizing the turmoil that has once again roiled the West Bank and the Gaza Strip over the last couple of days, a Forbes.com headline screeched: ‘Six Palestinians Killed In Three Separate Incidents By Israeli Forces Over 24 Hours.’

It is undoubtedly a compelling headline. Before even clicking on the piece, readers are given four distinct pieces of information that paint a profoundly disturbing picture: Israeli soldiers are responsible for the deaths of six Palestinians during incidents that were independent of one another and occurred in an incredibly short time frame.

Here are the four pieces of information in that headline: 1) six Palestinians were killed 2) by Israeli forces in 3) three separate incidents, in Jenin, Jericho, and Gaza 4) in a single 24-hour period. This sounds as if those mad-dog IDF soldiers were on a killing spree. But it wasn’t like that at all. At least three of the four killed in Jenin were claimed as members by the terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The fourth one killed in Jenin was in the same hideout as those three, suggesting that, at the very least, he was a willing collaborator with the terrorist groups. Another was hoist by his own petard — he was part of a group of violent rioters in Gaza, and was killed by shrapnel when an explosive device he was preparing to use against Israeli soldiers ignited prematurely. The sixth was killed in Jericho as he was hurling explosives at Israeli soldiers.

Now, imagine how different that picture would look if readers were told the following salient facts:

• Three of the four men killed during the counterterrorism raid in the terror stronghold Jenin were confirmed terrorists and claimed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
• Israeli forces came under a brutal assault when they attempted to carry out the arrests, with Islamic Jihad confirming that its members opened fire and detonated explosive devices.
• Another Palestinian man killed during a counterterrorism raid in Jericho on Wednesday morning was hurling explosives at soldiers when he was shot.
• The sixth man died during violent riots that were instigated by Hamas on the Israel-Gaza border, and it is thought that he may have died from shrapnel wounds after a device he was attempting to ignite exploded.

Unfortunately, the rest of the article by Forbes.com staff writer William Skipworth reads little better.

Note that the headline doesn’t mention what those six Palestinians were doing when they were shot. To repeat: Of the four Palestinians who were killed in Jenin, three were claimed by two terror groups — Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — as their members. They were assaulting IDF soldiers who were attempting to arrest several of them. The Palestinian shot in Jericho was killed while he was hurling explosives at IDF soldiers. The Palestinian who was killed in Gaza was wrongly identified by Forbes.com as having been killed by Israelis; he died from shrapnel that must have resulted when an explosive that he was trying to ignite exploded prematurely. Yet the headline laconically declares that “six Palestinians killed in three separate incidents by Israelis.” There is no hint that they were all actively trying to kill Israelis at the time they were killed.

Not only are Hamas and Islamic Jihad not mentioned once in the entirety of the piece — despite both groups confirming their involvement in the unrest — but the circumstances in which the men died are presented as in doubt.

Even though Islamic Jihad stated that it had commanded fighters to attack Israeli forces, the fact that gunmen opened fire is still expressed as something that is merely “claimed” by Israel:

The Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement that troops entered the camp as part of ‘counterterrorism activity’ and claimed that ‘armed gunmen opened fire’ at them before they returned fire.”

In addition, the riots that have raged on the Gaza border are ludicrously described as merely “regular protests along the border for the past week” that have been attended by “protesters.” Apparently, Skipworth thought there was nothing oxymoronic about reporting the next sentence that these “protests” had involved “throwing explosive devices and burning tires, as well as occasionally firing guns at Israeli guards.”

When Palestinians hurl explosives and burning tires at IDF soldiers, and even shoot to kill them, that is far more than a mere “protest.” This riot on the Gaza border were a murderous assault. Why didn’t the Forbes reporter, Mr. Skipworth, describe them that way?

The piece ends with some bullet points about the “key background” from which these incidents stemmed, including how the Gaza Strip is supposedly under “military occupation.” Of course, this will come as news to Israel, which unilaterally disengaged from the territory in 2005, dismantling all its settlements and military installations.

Mr. Skipworth can hardly be unaware that there hasn’t been a single Israeli civilian or soldier in Gaza since 2005. How can he conceivably believe that the Gaza Strip is under “military occupation”?

Another bit of background given for added context is the July raid in Jenin, which Skipworth claims “killed five and injured 91” and saw the use of a helicopter gunship — the first time one had been used “since the second Palestinian uprising around two decades ago.”

First, calling the guerilla [sic] [terrorist] campaign of suicide attacks, stabbings, and bombings on Israeli civilians a “Palestinian uprising” is deeply troubling….

An “uprising” is what happened in Iran in response to the killing of Mahsa Amini. An “uprising” is what happened in Syria in 2011. What the Palestinians conducted between 2000 and 2005 has entered history as the Second Intifada, that is, a sustained campaign of terror — shootings, stabbings, bombings, and suicide bombings — carried out by Palestinians against Israeli civilians. More than 1,000 Israelis were killed in that campaign.

Skipworth claimed that four Palestinians died in Jenin in July during an IDF raid. In fact, 12 Palestinians were killed, and it turns out that every single one of them was a member of a terror group — Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or the PFLP. How could Skipworth have been so far off in his count?

If the most basic facts about Israel and the Palestinians are unknown to Mr. Skipworth — remember, he describes Gaza as under “military occupation” and apparently thinks Hamas and Islamic Jihad had nothing to do with the latest violence in the West Bank and Gaza, for he never mentions them — then he ought to be assigned by Forbes to cover some other subject, something not too taxing. Sports, perhaps, or children’s television.