Excessive Force

Are Israelis Allowed to Defend Themselves?

knivesAfter numerous deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas seems to be outraged that in self-defense Israelis sometimes kill their attackers. Does he believe that successful self-defense somehow unjustly denies Palestinians their rights?

UPDATED: CNN Duped by Anti-Israel Soccer Petition

Everything about CNN's claim that soccer star Didier Drogba joined 61 other players to protest the killing of Gaza teens playing soccer is false. Drogba signed nothing, there were fewer than 62 signatories to the petition, and Israel didn't kill 4 people playing soccer. UPDATE: CNN has corrected.

Memo to the Media: Check Those Civilian Casualty Claims

In Operation Pillar of Defense, some media, relying on Palestinian sources, exaggerate the proportion of civilian casualties in Gaza. They give less weight to Israeli figures and ignore the fact that 2 out of 3 fatalities are men between ages 18-40.

NPR’s Leila Fadel: Israel Targeting Journalists

NPR's Leila Fadel, a victim of harassment by Egyptian authorities, raises the false charge of Israel targeting journalists. She states Israel "struck a media building," without noting that Israel hit equipment belonging to Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV and Al-Quds TV.

Updated: In Gaza, Macabre Manipulations of a Child Victim

Once again, media outlets categorically blame Israel for the death of a Palestinian child killed in "hotly disputed" circumstances. AFP and AP captions ignore information pointing to an errant Palestinian rocket as the culprit, and Reuters issues a commendable clarification.

At Ha’aretz, English Translation Takes a Beating

Yesterday's English headline is a classic case of "Ha'aretz, Lost in Translation." Why write that an elderly Palestinian man was pushed (as the original, and accurate, Hebrew version did), if  "beat[en]" is so much more compelling?