Media Give Friendly Image Overhaul to Hunger Striking Terrorist

Khader Adnan was a prominent member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization. Convicted multiple times by Israel on terrorism charges, he died during his 13th spell in custody this week, on the 87th day of a hunger strike, having refused all medical treatment offered to him by Israeli authorities.

Despite the self-inflicted nature of his demise, the reaction of his fellow Islamic Jihad terrorists and their Hamas colleagues in Gaza was to hold Israel entirely responsible, firing a barrage of over 100 rockets and mortars on Israel’s south over the course of 24 hours, including one rocket that landed in Sderot, wounding three foreign nationals.

In stark contrast with the indiscriminate Palestinian rocket fire aimed at civilians, the IDF struck 16 separate targets belonging to Islamic Jihad and Hamas terror groups across the Gaza Strip overnight.

The reaction from some mainstream media to the events was all too predictable.

Who Was Khader Adnan?

While Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine Director Omar Shakir gushed about how Adnan “valiantly struggled” and “dies [with] his head raised high,” the reality is that Adnan had been convicted for encouraging and inciting terror attacks on innocent Israeli civilians and was likely on his way to a further conviction while awaiting trial.

In fact, video footage of Adnan speaking at a rally gives a good insight into his views. “Oh Quds Brigades, strike a blow! Oh Quds Brigades, shake the earth! Who among you is Hasan Abu Zaid [suicide bomber who killed five civilians]? Who among you is the next suicide bomber? Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?” Adnan can be seen screaming to an excited mob of Palestinians.

.@HRW Middle East head, Omar Shakir, hailing Iranian backed Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan (a terrorist who espouses horrific fundamentalist rhetoric) a hero.

This says far more about Omar and Human Rights Watch than anything. https://t.co/ODVTkcqF8h pic.twitter.com/YlvGAEqRe4

— Ari Ingel (@OGAride) May 3, 2023

Media Sanitize a Terrorist

The international media were similarly quick to recast Adnan as a brave freedom fighter who courageously and peacefully fought against an unjust system that was unfairly punishing him.

Take the BBC, for example, which initially called him a “well known Islamic Jihad activist” — terminology that veered even further from reality than the BBC’s usual definition of terrorists as “militants.” This sanitized description was eventually amended after being called out by HonestReporting on Twitter.

The British broadcaster also seemed to base its entire report on a press release from the Palestinian NGO Addameer — a group affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the terrorist organization behind numerous deadly attacks.

Reuters attempted to soften Adnan’s image, calling him a “baker and a father of nine” who was a “prominent political leader” within Islamic Jihad — an organization which, unlike Hamas, does not involve itself with Palestinian politics or running Gaza’s administration.

Likewise, The Guardian reimagined Adnan as a “well known political figure,” and quoted his lawyer Jamil Al-Khatib’s baseless allegation that he had been denied medical care prior to his death.

Never missing an opportunity to downplay Palestinian terrorism, The New York Times’ Raja Abdulrahim buried the fact that Adnan was an Islamic Jihad terrorist and reported in the first paragraph that a “prominent Palestinian prisoner” had died. Despite the story reporting on a barrage of 20 rockets, its sub-header referred to a solitary Palestinian rocket strike, thus adding to the sanitization of both Adnan and the terrorists’ violent response to his death.

Palestinian Terror and the Israeli Response — A False Equivalence

As is so often the case, some media, such as the Financial Times, failed to make a moral distinction between the indiscriminate Palestinian rocket fire and the IDF’s measured response.

Palestinian terrorists initiated hostilities, launching over 100 rockets & mortars at Israeli civilians. The IDF responded by striking terror targets in Gaza.

No, @FT, this is not “trading fire” between “forces.” Stop making an inappropriate equivalence.https://t.co/2IIEUjROL3 pic.twitter.com/T61SNIKsdf

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 3, 2023

Bizarrely, UPI claimed the IDF had targeted “Palestinian settlements,” falsely implying that Israel had bombed civilians before quietly amending its text after receiving a complaint from HonestReporting. The false equivalence, however, remains.

In addition, countless media organizations — either deliberately or carelessly — appeared to suggest that Adnan was being held in administrative detention, whereby terrorists who pose an imminent threat can be held for a period of time without charge.

However, while he had previously been detained using the administrative detention policy, Adnan was not actually in custody under these powers when he died, but rather had been indicted and was being held after a judge viewed the evidence.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

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