Agence France-Presse Captions Cover Up for Islamic Jihad's Khader Adnan

With captions that ignore Khader Adnan's top position in Islamic Jihad, AFP functions more like a public relations firm instead of a news agency. The homecoming photos appeal to viewers' emotions, the captions mislead.

Tamar Sternthal..
CAMERA Media Analysis..
14 July '15..

When Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan was released from Israeli prison Sunday following a 56-day hunger strike in protest of his administrative detention, international news agencies swooped in to cover the emotional homecoming in his West Bank village. A survey of photo captions from the three major news – Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France Presse – revealed that one of the leading news organizations failed to note Adnan's leadership with Islamic Jihad, a designated terror organization.

In photo captions, AFP, the influential French news agency consistently omits mention of this essential information. Examples of AFP's incomplete photo captions follow:

The caption states:

Khader Adnan, a Palestinian prisoner who staged a 56-day hunger strike while being detained for a year without charge by Israeli authorities, hugs a relative as he arrives in the West Bank village of Arraba after his release early on July 12, 2015. Adnan, 37, was detained a year ago, shortly after the kidnapping and murder of three young Israelis, which triggered the arrests of hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The caption is:

Khader Adnan (C), a Palestinian prisoner who staged a 56-day hunger strike while being detained for a year without charge by Israeli authorities, reflects with his daughters in the West Bank village of Arraba after his release on July 12, 2015. Adnan, 37, was detained a year ago, shortly after the kidnapping and murder of three young Israelis, which triggered the arrests of hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

In contrast, both Reuters and the Associated Press captions clearly indicate Adnan's top position in Islamic Jihad. AP's captions, for instance, note: "The senior member of Islamic Jihad had been held for more than a year. . ."

Likewise, Reuters captions refer to "Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan" and attribute information to Islamic Jihad sources in the West Bank, further clarifying his affiliation with the designated terror organization.

Reuters' caption states:

Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Khader Adnan poses with his daughters during a rally honoring him following his release, near the West Bank city of Jenin July 12, 2015. Israel on Sunday released Adnan from jail from a deal last month in which he agreed to end a 56-day hunger strike, Islamic Jihad sources in the West Bank said. (Emphases added.)

Sloppy, Unprofessional Journalism - Collective Punishment of Ha'aretz Readers

Have you heard about the Palestinian hunger strike to protest the "collective punishment"? Probably not, because that is not what is happening, unless you read Ha'aretz's English edition.

Yishai Goldflam..
CAMERA Media Analyses..
21 February '13..

On Feb. 20, readers were exposed to another example of sloppy, unprofessional journalism by the editors of Ha'aretz's English edition. A headline about the participation of Khader Adnan - a former Palestinian administrative detainee who had staged a hunger strike last year - in the current hunger strike of four Palestinian prisoners read as follows:

It is not difficult to figure out the message of this headline-- that Israel allegedly practices "collective punishment," a term generally used in conjunction with Israel's actions in the territories, along with "ethnic cleansing," "apartheid,"and, occasionally, "genocide" and "war crimes."

CAMERA - Where's the Coverage? Iranian Hunger Striker Freed

SC..
CAMERA/Snapshots..
19 March '12..

You’ve no doubt heard a lot about Khader Adnan, the Palestinian "baker" who is really a spokesman for and member of the terrorist group Islamic Jihad. He went on a hunger strike in protest of his military detention in Israel. Adnan will be released on April 17 unless "new additional substantial evidence" emerges against him. Today, a Google search for "Khader Adnan" turned up 2.1 million links. On Google news today, a search came up with 304 links.

Contrast the above with the case of Mehdi Khazali of Iran. Unlike Adnan, Mehdi Khazali is not a terrorist. He is a genuine human rights activist. An ophthalmologist by training, Khazali is an outspoken blogger and critic of the Iranian regime even though his father is a prominent hard-line Iranian Ayatollah. He was arrested on January 9 on charges that are unclear, beaten, his teeth shattered and his arm broken, according to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. At that time, Khazali also began a hunger strike. According to his son, who saw him 49 days into the hunger strike:

When we saw him in the hospital, we couldn’t believe it was him. His weight loss was unbelievable; he was so thin. We are afraid something bad might happen to my father.

Khazali was apparently released on $180,000 bail last Friday, March 16, after approximately 70 days of hunger striking.

Yet, have you heard anything about Mehdi Khazali?

Jager - Martyr in Waiting

Elliot Jager..
Jewish ideas Daily..
16 March '12..

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Khader Adnan, currently under administrative detention in Israel, has announced the end of his 66-day hunger strike in exchange for a commitment by Israeli authorities to set him free on April 17. His pending release raises this moral dilemma: If Adnan is a significant figure in PIJ's West Bank infrastructure and was detained because he posed an imminent danger to Israeli citizens, was it ethical for Israeli authorities to capitulate to his demands?

Roughly 300 Palestinian Arab security prisoners are currently held in Israel without trial. Other democracies, the United States and the United Kingdom among them, also employ this stopgap measure. Apparently no democracy has been able to combat terrorism without such an expedient.

Unless one is privy to the intelligence reports, one cannot know whether Adnan is, as his defenders claim, merely a PIJ spokesman or, as the authorities believe, far more lethal. Even if he is not one of PIJ's ticking bombs, Adnan certainly runs with those who are. Yet he will go free because authorities feared that his self-inflicted martyrdom would trigger paroxysms of rioting and bring international opprobrium from the Palestinian amen corner and others insulated from, or indifferent to, the potentially fatal consequences of his release.

Perhaps living in a Palestinian polity that incubates fanaticism stokes a propensity toward self-punishment. In January, Palestinian Women's Affairs Ministry staffers undertook a hunger strike to protest corruption within the Palestinian Authority. Political prisoners in Mahmoud Abbas's West Bank statelet have also waged hunger strikes. Or perhaps the phenomenon is more universal: Those who equate compromise with betrayal and see only their own Truth may lean to self-destruction. Think of the deadly hunger strike undertaken in the late 1970s by fanatics in the Baader-Meinhof Gang or the ten IRA militants, led by Bobby Sands, who starved themselves to death in 1981.

Marquadt-Bigman - Twitter vs the real world: Khader Adnan’s ‘victory’

Petra Marquadt-Bigman..
The Warped Mirror..
23 February '12..



Over the past few days, pro-Palestinian activists demonstrated their ability to transform a well-known member of Islamic Jihad into a victim of Israeli abuse deserving of the solidarity of everyone willing to speak out (or at least tweet) in defense of human rights – including the truly sincere, the merely gullible, and the openly cynical.

Protesting his detention by Israel with a two-month hunger strike, Islamic Jihad member Khader Adnan was skillfully marketed as an innocuous baker, a devoted father, husband and son, who had been arbitrarily arrested, humiliated and tortured by the evil Israeli Capital O Occupation forces.

It mattered little that it turned out that Adnan had been caught on tape issuing a fiery call for volunteer suicide bombers.