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Palestine Media Watch

In Washington Post, Palestinians Attack, Israel Retaliates

PMWATCH - Washington - May 1 - Using the Lexis-Nexis database, PMWATCH performed a search for the words "retaliation" or "retaliate" within the text of news reports filed from Israel/Palestine and published in the Washington Post over the past 19 months. During that period, 32 news stories were found that used the words "retaliation" or "retaliate" somewhere in the text, and not in the context of a quotation. Of those, 31 instances of these words were specifically in reference to Israeli actions, and presented as facts rather than points of view or justifications offered by the Israeli government. Just once was the word "retaliation" used as it should be: as a claim made by Israeli government spokespeople and not as an uncontested fact. Describing an action as a "response" or "retaliation" does nothing more than reinforce the already well-entrenched view that Israel has always been at the receiving end of aggression and itself has never provoked any violence.

This unreflective appropriation of the Israeli framework and vocabulary, and this uncritical reproduction of canned justifications from only one side of a conflict, constitute a serious journalistic infraction and opens the Washington Post to legitimate accusations of bias. The Post could just as easily headline or refer to Palestinian actions as being retaliations for Israeli actions such home demolitions, assassinations, etc. - but it does not.

Instead, the Post has from day one of the Intifada been framing Israeli actions precisely as official Israel wants them to be framed - that is, as mere reactions or acts of self defense that are entirely disconnected from any actions that the Israeli military itself has taken against the Palestinians. And this in spite of the fact that the acts themselves (demolishing homes, bombarding buildings, blockading whole towns and villages) are patently perpetrated to punish an entire civilian population, and as such have been condemned by the United Nations, international governments, and humanitarian organizations (including Israeli human rights groups).

But when Palestinians react to Israel's military campaigns, their actions are never described as "retaliations" by the Washington Post, even when the perpetrators themselves describe their actions as "retaliatory" and even when they release videotapes in which they link their actions specifically to a particular Israeli action: an assassination, home demolition, etc. For example, after April's month-long full-scale military assault on Palestinian towns, villages, and refugee camps in the West Bank which left hundreds of people dead and entire civilian areas in ruins, a Palestinian attack on a Hebron settlement was headlined as "Palestinians Storm Settlement," as though this were an incident occurring in a vacuum and completely disconnected from the devastation caused by Israeli troops over the previous month. No hint was made anywhere in the article that this attack could in some way have been a response or retaliation for the deadly Israeli military campaign which immediately preceded it. In stark contrast, the Israeli response to that settler attack was headlined on the front page, above the fold, as "Israelis Retaliate With Raid in Hebron."

The Post's one-sided use of the word "terrorist" has also been thoroughly documented (see http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/cast/vigilante.asp ), and makes it quite obvious that this paper shies away from applying the adjective to Jews or Israelis, but does not apply the same restraint when writing about Palestinians - even when the actions both sides commit are equally condemnable. As this analysis has also shown, the same double standards are in full force with the Post's selective use of the word "retaliation."

Michael Getler, Washington Post ombudsman, has repeatedly advised readers and critics of the Post's Mideast coverage to examine the paper's coverage over time, and cautioned against making judgments based on one news article or one week's worth of news stories. This analysis (and accompanying analyses prepared by PMWATCH) follows that advice, tracking over a period of 19 months the Post's use of highly subjective terms such as "terrorist" or "retaliation" and documenting a clear pattern of bias. This is sloppy journalism which casts the aggressors as the victims and brainwashes the American reader, day after day, with the implicit message - and sometimes explicit, as in bold-type headlines - about Israeli "retaliations".

The Washington Post, as an honest broker of information, must arrive at a morally and journalistically acceptable policy on the use of these sensitive terms and make this policy public.

ACTION REQUESTED:

Contact Michael Getler, Washington Post ombudsman, to share your concerns about these blatant double standards and ask for a clarification of the Post's official policy regarding the use of highly subjective words such as "retaliation" in news coverage, if such a policy exists.

ombudsman@washpost.com

(202) 334-7582

Please mobilize and ask your friends to join in a campaign to bring a stop to these double standards. Fill your personal information, add your comments, and then click send.

Your letter will be sent to: ombudsman@washpost.com - letters@washpost.com

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[1]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Israelis Retaliate With Raid In Hebron; Offensive Continues Despite U.S. Pleas; At Least 9 Killed
BYLINE: Doug Struck and John Lancaster, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: HEBRON, West Bank, April 29

Israel said the raid was in retaliation for a shooting Saturday at a nearby Jewish settlement in which four Israelis were killed.

