Daily Express publishes Hamas propaganda and blood libel that Israel gasses babies

Express article: click to expand

21 June 2016 UPDATE: The dead baby story has indeed been confirmed as a scam (as was obvious from the start to anybody who is not a Hamas supporter). The 8-month-old actually died from a fatal blood condition that runs in the family and Hamas paid them 8,000 shekels to make up the story blaming Israel for the death. Of course the Express - and all the other media outlets for which this was the headline news for 48 hours - will not print anything about the new revelations.

The Daily Express is considered to be a 'conservative' British newspaper and one of the few that is not anti-Israel. In fact it rarely publishes much 'foreign news' in any detail at all, which is why yesterday's unprecedented full page story demonizing Israel with the blood libel that it gassed a baby to death in Gaza is so appalling. It was known the previous day that this baby’s death had nothing to do with Israel (the baby died of a pre-existing condition; UPDATE 25 MAY: even Hamas now admits the baby's death had nothing to with Israel). But this is by no means the only thing shoddy about this most vicious and unbalanced anti-Israel hit piece. Note also the following:

• The Express had not provided a single news item previously about Hamas's ongoing provocations and violence against Israel's border, so its readers will know nothing about the context of what happened on Monday. On the contrary the story presents the lie that this was a spontaneous protest against the opening of the American Embassy in Jerusalem. 
• In fact the border - where all of the violence took place - is not even mentioned until paragraph 9. Instead the narrative is that Israel - out of nowhere - started to drop cannisters of lethal tear gas in the middle of Gaza. The fact that many of the 40,000 demonstrators were armed and violently attempting to breach the border - is not mentioned.
• Whereas the Hamas propaganda claims - including the ludicrous story of how the baby came to be in a war zone - are accepted as facts, the Israeli case is presented by claims in sarcastic quotes.
• Especially interesting is the fact that the claims by Ambassador Regev and  pro-Israel Colonel Kemp are both taken out of context from the the full statements they made. For example, whereas Kemp made a powerful and convincing argument about why all the blame for any deaths lay with Hamas and that the Israeli army had been meticulous in minimising casualties, the only quotes used by him here imply that force was being used as a deterrent to protesting.  

On Monday evening Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard issued a statement slamming Israel saying

..no one can tell me that the correct response was to fire live ammunition at unarmed Palestinians. 

It may or may not be coincidental that Pollard is also an Editor of the Express. Although it was always obvious (to people who properly follow what happens in Israel) that most of the casualties would have been armed terrorists and not 'unarmed civilians' as claimed by the media, Hamas spokesman Salah al-Bardawil actually admitted yesterday that 50 of the 62 dead were Hamas operatives (Islamic Jihad had already claimed three of the dead including the much cited '16 year old victim'). On hearing this Pollard has since apologised for his previous tweet. We are still waiting for any kind of apology - or even explanation - from the Express for one of the worst pieces of reporting on Israel ever. A report that is already further encouraging antisemites to attack Jews 'because Israel murders babies'.

Update: I have written to the Express and also submitted a formal complaint to IPSO about the article based on the inaccuracies listed above.

Update 20 May 2018: Now Nick Ferrari sustains the blood libel in the Sunday Express.

From IsraellyCool: