Haaretz Covers Up For Palestinian Prisoner Mohammed al-Qiq

In an article yesterday about Mohammed al-Qiq, a Palestinian prisoner who is being held without trial, Haaretz‘s English edition identifies the prisoner only as “a television reporter” (“Palestinian journalist urges international intervention after 63 day hunger-strike in Israeli detention“). In the latest instance of “Haaretz, Lost in Translation,” the English edition omits key information that appears in Jack Khoury’s original Hebrew article: that al-Qiq is reportedly affiliated with Hamas, and that security officials said he is being held because of his current involvement in terror activity and not due to incitement.
 
Unlike Haaretz‘s English edition, wire services which also covered the story yesterday included the critical information from Israel’s Shin Bet that al-Qiq was recently involved in Hamas terror activity.
 
The Associated Press reported: “Israel’s Shin Bet security service says al-Qeq is involved in terrorism activities linked to the militant Hamas movement.”
 
Likewise, AFP reported: “Shin Bet, the Israeli domestic security service, said Qiq was arrested for ‘terror activity’ as part of the Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.”
 
Even Gulf Today mentions the Shin Bet’s allegation that al-Qeq is involved with current terror activity: “Shin Bet, the Israeli domestic security service, alleges Qiq is an active member of Hamas group which controls the Gaza Strip.”
 
CAMERA yesterday informed editors of the substantive omission from the English edition article, which ran yesterday on page 2 of the print edition as well as online. Information about al-Qeq’s alleged Hamas activity does not yet appear in the online article.
 
This is not the first time that Haaretz has whitewashed the reported terror activity of Palestinian prisoners. In February 2013, the paper ran a huge, five-column, page-two photograph of Palestinian hunger striker Samer Issawi. The caption noted that Issawi “was jailed in an Israeli prison and has been on hunger strike for 209 days,” but ignored the fact that Issawi had been convicted of firing at a civilian vehicle and civilian buses and manufacturing and distributing explosives used against Israeli civilians.

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