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Media Distortion: The AP Turns Hamas Member into Innocent Victim

Israeli military vehicles are lined up on a beach, amid the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army to destroy Palestinian Islamist terror group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip as seen in a handout picture released by the Israel Defense Forces on November 13, 2023. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

The Associated Press prides itself on “expand[ing] the reach of factual reporting,” but that reach has its clear limits.

Last week’s 1200-word feature on the overnight Jan. 5 fatal shooting of Palestinian Osaid Rimawi once again demonstrates the boundaries of AP’s commitment to “advancing the power of facts” (“Video appears to show the Israeli army shot 3 Palestinians, killing 1, without provocation“).

About 17-year-old Osaid Rimawi, described as “a high school student studying to become a barber,” the AP’s Julia Frankel reported: “Security camera video from a West Bank village shows a young man standing in a central square when he is suddenly shot and drops to the ground.”

Frankel recounted that, according to a witness, Rimawi had gathered cardboard boxes and scraps of paper and was preparing to light them to keep warm when Israeli troops shot him dead, unprovoked. He slipped something into his pocket right before he was shot dead. His brother later found Osaid had been carrying a lighter, 20 shekels, and a pack of cigarettes in his pocket when he died. His brothers Mohammed and Nader, who were also wounded in the shooting, normally work in a factory, packaging prepared salads. They will not be able to work until they can walk again.

Indeed, Frankel provides an abundance of details and facts in her 1200 investigative piece.

But it’s more what Frankel neglects to report which exposes the AP’s curbed commitment to factual reporting.

At no point does the long, in-depth investigative piece share with readers that the aspiring young barber already had some beyond-his-years experience under his belt: he was a member of Hamas, a designated terror organization which just three months ago carried out one of the worst massacres in recent history with thousands of barbaric atrocities targeting civilians, including women, children, people with special needs, and the elderly.

@AP describes 17-year-old fatality Osaid Rimawi as “a high school student studying to become a barber.” You know what @FrankelJulia doesn’t say about Rimawi in her 1200+ word piece? He belonged to a designated terror org. Here he is in @AP photo w/Hamas headband https://t.co/HAPWCYobxJ pic.twitter.com/zNhCfacriT

— Tamar Sternthal (@TamarSternthal) January 10, 2024

While Frankel seemingly left no stone unturned analyzing both a video of the fatal incident obtained from a nearby smoke shop, along with social media postings about the deadly shooting, she completely ignored the AP’s own photographs from Osaid Rimawi’s funeral. Those photographs show Rimawi’s body decked out with a Hamas headband adorning his head, testifying to his affiliation in the designated terror organization.

Notably, the AP’s devotion to expanding the reach of factual reporting stops at the factual description of Hamas as a designated terror organization. Its style guide encourages its reporters to refrain from calling the Oct. 7 massacre terrorism, and from referring to Hamas as terrorists, directives which have prompted a bipartisan Congressional rebuke.

But in this story, Frankel doesn’t even share that Rimawi was a Hamas “militant,” as the AP urges its writers to whitewash.

Instead, she “cleaned up” the Hamas terrorist, presenting him as nothing more than an uninvolved high school student with dreams of being a barber. His affiliation with the terror organization is highly relevant to any factual reporting of his death given that it casts doubt on Frankel’s carefully constructed narrative of Rimawi’s innocence in the allegedly unprovoked shooting.

Indeed, in the accompanying video, the AP goes all the way with its “unprovoked” allegation, stating the unproven scenario as fact without any kind of qualification (1:59 into the video):

The unprovoked shooting is part of a pattern Palestinians say has worsened since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza three months ago.

Thus, instead of expanding the reach of factual reporting, the AP expands the definition of factual reporting to include unproven suppositions.

Indeed, the “unprovoked shooting” was not the only time today in which the AP repackaged unfounded assumptions as fact. In a separate Associated Press article, veteran reporter Edith M. Lederer alleges (“US defends its veto of call for Gaza cease-fire while Palestinians and others demand fighting stop“):

As a sign of the growing division among Jews over the war, three dozen rabbis from the group Rabbis 4 Ceasefire came to the U.N. as tourists to protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

What evidence is there of “growing division among Jews over the war?” While there is often an unfortunate media impulse to disproportionately highlight loud tiny minorities, polling data indicates overwhelming Jewish unity in support of Israel’s ground operation. As Jewish Insider recently reported (“Poll: Overwhelming majority of American Jews support Israel’s fight against Hamas”):

American Jews are overwhelmingly united in support of Israel continuing its ground operation in Gaza and also approve of President Joe Biden’s response to the war, according to a new survey commissioned by the Israel on Campus Coalition.

The poll, conducted by Schoen Cooperman Research (SCR), found that 81% of American Jews support Israel continuing its military operation to “recover all Israeli hostages and remove Hamas from power.” Only 12% of respondents said they preferred “an immediate ceasefire to save Palestinian lives, even if that means “Israeli hostages aren’t recovered and Hamas remains in power.”

Unless there are two polls taken at different times to demonstrate the alleged “growing division among Jews over the war,” factual reporting requires a correction. Moreover, absent such substantiation, factual reporting dictates noting that the radical fringe Rabbis 4 Ceasefire represents no one beyond their miniscule membership.

Tamar Sternthal is the director of CAMERA’s Israel Office. A version of this article previously appeared on the CAMERA website.

The post Media Distortion: The AP Turns Hamas Member into Innocent Victim first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Germany’s Halt to Arms Exports to Israel Is Response to Gaza Expansion Plans, Chancellor Says

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen

Germany’s decision to curb arms exports to Israel comes in response to Israel’s plan to expand its operations in the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday in an interview with public broadcaster ARD.

“We cannot deliver weapons into a conflict that is now being pursued exclusively by military means,” Merz said. “We want to help diplomatically, and we are doing so.”

The worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s plans to expand military control over the enclave have pushed Germany to take this historically fraught step.

The chancellor said in the interview that the expansion of Israel’s operations in Gaza could claim hundreds of thousands of civilian lives and would require the evacuation of the entire city of Gaza.

“Where are these people supposed to go?” Merz said. “We can’t do that, we won’t do that, and I will not do that.”

Nevertheless, the principles of Germany’s Israel policy remain unchanged, the chancellor said.

“Germany has stood firmly by Israel’s side for 80 years. That will not change,” Merz said.

Germany is Israel’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the US and has long been one of its staunchest supporters, principally because of its historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust – a policy known as the “Staatsraison.”

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Newsom Calls Trump’s $1 Billion UCLA Settlement Offer Extortion, Says California Won’t Bow

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference, accompanied by members of the Texas Democratic legislators, at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento, California, U.S., August 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Saturday that a $1 billion settlement offer by President Donald Trump’s administration for UCLA amounted to political extortion to which the state will not bow.

The University of California says it is reviewing a $1 billion settlement offer by the Trump administration for UCLA after the government froze hundreds of millions of dollars in funding over pro-Palestinian protests.

UCLA, which is part of the University of California system, said this week the government froze $584 million in funding. Trump has threatened to cut federal funds for universities over anti-Israel student protests.

“Donald Trump has weaponized the DOJ (Department of Justice) to kneecap America’s #1 public university system — freezing medical & science funding until @UCLA pays his $1 billion ransom,” the office of Newsom, a Democrat, said in a post.

“California won’t bow to Trump’s disgusting political extortion,” it added.

“This isn’t about protecting Jewish students – it’s a billion-dollar political shakedown from the pay-to-play president.”

The government alleges universities, including UCLA, allowed antisemitism during the protests and in doing so violated Jewish and Israeli students’ civil rights. The White House had no immediate comment beyond the offer.

Experts have raised free speech and academic freedom concerns over the Republican president’s threats. The University of California says paying such a large settlement would “completely devastate” the institution.

Large demonstrations took place at UCLA last year. Last week, UCLA agreed to pay over $6 million to settle a lawsuit by some students and a professor who alleged antisemitism. It was also sued this year over a 2024 violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters.

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Trump Nominates State Dept Spokeswoman Bruce as US Deputy Representative to UN

FILE PHOTO: U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce speaks during her first press briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was nominating State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce as the next US deputy representative to the United Nations.

Bruce has been the State Department spokesperson since Trump took office in January.

In a post on social media in which Trump announced her nomination, the president said she did a “fantastic job” as State Department spokesperson. Bruce will need to be confirmed for the role by the US Senate, where Trump’s Republican Party holds a majority.

During press briefings, she has defended the Trump administration’s foreign policy decisions ranging from an immigration crackdown and visa revocations to US responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza, including a widely condemned armed private aid operation in the Palestinian territory.

Bruce was previously a political contributor and commentator on Fox News for over 20 years.

She has also authored books like “Fear Itself: Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda” that criticized liberals and left-leaning viewpoints.

In a post after Trump’s announcement, Bruce thanked him and suggested that the role was a “few weeks” away. Neither Trump nor Bruce mentioned an exact timeline in their online posts.

“Now I’m blessed that in the next few weeks my commitment to advancing America First leadership and values continues on the global stage in this new post,” Bruce wrote on X.

Trump has picked former White House national security adviser Mike Waltz to be his U.N. envoy. Waltz’s Senate confirmation for that role, wherein he will be Bruce’s boss, is still due.

Waltz was Trump’s national security adviser until he was ousted on May 1 after he was caught up in a March scandal involving a Signal chat among top Trump national security aides on military strikes in Yemen. Trump then nominated Waltz as his U.N. ambassador.

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