[2]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Israel Storms Arafat Offices In West Bank; Sharon Vows to Isolate 'Enemy'
BYLINE: Daniel Williams and Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, March 29 (Friday)

Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers stormed the compound sheltering Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah early today, firing rockets and knocking down parts of a perimeter wall. The raid came in retaliation for a series of Palestinian attacks that killed 26 Israelis in two days and followed an urgent appeal by Arafat on Thursday night for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire.

[3]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A11
HEADLINE: Sharon Backs Lifting Siege on Arafat; Israelis Destroy Palestinian's Gaza Headquarters
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: GAZA CITY, March 10

The destruction of Arafat's office, on a day of further Israeli airstrikes and sporadic violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, was in retaliation for the killing of 13 Israelis in a pair of Palestinian terrorist attacks Saturday night, one a shooting in the beachfront town of Netanya and the other -- far deadlier -- a suicide bombing in Jerusalem.

[4]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Israeli Shell Kills Woman, 5 Children; At Least 17 Dead In Reprisal Violence In Gaza, West Bank
BYLINE: Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: RAMALLAH, West Bank, March 4

The Israeli leader issued his pledge in response to a suicide bombing that killed 10 civilians Saturday evening in Jerusalem and a sniper attack that killed seven Israeli soldiers and three Jewish settlers north of Ramallah on Sunday. Those attacks were retaliation for Israeli assaults last week on two West Bank Palestinian refugee camps in which nearly 30 people died -- part of the cycle of killings and revenge that has made the last 10 days among the bloodiest in more than 17 months of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

[5]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Palestinian Kills 10 at West Bank Checkpoint; Sniper's Victims Include 7 Soldiers
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: RISHON LETZION, Israel, March 3

The shooting raised to 21 the number of Israelis killed in 24 hours as the violence here continued at a dizzying pace. Israelis had not even digested the news of a devastating suicide bombing in Jerusalem Saturday night, or buried the nine victims, when bulletins were broadcast shortly after dawn announcing the latest bloodshed. In retaliation for today's attack -- one of the most lethal against an army position in many years -- Israeli forces struck back with tanks, helicopter gunships and F-16 warplanes, killing four Palestinian security officers.

[6]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A17
HEADLINE: Israel Puts Tanks and Troops in Gaza City; Historic Incursion Follows Deadly Day
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, Feb. 21 (Thursday)

Israeli tanks and troops pushed into Gaza City, the largest Palestinian population center, for the first time early this morning, firing heavy machine guns and destroying a broadcast facility, people in the city reported. The incursion, a new escalation of Israel's armed pressure against the Palestinians, came after its military carried out a day of strikes in other Palestinian-governed areas as retaliation for the deaths of six Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint Tuesday. Sixteen Palestinians died in the strikes.

[7]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A20
HEADLINE: Israel Attacks Gaza City at Midday; Downtown Raids With F-16s, Helicopters Follow Use of New Rockets by Hamas
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, Feb. 11

Israeli warplanes and helicopters today pummeled targets in the center of Gaza, the largest Palestinian city, in response to a Palestinian rocket attack Sunday that Israel called a "new level of threat." The assault marked the second straight day of bombing in Gaza City by Israel's U.S.-made F-16s, which until last spring had not been used in the Gaza Strip and West Bank since the 1967 war. As Israel escalates its retaliation against Palestinians for attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, use of the warplanes has become increasingly commonplace.

[8]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: U.S. Hangs On in Mideast; 'Stakes Are Too High' to Pull Out, Powell Says
BYLINE: Peter Slevin and Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Staff Writers

Powell spoke out as Israeli warplanes, helicopters and ground forces attacked more facilities of Arafat's Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The attacks constituted the second day of retaliation for a bus ambush late Wednesday that killed 10 Israelis and wounded 30 near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

[9]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Sharon Severs Ties To Arafat After Bus Attack; Killing of 10 in West Bank Brings Israeli Retaliation
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, Dec. 13 (Thursday)

[10]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A35
HEADLINE: Arab Leaders Privately Pressure Arafat; Palestinian Leader Told to Restrain Militants, Keep Door Open for Peace Talks
BYLINE: Howard Schneider, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 5

In a potentially important rhetorical shift, the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, three moderate Arab states whose involvement is key to Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, have avoided any direct criticism of Israeli helicopter and fighter plane strikes launched in retaliation for a series of suicide bombings by Palestinians over the weekend.

