CAMERA’s Israel office today prompted correction at Haaretz‘s English edition after the Israeli daily whitewashed arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti’s responsibility for multiple deadly attacks as “alleged.”
Ignoring the terror leader’s conviction for five counts of murder, Haaretz‘s Ben Samuels prevaricated about Marwan Barghouti’s responsibility for numerous fatal terror attacks (“Trump sheds new light on truce in Time interview,” page 2 in Oct. 24 print edition and online here):
Trump acknowledged being lobbied to call for Israel to release Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah leader imprisoned for more than two decades over his alleged role in deadly terror attacks. Barghouti has been widely touted as the sole Palestinian leader capable of unifying the Palestinian people, with many international supporters framing him as a sort of Nelson Mandela-like figure. [Emphasis added.]
But as Haaretz elsewhere reported last year, Barghouti
was convicted on five counts of murder for the deaths of four Israelis and a Greek monk, as well as attempted murder and conspiracy to murder. In June 2004, he was sentenced to the maximum possible punishment for his convictions: five cumulative life sentences for the murders, and an additional 40 years for attempted murder and conspiracy. [Emphasis added.]
In addition, as the same February 2024 Haaretz story rightly noted, Barghouti “became the leader of Fatah in the West Bank and head of its armed wing, Tanzim.” [Emphasis added.] According to Israel, he was also a founder and senior figure in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, responsible for massacring dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and shooting attacks in the Second Intifada.
In response to communication from CAMERA’s Israel office, editors today commendably improved the digital article, inserting a reference to his convictions and removing the inappropriate “alleged” language. The amended text states:
Trump notably acknowledged being lobbied to call for Israel to release Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah leader who was convicted in an Israeli court for his role in deadly terror attacks and has been imprisoned for more than two decades.
In addition, a note commendably appended to the bottom of the article alerts readers to the change. It states:
This article was amended to include the fact that Marwan Barghouti was convicted of terrorism in an Israeli court.
In 2017, Haaretz previously amended an article which had cited “convicted Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti” without disclosing what the conviction entailed.
For the Hebrew version of this article, please see here.
See also “New York Times Adds Terrorist Background on Op-Ed Contributor Marwan Barghouti“