AFP Captions Whitewash Arch-Terrorist Dallal Al-Mughrabi

By: Tamar Sternthal January 5, 2020
Last week Fatah supporters in Bethlehem carried a huge sign glorifying arch-terrorist Dallal al-Mughrabi, who was involved in the deadliest massacre in Israel, the 1978 coastal attack in which 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, were murdered. An Agence France Presse photographer captured images of sign, but most of the accompanying carried captions failed to identify al-Mughrabi or whitewashed her as a “militant,” as if she had fought Israeli soldiers in the battlefield, and had not slaughtered dozens of unarmed men, women and children.
About al-Mughrabi’s role in that particularly brutal attack, The New York Times has reported:
. . . Dalal Mughrabi, was the 19-year-old leader of a Palestinian squad that sailed from Lebanon and landed on a beach between Haifa and Tel Aviv. They killed an American photojournalist, hijacked a bus and commandeered another, embarking on a bloody rampage that left 38 Israeli civilians dead, 13 of them children, according to official Israeli figures. Ms. Mughrabi and several other attackers were killed.
The following Jan. 1 AFP caption misleads, falsely characterizing her as a “militant”:

Supporters of the Palestinian Fatah movement march with posters of late leader Yasser Arafat (L), Fatah chairman and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas (R),and female militant Dalal al-Mughrabi during a rally marking the 55th foundation anniversary of the political party in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on January 1, 2020. Musa AL SHAER / AFP

 

Two other captions failed to identify her at all, though big signs glorifying her in Arabic as “Palestine’s guerilla warrior” and “martyr,” are featured in the images.

Supporters of the Palestinian Fatah movement take part in a rally marking the 55th foundation anniversary of the political party in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on January 1, 2020. Musa AL SHAER / AFP

Supporters of the Palestinian Fatah movement take part in a rally marking the 55th foundation anniversary of the political party in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on January 1, 2020. Musa AL SHAER / AFP

One other image yesterday by the same photographer, Musa Al Shaer, did have a caption which did commendably note Al-Mughrabi’s role in a massacre, thought it still inaccurately called her a “militant.” 

Supporters of the Palestinian Fatah movement march with a poster of female militant Dalal al-Mughrabi, who took part in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel, during a rally marking the 55th foundation anniversary of the political party in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on January 1, 2020. Musa AL SHAER / AFP

CAMERA has contacted the AFP about the grossly misleading caption. As of this writing, editors have yet to amend the captions to make clear that she led the massacre of dozens of civilians.

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