REALITY CHECK: Watch the word “terror” disappear from reports on today’s J’lem attack

Today, we woke to horrifying news: Palestinian terrorists entered a synagogue in Jerusalem early in the morning, in a killing spree. Armed with guns, knives and axes they murdered four Jewish men who were praying peacefully. Eight others were wounded, among which two police officers. The two terrorists were shot and killed by the police during the chase.

According to Ynetnews, “in an official Hamas statement said that the attack was a response to the death of bus driver Yusuf Hassan al-Ramouni, who was found hanged at a Jerusalem bus terminal Sunday night. While al-Ramouni's family claimed foul play, autopsy results confirmed police's suspicion of suicide on Monday afternoon.” Hamas also stated that the attack was also a response to “the ongoing Israeli crimes at al-Aqsa (mosque). The Hamas organization calls for the continuation of acts of revenge.”

Not surprisingly, but still infuriatingly, international media chose to tell the story differently, framing the attack as “an act of despair” rather than “terror.” The story that the media chose to tell was of young Palestinians who are tired of the dead-end “Peace Talks” and out of despair, act in the only way they know in order to get the world’s attention.

This narrative, which could be noticed in the coverage of all recent terror attacks in Israel, spares nothing on its way of becoming the Greek Tragedy of the year. Suffering Palestinians have no chance of ever being free. After asking nicely for independence and being ignored, they decided to act in the name of justice, and blow up a bus or shoot at random people. If we stop for a minute and think about it, we’ll know it makes no sense. We’ll know that terror is terror, and that when innocent people die – the motive hardly matters. Osama Bin Laden and his people also had a motive in 9/11, but can you even imagine someone explaining the attacks as “an act of despair from the American cultural occupation of the world?”

This continues the media’s tale of David and Goliath, which is used often in describing the conflict. It is disturbing every single time, for it presents the Palestinians as heroes and Israel as a villain at all costs. Sometimes, however, a line was crossed. The media has the power to shape the way us, the readers, read the news. When choosing the “young Palestinians act out of desperations” frame, the readers will not see it as what it is – a terror attack. This is when the David/Goliath narrative goes too far.

Following some of the reports online, I found that many of the leading news websites in the US, Canada and UK avoided the use of the word “terror” when describing today’s events, unless it was as part of a quote by an Israeli source. Some websites emphasized the killing of the two Palestinians over what led to it – the murdering of four Israelis.