Welt editor-in-chief Ulf Poschardt spoke to the Jüdische Allgemeine about the anti-Israel bias of the German and European media.
In the German media, especially the news agency DPA, Hamas terrorists are often simply referred to as „militant Palestinians”. According to the editor-in-chief of Welt, a newspaper which, in the tradition of its owner Springer, has been clearly pro-Israel from the start, this is a ‘criticism of Israel’, with an attitude that strives to portray the enemies of the Jewish state in a more differentiated light that makes sense.
Ulf Poschardt said that „this bias has always existed, especially in supposedly left-liberal circles. (…) I find it sad that the incredibly unfair view of Israel is so popular in Germany in particular.”
Concerning the British media, Poschardt gives an example: the worst was an interview with military spokesman Eylon Levy on Sky. „He was asked if Israel values Palestinian lives less than Israeli lives because Israel traded one hostage for three prisoners. The question was almost satirical in its stupidity, its impertinence and its allusion to Jewish bargaining.” The journalist sees it as a great advantage that Israeli politicians, but also military spokesmen, have learned a lot and no longer let the presenters get away with such innuendo-laden questions.
Regarding the fact that the BBC does not call Hamas a terrorist organisation because the term is „too emotionally charged and prevents people from understanding the conflict”, Poschardt calls the BBC’s embarrassment „unprecedented”.
„We can see the impact of Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitic offensive on Labour and those close to it. Now, frankly, if anyone has seen the pictures of the massacres and then doesn’t understand what we’re talking about, it can only be because, if in doubt, they themselves are latently or actually sympathetic to what is emerging as a supposed source of conflict in the Middle East.”
The British public media has for many years been so one-sided in its coverage of Israel that in 2021, it was ranked third on the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s international list of antisemitism, just behind Iran and the Hamas terrorist organisation. „We believe that the BBC has been guilty of several antisemitic incidents in the past year,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the head of the centre, at the time.
„Do you think there are any reasons, other than secret sympathy, for not calling terrorists terrorists?” asked the Jüdische Allgemeine from Poschardt, to which he replied that „this also serves to avoid the loss of the idyllic vision of post-colonial heroes. It is an attempt at self-deception. If I call terrorists just militants, then I can linguistically distance myself from the fact that this is naked, profound barbarism. Yet it is quite clear that Hamas terrorists are enemies of enlightenment and human rights. And it happens in many debates that this is narrowed down to the problem of the Jews. As a Protestant Zionist, it is clear to me that you have already lost if you buy into this logic.”
A few days after the interview was published, HonestReporting, an organisation that monitors biased media coverage of Israel, presented a new collection of how the mainstream media is reporting on the Israel-Hamas war.
The BBC, for example, called the massacre, torture and rape of innocent Israeli civilians „armed resistance”, Sky News said only „alleged” Israeli women were raped by terrorists, The New York Times, adopting Palestinian parlance, called the Israeli army „Israeli occupying forces”, the Daily Beast, citing unverified Palestinian sources, claimed that Jewish settlers in the West Bank had killed „hundreds” of Palestinian civilians (although they were responsible for no more than ten deaths), and the Irish Times simply called Jesus „a Jewish Palestinian”.
Original article: tev.hu
Photo credit: Welt
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