[11]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Israeli Military Hits Arafat Sites; Airport Wrecked as Sharon Retaliates
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, Dec. 4 (Tuesday)

[12]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A26
HEADLINE: Tanks Roll Into Gaza As Israel Retaliates; 6 Palestinians Killed, Security Posts Razed
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip, Oct. 3

[13]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Israel Kills Palestinian Activist; Missiles Fly Through Windows of Building Housing Americans
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: EL BIREH, West Bank, Aug. 27

Israeli forces firing a pair of missiles with pinpoint accuracy assassinated a senior Palestinian leader today as he sat at his desk in an apartment building inhabited by several Palestinian American families. The target, Mustafa Zibri, 64, the chief of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was the most prominent such figure to be taken out by Israeli forces in more than a decade. In retaliation, gunmen in the Palestinian town of Beit Jala fired tonight on the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo, located in southern Jerusalem on West Bank land captured in the 1967 Middle East war, setting off Palestinian-Israeli exchanges in several areas.

[14]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A18
HEADLINE: Palestinians Protest Seizure Of Jerusalem Headquarters
BYLINE: Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, Aug. 11

Palestinians moved quickly today to put Israel on the defensive over the closure of Orient House, their political nerve center in Jerusalem, as a few dozen marchers tried to enter the compound before being pushed away by police. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, sent letters to world capitals urging them to pressure Israel to relinquish control of the building, seized early Friday in retaliation for a suicide bombing that killed 15 people.

[15]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Pressure Grows in Israel To Wage War on Arafat
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, July 12

Persistent Palestinian attacks and Israeli retaliation -- defying what is supposed to be a cease-fire -- have fed an intensifying debate in Sharon's government.

[16]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A10
HEADLINE: Israel Strikes Syrian Post In Lebanon; Raid Comes in Retaliation For Recent Hezbollah Attack
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, July 1

Israeli warplanes roared into neighboring Lebanon and struck a Syrian army antiaircraft position today, triggering an artillery and mortar duel with Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas along Israel's northern border and inflaming tensions throughout the Middle East. Israel launched the raid in retaliation for an attack Friday by Hezbollah, or Party of God, that wounded two Israeli soldiers, one of them severely.

[17]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A22
HEADLINE: Palestinians Refuse to Arrest Terror Suspects
BYLINE: Howard Schneider, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, June 7

The bombing reshaped Arafat's strategy on the eight-month-old Palestinian uprising, which has killed about 575 people, most of them Palestinians. The day afterward, he declared a cease-fire that has forestalled what would likely have been an intensive Israeli military retaliation.

[18]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A17
HEADLINE: Gun Battle in Gaza Jeopardizes Fragile Cease-Fire
BYLINE: Howard Schneider, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, June 4

Israel has been poised for a substantial military retaliation since a devastating suicide bomb in Tel Aviv Friday evening killed 20 Israelis and the Palestinian bomber.

[19]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A13
HEADLINE: Group Says Israel Added Settlements; Government Denies Report of Outposts
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, May 20

Peace Now issued a report on the new outposts as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon brushed off international and domestic criticism of his decision to order F-16 jet fighters to bomb Palestinian targets Friday. He insisted that his government would use as much military might as necessary to deter further Palestinian violence. The raids, which killed 11 Palestinians, were in retaliation for a suicide bomb attack by a Palestinian militant that killed five Israelis.

[20]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A34
HEADLINE: Israel Strikes Gaza Targets After Border Blast Kills 2; Romanian Laborers Latest Casualties of Escalating Violence
BYLINE: Nidal Mughrabi, Reuters
DATELINE: GAZA, May 10

Israeli missiles slammed into Palestinian targets in Gaza City today in retaliation for a roadside bomb that killed two migrant Romanian laborers repairing an Israeli fence on the Gaza border.

[21]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Worried U.S. Issues Rebuke To Israelis
BYLINE: Alan Sipress, Washington Post Staff Writer

In intervening in a rare public fashion to reverse the escalation of violence, Powell termed the Israeli thrust "excessive and disproportionate." He also blamed the Palestinians for precipitating the latest hostilities with "provocative" mortar attacks on Israeli territory and urged all sides in the region to reverse the dramatic increase in conflict during the last week. He also cited the attack on Israeli forces by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas Saturday and the subsequent Israeli retaliation against a Syrian radar post in Lebanon.

