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News Agency Lies About UN Data, Promoting New Blood Libel

The United Nations logo is seen at the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit at UN headquarters in New York, U.S., September 23, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

United Press International (UPI) boasts “a history of reliable reporting dating back to 1907,” and praises itself as “a credible source for the most important stories of the day.”

But UPI’s recent coverage demonizing Israeli settlers with falsely reported United Nations figures indicates that the operative word in this self-congratulatory celebration of reliability and credibility is “history.”

Instead of supplying reliable and credible reporting about the most important stories of the day, UPI debased its once venerable operation with a fabrication propping up a modern day blood libel.

Thus, in his March 24 article, UPI’s Adam Schrader falsely stated that according to United Nations data, Israeli settlers are responsible for most of the 199 Palestinians killed in the West Bank from Jan. 1, 2023, until Hamas started a brutal war against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 (“German Foreign Ministry Condemns Illegal Israeli settlements“).

Schrader fabricated: “Before the war broke out in October, 199 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank throughout 2023 – largely at the hands of illegal Israeli settlers, data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs shows.” [Emphasis added.]

In fact, the UN’s own data says no such thing. Schrader’s assertion about OCHA’s casualty data, available here, is absolutely false. After selecting the dates of Jan. 1, 2023 through Oct. 6, 2023 (before the start of the war on Oct. 7), along with the West Bank region, and filtering perpetrator as “Israeli civilian settler,” OCHA’s data reveals that seven fatalities out of a total of 199 — or 3.5 percent of West Bank Palestinian fatalities — were killed by Israeli civilian settlers. Does UPI consider 3.5 percent “largely”?

 

According to OCHA’s own data, Israeli settlers killed seven Palestinians, including those who were perpetrators carrying out attacks against Israelis when they were killed.

Moreover, virtually all of the West Bank Palestinians killed by Israeli civilians were killed as they attempted to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians.

Thus, such deaths underscore Palestinian — and not Israeli settler —  violence. Significantly, OCHA’s definitions underneath the data chart acknowledge:

Incidents involving Israeli settlers: includes attacks and alleged attacks by Israeli settlers, as well as incidents involving access prevention, and clashes following the entry of Israeli settlers into Palestinian communities. It also includes Palestinians killed or injured during attacks or alleged attacks they perpetrated against Israeli settlers. [Bold added.]

Lacking transparency, OCHA does not publicly share the details of each incident, making it impossible to verify the circumstances of each of the reported deaths. Nevertheless, B’Tselem, an Israeli NGO adamantly opposed to settlements, does provide identifying details.

Of the eight West Bank Palestinians B’Tselem names as killed by Israeli civilians in 2023 prior to the war, six were carrying out attacks — some of them fatal — against Israelis when they were killed.

Elisha Anteman, 17, murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Eli in June 2023. An Israeli civilian on the scene subsequently killed the Palestinian assailant, who had managed to murder four (Photo courtesy of family).

According to B’Tselem, Muhmannad Falah ‘Abdallah Shihadah, was “[f]atally shot by an Israeli civilian after he and another Hamas military wing operative shot and wounded the settlement security guard, and then fired at Israeli civilians, killing four, including two minors, and wounding three others.”

Reuters details Shihadah’s murderous June 20 attack outside a hummus restaurant (“Palestinian gunmen kill 4 Israelis in West Bank“).

Then there was ‘Alaa Khalil ‘Al Qeisiyah, “Fatally shot by an Israeli settler after entering the settlement’s limits and, according to the military, approaching settlers holding a knife” (“Palestinian Armed With Knife Shot Dead at Israeli Settlement in West Bank, IDF Says.“).

B’Tselem also lists that ‘Abd al-Karim Badi’a ‘Abd al-Karim Sheikh was “[f]atally shot by an Israeli settler after, according to the military, he entered the settlement armed with knives and explosive devices.” The Times of Israel reported that Sheikh hurled two IEDs, one of which exploded, before he was shot dead (“Palestinian shot dead after allegedly entering West Bank farm with knives, IEDs“).

