Guardian celebrates Marwan Barghouti, and obfuscates his support for ‘armed resistance’

Marwan Barghouti is a murderer currently serving five consecutive life terms (plus 40 years) in an Israeli prison for his 2004 conviction on multiple charges relating to the killing of five civilians during the Second Intifada. The court determined that “Barghouti was responsible for providing the field units with money and arms” and that the attacks were often “based on instructions” he received personally from Yasser Arafat.

The court found Barghouti responsible for a June 2001 attack in Maale Adumim in which a Greek monk was murdered, a January 2002 terror attack in Givat Zeev, a March 2002 attack at Tel Aviv’s Seafood Market restaurant in which three people were murdered, and a car bomb attack in Jerusalem. (The original indictment, which accused Barghouti of responsibility for 33 additional murders, can be viewed here.)

As CAMERA has reported, Barghouti was also widely considered one of the main leaders in the Palestinian campaign of violence during the Second Intifada and helped found and then lead the Fatah-based militias which carried out numerous suicide bombings.

He’s also a Guardian contributor.

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Barghouti, in his Oct. 11th op-ed, commented on the recent Palestinian “uprising” which has killed five Israelis and injured many more. 

Whilst Barghouti has previously explicitly expressed his support for terrorism, as “the only way to end the occupation”, his Guardian op-ed avoids explicitly endorsing terror (evidently out of a wish not to offend British sensibilities), though implicitly suggests that this is the Palestinians’ only alternative.

This new Palestinian generation has not awaited reconciliation talks to embody a national unity that political parties have failed to achieve, but has risen above political divides and geographic fragmentation. It has not awaited instructions to uphold its right, and its duty, to resist this occupation.

Then Marghouti proceeds to misinform readers about the nature of the recent Palestinian ‘resistance’.

It is doing so [resisting the occupation] unarmed, while being confronted by one of the biggest military powers in the world

Of course, this is just a lie. The recent terror surge has been characterized by Palestinian attacks against Israelis using knives, guns and firebombs.

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“Unarmed”?: A 19-year-old Palestinian stabs two Israeli Special Patrol Officers with a knife on Saturday in Jerusalem

Tellingly, Guardian reporters and editors have stamped their approval on Marghouti’s deception.

Their Jerusalem correspondent, Peter Beaumont, devoted a story to celebrating Marghouti’s Guardian op-ed.

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Beaumont described the convicted murderer as “a hugely important Palestinian political figure”, his op-ed as “impassioned”, and proceeds to run interference for Barghouti by failing to mention his continued support for terror.

Not to be outdone was the Guardian’s Middle East editor, Ian Black, who shared the following on Twitter.

Note the curious decision by Black to add the hashtag #Intifada, presumably to generate interest in the op-ed among the radical, pro-“resistance” crowd.

Last year, in a UKMW post exploring the likely reaction by the Guardian in the event a new Intifada began, we came to the following conclusion:

There are quite a few factors which lead us to believe that many Guardian reporters and editors will likely lend moral support to the Palestinians in the event they launch another deadly intifada.  

Specifically, the paper has shown a clear tendency in the past to license extremist commentators who reject peace and reconciliation with Israel and legitimize (if not justify) Palestinian terrorism.  Additionally, their binary moral paradigm in which Palestinians are seen as immutable victims of Israeli oppression further necessitates at least tacit support for the Palestinians’ recourse to violence. 

The Guardian’s decision to publish an op-ed by an unrepentant Palestinian terrorists responsible for the murder of several civilians, and the promotion of that piece by their Jerusalem correspondent and Middle East editor, serves as additional evidence that the media group can indeed be expected to provide moral cover for the next coordinated Palestinian onslaught against innocent Jews.

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