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February 9, 2023 11:23 am
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Guardian Publishes Op-Ed by Palestinian Who Called Jerusalem Synagogue Terror Attack an ‘Act of Defiance’

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avatar by Rachel O'Donoghue

Opinion

An Israeli Border police officer walks up to the house of Palestinian gunman Khaire Alkam in A-Tur in eastern Jerusalem, after Alkam shot dead at least seven people near a synagogue in Neve Yaacov which lies on land that Israel annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 Middle East war, January 28, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

In a Guardian op-ed, Palestinian journalist Jalal Abukhater lashes out at an “ill-informed, biased or unquestioning media” that apparently does not comprehend the “violence we Palestinians are exposed to on a daily basis.”

In the piece headlined, “There’s no cycle of violence in Jerusalem — only Israel’s lethal oppression of my people,” Abukhater also claims Palestinians are enduring “some of the most violent, destructive and lethal days in recent memory.”

He illustrates this fallacious assertion with some entirely misleading figures, specifically that 2022 was the “deadliest in nearly two decades in the occupied West Bank,” but ignoring the fact that the majority of Palestinians who died were killed while attacking Israelis.

But it seems the editors at The Guardian should have done more than check Abukhater’s erroneous statistics.

A quick look into his background reveals Abukhater holds some incredibly disturbing views, and just recently wrote an article in which he appeared to revel in the recent synagogue terror attack in Jerusalem — where seven innocent Jewish civilians were murdered in cold blood.

In an effusive piece published on his personal website, Abukhater gushingly describes the slaughter of seven “Israeli settlers” as an “act of defiance” that was cause for jubilation among Palestinians:

Abukhater goes on to claim that he knows “for a fact that not one of us would delight in death” before attempting to “contextualize” Palestinian terrorist Khairy Alqam’s evil actions:

There was no indication that Alqam intended to target any military assets. However, it was clear that the street where Khairy conducted the attack is directly adjacent to this military base.

Khairy Alqam’s attack cannot be separated from this context.

Alqam deliberately targeted Jews, including a child, outside a synagogue on the Sabbath — he wanted to kill defenseless civilians when they were in an unguarded place.

The only “context” needed is this: Alqam was a terrorist who committed an act of unspeakable savagery.

That The Guardian gave a platform to Jalal Abukhater speaks volumes about the moral compass of its editorial department.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

The opinions presented by Algemeiner bloggers are solely theirs and do not represent those of The Algemeiner, its publishers or editors. If you would like to share your views with a blog post on The Algemeiner, please be in touch through our Contact page.

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