By Argiris Malapanis

World-Outlook (W-O) recently published the article ‘Jewish Jihad’ Has Seized Control of Israel. It consisted of an introduction to a Haaretz article along with the Israeli daily’s story itself.

One of the Few Israelis with a Direct Line to Gazans Urges the Public to Confront ‘Extreme’ Horrors was the headline of the Haaretz piece. Per World-Outlook’s standard operating procedure, the Haaretz story was reproduced as in the original, with the headline, subhead, text, and photos as they appeared in the Israeli daily.

In introducing the Haaretz article, however, World-Outlook’s editorial staff chose the “Jewish Jihad” headline for three reasons. It was shorter and seemed catchier than Haaretz’s headline; it appeared to the W-O editorial staff to express in few words the main political point of the article’s protagonist (Middle East scholar Assaf David, whose interview by Haaretz provided the basis of the story); and it was the concluding statement in Haaretz’s subhead. That subheadline read:

“Middle East scholar Assaf David, one of the few Israelis in direct contact with Gaza residents, wants his fellow citizens to recognize the horrors unfolding there in their name. He relays chilling accounts from Gazans, describes their hatred of Hamas and warns that ‘Jewish jihad’ has seized control of Israel” (emphasis added).

DISCUSSION WITH OUR READERS

Two World-Outlook readers expressed discomfort or outright disagreement with the “Jewish Jihad” headline.

“My initial reaction to the ‘Jewish Jihad’ reference was that it was a little odd, somewhat unpleasant, but I didn’t give it much thought, honestly,” wrote Peter Link. “The article itself was valuable, giving information I haven’t seen elsewhere.”

Link then shared the reaction of another reader, bhyoram, who said in an exchange with Peter Link:

“Jihad means many things, religious war is not the first of them. Why should a genocide done by a colonialist state, against Palestinians of any religion, be called Jihad? If you want a term for religious war against other religions you can use crusade, Hindutva, evangelism… the only reason to use the term ‘Jihad’ is to turn the discussion back to Islamophobia.”

“That was not my headline, it was the publication’s [World-Outlook’s] headline, which was quoting from the [former] Israeli officer,” Link responded. “Yes, I didn’t like it either, so I removed it from the main headline and replaced it with the one from Haaretz. I can’t fix the subheadline.”

“The criticism was about the headline, not about a person,” bhyoram said in response. “Unfortunately, it’s a common practice in Israeli media, to demonstrate how bad something is by making it Arab/Muslim.”

World-Outlook is appreciative of these comments.

The criticism is valid. The “Jewish Jihad” headline was shorter, “catchier,” and it did use a statement from the person interviewed. But the two World-Outlook readers are right. In this case, using the term “Jihad” to refer to Israel’s ultra-rightist government can easily reflect, or be perceived as, Islamophobia and even distract from the main point the author or the interviewee intended.

It was also not as problematic to use the term in passing in the course of an interview. Elevating it to the banner headline, as World-Outlook did, amplified the error.

For these reasons, World-Outlook’s editorial staff decided to change the headline of the article in question to Extreme Right Has Seized Control of Israel.

Many thanks to both readers who helped World-Outlook see the mistake and make the correction.

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