Between the start of this calendar year and the end of May,
20 civilians, among them both Israelis and tourists, and one border police officer had been killed in terror attacks in Israel. As part of efforts to hamper such attacks, earlier this week, the IDF conducted a counter-terror operation in Jenin. It was widely reported to have occurred in the Jenin refugee camp, though the area is a built-up neighborhood in the city, and the vast majority of its residents don’t fit the standard definition of “refugee.” The
Times of Israel reported that “a senior [Israeli] government official said that ‘the goal of this extensive operation is to end Jenin’s role as a “city of refuge” for terror….’”
Yet, a Monday headline on the CBS News website read, “
Palestinians in occupied West Bank say Israel bombing ‘innocent people’ in raid on Jenin refugee camp.” (July 3, 2023, by Haley Ott.)
The incendiary headline uncritically reflects the point of view of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who is quoted in the penultimate paragraph of the article:
But Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called the raid “a new attempt to destroy the camp and displace its people,” according to CBS News’ partner network BBC News. “Our heroic people will confront this aggression that is taking place under the eyes of the international community, where innocent people are bombed by planes. Our people will not kneel and will not surrender, and we will remain in confrontation until this criminal occupation is over.”
(On the neutrality of “CBS News’ partner network BBC News,” see CAMERA’s article
here.)
And the July 3 headline was followed up by “
Palestinians flee Israel’s raid on West Bank refugee camp as several hurt in Tel Aviv car attack,” (July 4, by Haley Ott) and “
Israel ends deadly raid in West Bank Palestinian refugee camp, but warns it won’t be ‘a one-off’” (July 5). Palestinians flee from Israel’s raid, but unspecified people are injured in an attack … by a car? according to CBS editors. Israel’s raid is deadly, but the cause is unimportant.
The July 3 article itself does include some comments from Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. CBS’s headline easily could have said, “Israelis say raid targeted ‘proxies of Iran.’” The article also reports that Cohen said, “due to the terror organization and the funds they receive from Iran, the Jenin camp has become a center for terrorist activity.” Yet, editors at CBS made the choice to go with “Palestinians … say Israel bombing ‘innocent people,’” essentially promoting the baseless libel that Israel intentionally targets civilians.
And even the comments from Israeli officials that were included failed to provide the type of concrete details, reported elsewhere, that would have properly put the Jenin raid into context. For example, the CBS article failed to report, as
Times of Israel did, that in the week prior to the raid, “Palestinians in the Jenin area attempted to launch two homemade rockets at Israeli towns.”
(full article online)
From the headline to the last sentence, CBS failed to adequately report on the Israeli rationale for the strike.
www.camera.org