Questions About Hass’s Accuracy Overlooked

In her March 15 feature on Israeli journalist Amira Hass, Marjorie Miller does a good job defining the controversy surrounding Hass’s point of view and ideology (“Voice for Israel’s Enemy”). However, Miller unfortunately neglects to mention lingering questions about Hass’s accuracy.

Hass, for example, reported in June, 2001 that Palestinian eyewitnesses saw Hebron’s Jewish community celebrating the shooting of a Palestinian by Israeli border police. She described the Jewish residents spitting on, stomping and kicking the Palestinian’s corpse and then shouting with joy and passing out candies. Televised accounts of the incident, however, proved Hass’s story was entirely bogus. A Jerusalem court found Hass guilty of lying with the malicious intent of damaging the Hebron community’s reputation and fined her more than $60,000.

In an article which explores whether Hass’ extreme ideology disqualifies her or not as an observer, this fact about her credibility certainly seems relevant in helping readers make a judgment for themselves.

Comments are closed.