How the world media distorted the Majdal Shams soccer field slaughter of kids - opinion

Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, will be remembered as the worst day in the history of the State of Israel – a day on which more Israelis were murdered, kidnapped, and raped than ever before or (please God) ever again.

It will also be remembered as a day when the international media was finally sympathetic to Israel and understood the evil posed by the Hamas terrorist organization. At least until Israel began retaliating, Israelis were clearly the victims, and Hamas the bad guys.

The media’s reporting on Hezollah’s rocket attack that killed 12 Israeli children has been disgraceful. Want to see the hideous lows journalists sank to last night?

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 28, 2024

Saturday, July 27, 2024, could have become the date of a similar situation with Hezbollah.

This time, it was not 1,200 Israelis, mainly Jewish, but also Arab, Christian, and Muslim, who were killed in one day. 

It was 12 adorable Israeli Druze children, murdered on a soccer field while the soccer games were being held at the summer Olympics; leaving behind a tragically devastated and heartbroken community. 

There was initially some sympathetic foreign coverage of the assassinated Druze children of Majdal Shams, though not in the context of Israel’s situation as a whole. 

But, as on Oct. 7, that positivity in the press did not last long.

A few hours after the soccer field slaughter, the media had already started getting it wrong.   BEFORE PROVIDING examples, it is important to ask why this matters. 

Why should we care to receive bear hugs from the media during fleeting moments of victimhood?

First and foremost, the tragic attack was a key opportunity to correct erroneous impressions of Israel and its enemies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took an Israeli Beduin soldier to Congress as evidence of Israel’s diversity. Tragically, the massacre perpetrated by Hezbollah on the Druze village of Majdal Shams illustrates it much better.

Secondly, we want the world to know that all Israeli citizens, regardless of religion, race, or creed, are united in fighting our enemies and enabling the restoration of security and safety for more than 80,000 displaced Israelis. 

Israel’s minorities have arguably become a lot more Israeli during this war, even in Majdal Shams, whose residents were initially reluctant to accept Israeli citizenship after Israel annexed the Golan in 1981.

We also want the evil of Hezbollah to be crystal clear to the world, especially after our serious retaliation on Tuesday night. Israel has been wanting to seriously damage Hezbollah’s attack capabilities over these nearly 10 months of lower-intensity warfare, and after this tragedy the state could no longer ignore the threat.

After all the animosity we have endured since October 8, couldn’t we have used a break from the world’s criticism, even for a single day?

But the media couldn’t let that happen. It got it wrong right from the get-go. Before the bodies were buried, the foreign press’s attention immediately shifted to the question of how and when Israel would retaliate.

Dear @SkyNews, Thank you for your empathy for the loss of 12 children murdered by Hezbollah. Israelis want and deserve security and to return safely home. Your calling that a "lust for revenge" while our children are being buried is deeply offensive.https://t.co/IIZrgMfOVD pic.twitter.com/L3Lj6OoNAq

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 29, 2024

Distortions and Hypocrisy

Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford invoked a blood libel by accusing Israelis of having a “lust for revenge.” When Jewish Chronicle editor Jake Wallis Simons questioned Crawford on X, she unabashedly doubled down and said she would change her copy to “lust for revenge as demonstrated over the last nine months.” She dared him that the next time he reviewed Sky’s coverage, he should cover “numbers of dead, UN experts’ starvation claims, children killed, and ICJ investigations.”

Crawford made a fool of herself by saying that hecklers of Netanyahu in Majdal Shams had shouted at him to get out of the town because Israel was an “occupier” – as if their thoughts at the time were about the geopolitical status of the Golan.  

She parroted false claims by Hezbollah that it had “absolutely nothing to do with the incident,” even though the terror group had originally claimed responsibility, assuming that the dead were soldiers from a nearby IDF base.

Crawford did not alter her story even after it became clear that the Iranian-provided rocket used for the attack was only in the possession of Hezbollah.

“It’s worth pointing out that Hezbollah haven’t ever denied any previous attacks on Israeli targets,” she said, in defense of the terror group, without noting the obvious, that previous attacks had killed Jews, not Druze children.

Sky News’ initial headline called the murderous strike an “attack on a football pitch in the Israeli-occupied Golan.” But the target had been the innocent children kicking a ball on the pitch, not the patch of grass, and the status of the territory was irrelevant. 

Since October 8, Hezbollah has fired 6,700 rockets at pre-1967 Israel, which the world at large does not consider occupied.

The New York Times’ headline said that the attack “killed at least 12” without identifying the victims as children, and referred to the Golan Heights as “Israeli controlled.” NBC also just provided a number of dead, without saying that they were kids, while noting Israel’s control over the Golan.

“You could have reported that Hezbollah massacred children on a soccer field in a Druze town using Iranian rockets,” the media watchdog HonestReporting posted on X on Saturday night. “Instead, you subtly and nefariously shifted the blame by highlighting ‘Israeli-controlled’ territory. The Golan Heights are Israel. Disgraceful.”

Both The Washington Post and National Public Radio (NPR) connected Hezbollah’s strike to Israel’s war in Gaza. The Washington Post simply announced that “attacks in Gaza and Golan Heights” had occurred. The following day, along with an agonizing picture of Druze victims, the paper hypocritically ran a headline about Israel “hitting targets in Lebanon.”

NPR’s headline said that the strike happened “after Israel struck a Gazan school,” connecting two completely unrelated incidents. This also suggested that the IDF targeted children, without noting that Hamas has used schools as command posts throughout the war.

“We expect the worst from NPR already,” HonestReporting posted on X. “But suggesting Hezbollah’s attack was some kind of retaliation strike is just NPR shilling for terrorists. Hezbollah wanted to murder and maim Israeli kids, and NPR manages to justify it.”

The BBC used the less emotive term “young people” to describe the victims in their headline, which also emphasized Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s attack.

Newsweek called it “an apparent rocket strike,” as if the victims could have been killed by a typhoon.

CNN initially said the attack “killed at least 10 people, including children.” The network soon shifted focus from the many victims of the deadliest strike on Israel since Oct. 7 to Hezbollah’s denial that it was responsible.

Israel targeted senior Hezbollah operative Fouad Shukr, the man behind the deaths of 12 children in Majdal Shams and many other attacks. Yet, some media focused on Israel bombing a "Beirut suburb" instead of him and his crimes.Here's a breakdown: pic.twitter.com/c3FHHRQ7tu

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) July 30, 2024

FOLLOWING the assassinations of Fuad Shukr – the Hezbollah commander who was responsible for the strike on Majdal Shams Tuesday night – and of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh Wednesday morning, the coverage did not get better.

The NBC News headline said “Israel attacks Beirut suburb,” as if instead of eliminating an arch-terrorist, the IDF aimed at civilians in Teaneck, New Jersey. 

The Guardian called Haniyeh “a moderate,” and not to be outdone, Crawford called the mass murderer “a very moderate leader.” The New York Times warned that two assassinations “would be an audacious escalation in the region” as if Oct. 7 and July 27 had not audaciously escalated the region already.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by HonestReporting (@honestreporting)

The reporting on Hezbollah’s strike revealed an appalling media double standard. 

Casualties in Israel are stripped of sympathy. For many journalists, Israel is an “occupier” and an “aggressor,” and even its civilian losses are framed as a just consequence.

This simplistic narrative robs the innocent people lost in this war of their humanity and justifies the worst terrorist atrocities. 

Gil Hoffman is the executive director and executive editor of the pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting. He served as chief political correspondent and analyst of The Jerusalem Post for 24 years.