Similarly, B’Tselem find that Karam ‘Al Ahmad Salman was “Fatally shot by settlement security guards when, according to the guards, he tried to enter the settlement.” The Times of Israel reported he was armed with a gun (“Armed Palestinian shot dead by guard near West Bank settlement, IDF says“).

B’Tselem also notes that Tareq ‘Odeh Yusef M’aali tried to stab an Israeli, and Sanad Muhammad ‘Othman Samamrah managed to do so, moderately wounding his victim.

In a separate error, Schrader mistakenly cited “borders for Israel and Palestine established in 1967.” Presumably, he was referring to the armistice lines (not borders), which were in place from 1949 to 1967, separating Israel from the Jordanian-controlled West Bank and the Egyptian-controlled Gaza Strip.

There have never been what Schrader calls “borders for Israel and Palestine.” Israel gained control of the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt in 1967 as a result of the Six-Day War, which was imposed upon it. Those territories remained under Israeli control from 1967 until the Jewish state withdrew from areas of the West Bank as part of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, giving Palestinians authority over parts of the West Bank for the very first time in history.

Later, in 2005, Israel withdrew entirely and unilaterally from the Gaza Strip, and Palestinians gained control of the coastal territory for the very first time then as well.

UPI’s woeful blood libel, completely detached both from reality and its own source, appeared in multiple McClatchy newspapers including Miami Herald, The Telegraph (Macon), The Bellingham Herald, Tacoma News Tribune, The Sun News, The Bradenton Herald, The Modesto Bee, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Idaho Statesmen, San Luis Opisbo Tribune, The Island Packet, The Herald-Sun (Durham) and The Wichita Eagle.

CAMERA contacted senior leadership at both UPI and McClatchy about Schrader’s fabrication of UN data and the false charges of killings carried out by settlers, which was not responded to for several days.

“UPI has … stood at the cutting edge of newsgathering practices,” recounts its website.

The news agency’s 2007 centennial anniversary post adds: “Today, side by side with many of the oldest and emerging media giants, UPI faces a new technological frontier with a passion to preserve the best of journalistic practices while engaging a citizenry of lay reporters, photographers, and videographers, and a plethora of sources to publish and receive information.”

More than a dozen years later, UPI has failed to preserve ethical journalistic practices, introducing a novel newsgathering method: lying about its sources to support a predetermined narrative vilifying Jews and Israel.

Update: On March 31, following the publication of the original CAMERA post, UPI revised its wording to reflect the fact that the United Nations has found that seven Palestinians were killed in incidents involving settlers, and not nearly 200 as Adam Schrader had previously reported.

But the amended wording is itself a gross fabrication, falsely claiming that the UN found that at least seven were “murdered” by Israeli settlers, as if assailants killed while carrying out attacks are “murdered.” The new fallacious language is: “Before the war broke out in October, 199 Palestinians were killed by Israelis in the West Bank throughout 2023 — including at least seven murdered by illegal Israeli settlers, data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs shows.

The United Nations made no assertion about murders, and qualified, without providing any breakdown, that the incidents include “Palestinians killed or injured during attacks or alleged attacks they perpetrated against Israeli settlers.” Instead of coming clean, the UPI buried itself into a deeper pit of embarrassing unprofessionalism and partisanship. E.W. Scripps, the editor who founded the United Press Association in 1907, and who practiced journalism according to the motto “Give light and the people will find their own way,” would surely not recognize UPI were he to see the depths to which it has sunk today.

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

The post News Agency Lies About UN Data, Promoting New Blood Libel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted

Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.

Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.

The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.

Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.

Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.

The post Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel

People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.

At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.

Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.

Mass prayers were later held in the square.

State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.

In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.

“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.

There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.

Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.

Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

TRUMP THREAT

Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.

Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.

Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.

A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.

According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.

Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.

Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.

The post Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival

Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

i24 NewsChants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.

One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.

This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.

The post Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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