Tell one of the world’s most influential news sources to stop blaming Israel for Hamas’ brutal persecution of Palestinian Christians.
“A December 10 Reuters piece written by Nidal al-Mughrabi rightly draws attention to the plight of Christians in the Gaza Strip,” writes HonestReporting’s Gidon Ben-Zvi. “Yet the writer comes down with a case of selective amnesia, neglecting to note the history of persecution of this tiny minority by Gaza’s rulers.”
Ben-Zvi continues, “Israel’s blockade of the Strip – imposed to repel incessant attempts by the Hamas terrorist group to attack the Jewish state – is assigned a disproportionate amount of the blame for the precarious state of the Palestinian enclave’s Christians.”
HonestReporting corrected Reuters for “omit[ting] the primary cause of [Palestinian Christians’] misfortune,” which is “Hamas violence against the Christian residents of Gaza, not Israel’s ongoing battle against the terrorist organization.”
The watchdog group pinpoints exactly what’s wrong with Reuters’ biased report: “What goes unmentioned is the systematic persecution by Hamas of its Christian residents.”
After Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza in 2005, the Hamas terror group wrested control of the Strip from other Palestinian factions in a bloody coup. In 2005, there were around 5,000 Christians living in the Gaza Strip. That number plummeted to 1,300 by 2014.
That should come as no surprise because the “Palestinian Territories” are some of the worst places in the world for Christians in terms of persecution, according to a recent study by the Open Doors organization cited by HonestReporting.
According to the report quoted by HonestReporting, “’Islamic oppression is fueling this tyranny against a religious minority. In addition, the study reveals that ‘Islamic extremist militants are also present in [Judea and Samaria], causing Christians to fear being attacked,’ and that the persecution is particularly brutal for converts to Christianity.”
Despite these facts, Reuters’ coverage disproportionately points the finger at Israel. This is particularly problematic in light of the fact that Reuters is one of the most influential global sources of news, employing 2,500 journalists in 200 locations around the world.
The time has come for Reuters to tell the truth about who is persecuting Palestinian Christians!
Protest Reuters’ distorted portrayal of Hamas’ persecution of Palestinian Christians
Send your own message to the Reuters by clicking here, or send this template:
Dear editor, I am writing to express my dismay that Reuters published an article omitting the primary cause of Palestinian Christians’ persecution in the Gaza Strip, which is unchecked violence at the hands of Hamas, not Israel’s efforts to thwart this terror group’s goal of killing Israelis. That an influential news source obscures the true cause of Christian suffering in Palestinian-controlled territories, and casts blame on Israel instead, is unconscionable.