[22]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Israeli Jets Hit Syrian Radar in Lebanon; Bombing Is Called Retaliation for Hezbollah Attack
BYLINE: Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, April 16 (Monday)

Israeli officials declared the overnight airstrike, the first against Syrian targets since 1996, a retaliation for the killing Saturday of an Israeli tank crewman by Hezbollah, an armed Islamic force that was instrumental in forcing Israeli troops to end their occupation of southern Lebanon almost a year ago.

[23]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A16
HEADLINE: Israeli Jets Attack Southern Lebanon; Airstrikes Follow Strife in Disputed Area
BYLINE: Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, April 14

For the first time since Ariel Sharon took office last month, Israeli planes struck targets in southern Lebanon today, in retaliation for a deadly attack by Islamic guerrillas on Israeli soldiers defending disputed land on the Lebanese border.

[24]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Israel Retaliates for Bombings; Arafat's Security Unit Targeted After Series of Palestinian Attacks
BYLINE: Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, March 28

Israeli helicopters backed by tanks and gunboats blasted buildings used by elite Palestinian security forces in Gaza and the West Bank tonight in retaliation for a series of bombings inside Israel, including a nail bomb today that killed two Israeli teenagers waiting for a bus.

[25]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A19
HEADLINE: Bombs in Israel Leave 4 Dead, Scores Injured; Blasts Increase Pressure On Sharon to Retaliate
BYLINE: Daniel Williams, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, March 28 (Wednesday)

[26]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A14
HEADLINE: Israelis Break Off Talks After Settler Is Killed
BYLINE: Reuters
DATELINE: GAZA CITY, Jan. 15

Witnesses said Jewish settlers in Gaza set fire to Palestinian homes, fields and greenhouses in retaliation for the killing of Roni Tsalach, 32, who had been missing since Sunday.

[27]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Palestinians Defiant After Gaza Attacks
BYLINE: Keith B. Richburg , Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: GAZA CITY, Nov. 21

The Israeli missile strike on the Fatah office and other targets in this densely populated narrow strip of land was in retaliation for the bombing of a Jewish settlers' school bus in which two adults were killed and several children maimed.

[28]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Bus Blast Brings Israeli Strike
BYLINE: Keith B. Richburg , Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: GAZA CITY, Nov. 20

A bomb fashioned from a mortar shell blew deadly shrapnel into a school bus carrying Israeli settlers' children and their teachers to classes in Gaza this morning, killing two adults and badly wounding 10 other people, including young pupils. In swift retaliation, Israeli helicopter gunships launched antitank missiles at offices of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority tonight, injuring about 20 Palestinians and plunging Gaza City into darkness.

[29]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A25
HEADLINE: Palestinian Policeman Killed After Firing on Israeli Troops
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, Nov. 18

Israel accused Palestinian leaders of ordering the pre-dawn assault in the Gaza Strip, and said it contradicted Arafat's call for restraint. The Palestinians said they were investigating the shooting and urged Israel not to retaliate. "The same Palestinian officials that on one hand call for a cease-fire, on the other hand send officers to carry out attacks," said Israeli Brig. Gen. Yair Naveh. "It is clear that the attacker did not act alone."

[30]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Israel Strikes Palestinian Sites; Blast in Yemen Kills U.S. Sailors: Barak Retaliates For 'Lynching' of Reserve Soldiers
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader; Keith B. Richburg , Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, Oct. 12

[31]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: U.N. Chief Sees Opening to Ease Mideast Tension
BYLINE: Keith B. Richburg , Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: JERUSALEM, Oct. 10

Despite more scattered violence in the West Bank and Gaza, including a 9-year-old Palestinian boy who was shot in the head, diplomats struggled today to douse the flare-up of rioting and retaliation that has killed about 90 people in the last 12 days and endangered once-promising peace negotiations.

[32]

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
HEADLINE: Palestinians Defer Plans To Declare Statehood
BYLINE: Lee Hockstader , Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: GAZA CITY, Sept. 10

Israel had threatened to retaliate for any Palestinian declaration of statehood by annexing land it controls in the West Bank and by bottling up workers and commerce inside Palestinian-controlled areas.

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