On September 27, 2012, the Spanish newspaper El País published a letter from ReVista de Medio Oriente, CAMERA’s Spanish Language Website, highlighting inconsistencies in its September 26 article “Un incómodo espectador” (An uncomfortable spectator), written by journalists Ignacio Cembrero and Ramón Besa.
Among numerous inaccuracies, the article’s skewed sub-heading described Gilad Shalit as an “Israeli soldier involved in the Gaza Massacre”.
This is a CAMERA translation of the letter published in El País:
Comments on Gilad Shalit
The sub-heading of the article in the Sports section on September 28, 2012 regarding the possible attendance of Gilad Shalit as a guest to a Barça game (Barcelona Football Club) speaks of a “Controversy over the alleged invitation from the Barça to an Israeli soldier involved in the Gaza massacre, to attend the derby against Madrid on October 7 at the Camp Nou (Barcelona Stadium).” This sentence is misleading.
Firstly, Gilad Shalit is not an Israeli soldier “involved” in any massacre, but a young man who, while doing his obligatory military service was kidnapped by Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by the European Union, the U.S. State Department and other Western countries. Shalit was in fact held prisoner for over five years by Hamas and therefore could not have been involved in any alleged military confrontation, since he was held against his will and was stripped of his Third Geneva Convention rights.
Secondly, the use of the term “Gaza massacre” could not be more biased, since it reduces an alleged confrontation between a country and an attacking entity into a propaganda slogan that turns the media into a mouthpiece for one of the parties.