The Guardian headline on Palestine that’s shaming the entire field of journalism

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Israel’s military reportedly killed seven Palestinians during a raid, and the ensuing gunfight also killed an Israeli lieutenant colonel. Other than a Hamas commander, all the Palestinians were aged between 19 and 25.

Reporting on the raid, however, the Guardian went with the following headline:

The Guardian‘s tweet soon seemed to disappear. But it was too late:

The (now changed) headline positioned seven Palestinian deaths as less important than one Israeli death. On top of that, it also claimed that the Palestinians simply “died” while the Israeli was “killed”.

“Racist headline”

Many on social media reacted in angry disbelief:

Guardian censorship on Israel’s occupation

A number of former Guardian journalists have previously expressed concern over the outlet’s coverage of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The Guardian dumped former columnist Nafeez Ahmed for reporting on Israel’s colonial interest in Palestinian resources. Ahmed used his editorial freedom to publish a piece about Israel targeting Palestinian gas reserves: $4bn worth of natural gas was found off the Gaza coast back in 2000. The Guardian closed Ahmed’s environment blog the day after he posted the article. Former Guardian opinion contributor Jonathan Cook allegedly experienced similar censorship on Palestine.

Meanwhile, renowned journalist John Pilger wrote his last Guardian piece in 2015. He said the corporate outlet axed his column in a “purge”, stressing:

my written journalism is no longer welcome – probably [its] last home was The Guardian, which three years ago got rid of people like me and others in pretty much a purge of those who were saying what The Guardian no longer says.

The Guardian can be an important resource, and it occasionally hosts some fantastic opinion writing. But its reporting on issues such as Israel and Palestine is unforgivably weak.

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Featured image via Mib Games/ Flickr

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