‘Horrific’ journalism at Daily Express – parrots PA propaganda that Israel shoots kids

The Daily Express journalist did nothing more than copy and paste crude Palestinian propaganda alleging that Israel shoots kids and sell it as real news. Even for a tabloid, this is gutter journalism.

The accusation that Israel wantonly kills or tortures kids is among the more insidious charges leveled by pro-Palestinian campaigners across the globe – a smear, sadly, echoed at times by even ‘respectable’ British news outlets.

Here’s one example, from 2005, by the Guardian’s former Jerusalem correspondent Chris McGreal which we examined in a blog post several years ago..

Guardian 2005

Today, the Daily Express echoed this lethal narrative in an article written by reporter Joe Carey on a “horrific” report that Israel shoots kids.


The only thing “horrific” here is the inept journalism.

There are several problems with the article, as we noted earlier in a tweet to the journalist.

First, the article uses, as its sole source for the unsubstantiated claim, The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, which the article fails to identify as a PA Ministry (controlled by the PLO) which is one of the institutions responsible for paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists.

Further, it claims that “32 minors” have been detained in Israel’s Ofer prison, but provides no context or details on their arrests.  The report also alleges that two of the minors were shot before being sent to prison – a claim which inspired the headline – but fails to note if they were shot whilst carrying out, or attempting to carry out, terror attacks.  As Adam Kredo of the Free Beacon reported last year, “At least 79 separate terror attacks have been carried out by Palestinian children ranging in ages from eight to 17” during the recent wave of terror from 2015 to 2017.

There also appears to be no attempt whatsoever by the reporter to do his job by attempting to corroborate these PA claims.  Nor, it seems, did he contact Israeli authorities for comment.

Moreover, it’s quite telling that the only other site we could find that covered this “horrific” report was the pro-Hamas site Middle East Monitor (MEMO).  Interestingly, though, MEMO’s headline (“Report: Israel imposes $28,000 fines on Palestinian children”, June 4) is significantly more restrained than the one chosen by Daily Express editors.

Their journalist did nothing more than copy and paste context-free Palestinian propaganda and sell it as real news. Even for a tabloid, this is gutter journalism.

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