I was not a million miles away from Tel Aviv when last week’s Palestinian human bomb murdered nine Israelis and injured scores more at a falafel bar. So I didn’t have the pleasure of witnessing the British press treatment of this atrocity.

So bad was the Independent’s coverage that its media commentator, Stephen Glover, was moved to write this in its very own pages today, under the headline:

Not how to report a suicide bombing

Perhaps the reader will believe me when I say that in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I am as neutral as it is possible to be. So last Tuesday I was a little dismayed by the manner in which the Independent - though it was not alone - reported the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. The opening paragraphs of the piece were entirely devoted to the youth of the bomber, Samer Samih Hamad, and to the anti-Israeli remarks of his relatives, who sought to justify the bombing. There was little description of the horrors that the bomber had inflicted, and scant details about the nine victims. Generally, I do not go along with suggestions by members of the Jewish lobby that reporting of Israel is skewed. On this occasion, I could see their point.

Now we know things are bad.

Posted by melanie at April 24, 2006