On July 25th the BBC promoted a report by its Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield:
Readers of Schofield’s article – headlined “Pro-Palestinian convict freed by France after 41 years” and tagged “Israel and the Palestinians” and “Palestinian territories” despite the story having no direct connection to either of those topics – are told that: [emphasis added]
“Georges Abdallah, a 74-year-old Lebanese teacher who became a left-wing symbol for the Palestinian cause, has been freed by France on Friday after 41 years in jail.”
Only in paragraph three do readers get any inkling of why that “symbol” had been imprisoned.
“Convicted in 1987 for complicity in the murders in France of two diplomats – one American, one Israeli – Abdallah has gradually been forgotten by the wider public.
But his release remained a cause célèbre for activists on the Marxist-Leninist left, with which he still identifies.”