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Photographer Who Infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7 Honored in Reuters’ Pulitzer Win

The bodies of people, some of them elderly, lie on a street after they were killed during a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Sderot, southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. NOTE: This photo was not taken by the photographer in question. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

On Monday, Reuters’ photography staff won the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography for “raw and urgent photographs documenting the October 7th deadly attack in Israel by Hamas and the first weeks of Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza.”

Appallingly, one of the photos in the agency’s winning 15-image compilation was taken inside Gaza by Yasser Qudih, a photojournalist who had infiltrated Israel on October 7, as HonestReporting exposed last November.

It’s noteworthy, however, that none of his images taken from inside Israel on that horrific day were included in Reuters’ winning portfolio.

It’s appalling that one of the Gazan photojournalists who infiltrated Israel on October 7 is now a @PulitzerPrizes recipient. It’s noteworthy, however, that none of his images taken from inside Israel on that horrific day were included in @Reuters‘ winning portfolio.

We hope… https://t.co/PxG5X4aSb5

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 7, 2024

While Qudih’s winning image shows a typical war scene of Palestinians fleeing a bomb site in Gaza, his border photos from October 7 are quite different.

Qudih was at the scene early enough that morning to capture an image of a still-smoldering Israeli tank after he had illegally crossed into the Jewish State.

Another of Qudih’s photos from that day shows a Palestinian gunman on the Israeli side of the border.

Reuters said Qudih had no prior knowledge of the attack, and that the agency didn’t embed photographers with Hamas.

But the fact Qudih could freely capture gunmen without being threatened suggests that, at a minimum, he had their tacit approval to document and disseminate their actions.

As revealed two months ago by Israel’s Channel 12 news magazine Uvda, the documentation and distribution of the October 7 atrocities was part of Hamas’ vicious plan.

Did Reuters have no qualms about including in its Pulitzer nomination, someone whose professional and ethical conduct had been called into question?

And didn’t the Pulitzer Board conduct background checks on the recipients of a top journalism prize?

Probably not, considering the board also granted a special citation to “the courageous work” of journalists covering the war under fire in Gaza, ignoring the fact that some of them had been moonlighting for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

It is telling, however, that Reuters’ winning portfolio didn’t include any of Qudih’s problematic border images, nor any taken by his colleague, Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa.

The latter’s photo of a lynched Israeli soldier being dragged out of the tank had previously been featured by Reuters in its photo galleries throughout the war.

Therefore, while we deplore the inclusion of Qudih in the winning Pulitzer portfolio, the absence of tainted border images would indicate some sort of self-reflection by Reuters. If images that were previously deemed by Reuters to be among its top photos of the year are no longer considered to be worthy of submission for awards, this represents a positive development.

It can only be hoped that Reuters recognizes that the photos it published by Gazan photojournalists who accompanied Hamas across the border are ethically flawed and should not be rewarded with a Pulitzer or any other industry honor.

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

The post Photographer Who Infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7 Honored in Reuters’ Pulitzer Win first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Treasure Trove: If you own a share like this, Israel could owe you some money

The Jewish Colonial Trust was established on March 20, 1899. The first Zionist bank was the brainchild of Theodor Herzl who understood that funding would be required to make his vision of a Jewish homeland a reality. Each share cost one English pound, the equivalent of $280 today. (Herzl bought the first 1,000 shares which was a […]

The post Treasure Trove: If you own a share like this, Israel could owe you some money first appeared on The Canadian Jewish News.

The post Treasure Trove: If you own a share like this, Israel could owe you some money appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.

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Palestinian Detained after West Bank Terror Ramming

Illustrative: Israeli police at the scene of a car-ramming terrorist attack near a market in Jerusalem on Monday, April 24, 2023. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters.

JNS.orgA Palestinian rammed his vehicle into a cop car in the West Bank on Saturday in what the military was investigating as a terror attack.

The incident occurred at the Eli gas station, the scene of repeated acts of terrorism against Israelis.

“A Palestinian vehicle accelerated towards a police car and collided with it, there were no casualties,” according to the Israel Defense Forces.

“Troops caught the terrorist and transferred him to security forces for further investigation,” added the statement.

On Sunday, three Israeli police officers were killed in a drive-by shooting near the Tarqumiya checkpoint, some 7.5 miles northwest of Hebron in Judea.

They were named as Chief Inspector Arik Ben Eliyahu, 37, of Kiryat Gat, who is survived by his wife and three children; Command Sgt. Maj. Hadas Branch, 53, of Sde Moshe, who is survived by her husband, three children and granddaughter; and 1st Sgt. Roni Shakuri, 61, of Sderot, who is survived by his wife, daughter and granddaughter.

Shakuri’s other daughter, 1st Sgt. Mor Shakuri, 29, was killed on Oct. 7 while battling an attempt by Hamas terrorists to take control of the police station in Sderot, in southern Israel near the border with Gaza.

The post Palestinian Detained after West Bank Terror Ramming first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Ukraine Concerned at Reports of Iranian Ballistic Missiles to Russia

A missile unveiled by Iran is launched in an unknown location in Iran in this picture received by Reuters on August 20, 2020. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Saturday it was deeply concerned by reports about a possible impending transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia.

In a statement emailed to reporters, the ministry said the deepening military cooperation between Tehran and Moscow was a threat to Ukraine, Europe and the Middle East, and called on the international community to increase pressure on Iran and Russia.

CNN and The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, citing unidentified sources.

Reuters reported in August that Russia was expecting the imminent delivery of hundreds of Fath-360 close-range ballistic missiles from Iran and that dozens of Russian military personnel were being trained in Iran on the satellite-guided weapons for eventual use in the war in Ukraine.

On Friday, the United States, a key ally of Ukraine, also voiced concern about the potential transfer of missiles.

“Any transfer of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia would represent a dramatic escalation in Iran’s support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York said on Friday that Tehran’s position on the Ukraine conflict was unchanged.

“Iran considers the provision of military assistance to the parties engaged in the conflict – which leads to increased human casualties, destruction of infrastructure, and a distancing from ceasefire negotiations – to be inhumane,” it said.

“Thus, not only does Iran abstain from engaging in such actions itself, but it also calls upon other countries to cease the supply of weapons to the sides involved in the conflict.”

The post Ukraine Concerned at Reports of Iranian Ballistic Missiles to Russia first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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