The Media’s Refusal to Refer to Hamas as ‘Terrorists’ Is Costing Lives

Two years ago, while serving as the international spokesperson for the IDF, I met with a senior correspondent from a respected international publication in Israel. We discussed at length why the paper does not use the word “terrorism” to describe the actions of Hamas, who had up to that point engaged for decades in the indiscriminate killing of Israeli citizens through suicide bombs, rocket fire and kidnapping. He provided a lackluster list of justifications for using the term “militant” and described a style guide—a set of editorial policies on how the paper chooses to report on various issues. According to this style guide, the word “terrorist” was not permitted to describe Hamas.

Two days ago, I met the same individual while briefing reporters at the site of the massacre at the Supernova music festival. I asked him again: Following the brutal slaughter of Israeli civilians by Hamas on October 7th, would the paper now describe Hamas as a terrorist organization? He finally acknowledged that it might be worthwhile to revisit the policy.

It only took over 1,400 innocent lives to figure that out.

This is not merely an academic exercise over semantics. It has real world implications. By not calling Hamas a terrorist organization, publications treat information given by terrorists as legitimate and credible, which can lead to potentially dangerous misreporting.

Last week, we witnessed the effects of such misreporting in the most grievous way when major news outlets across the globe made the editorial decision to immediately accept the lies reported by Hamas and accuse Israel of bombing the Al-Ahli hospital. Even after reputable third parties such as U.S. security agencies and the President of the United States independently confirmed that Israel was not responsible, many of these news outlets chose to continue to tell their audiences that responsibility for the bombing is “unknown” or “in dispute.”

If ISIS killed 500 Iraqis and blamed it on the United States, would these publications immediately accept their version without first fact-checking? My guess is no—or at least, that’s my hope.

This false story had immediate and dangerous consequences. It fanned the flames of hatred and terror against Israelis, Jews, and the United States. Hours after the story ran, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across the world chanting “Death to Israel, Death to America.” They attempted to storm American and Israeli embassies, and even set some of them on fire.

Perhaps most pernicious of all, this false story caused Middle East leaders to cancel their meetings with President Biden, scuttling the prospects of humanitarian relief for Gazans and longer-term peace initiatives.

Readers and the public have a right to know how this happened—and how to prevent it from happening again.

By accepting the claims of a designated terrorist organization at face value, journalists, become unwitting mouthpieces on behalf of these groups. We see this happening now. By running with Hamas’s version, journalists from reputable news outlets helped obscure the true intent of Hamas and shifted public sentiment away from the hundreds of Israeli hostages and brutal acts of terrorism against Israelis.

Following the horrific terror attacks on October 7, many are finally starting to wake up to the true intent of Hamas—the plan they had all along and that they unabashedly advertise in their founding charter. The world’s leading publications should as well.

All international publications should provide transparency: Who was accountable for these editorial decisions and what is the policy regarding information provided by Hamas?

I call on them to retract the reporting and issue a formal apology to readers. (The New York Times has already issued an editor’s note on its failures in reporting the hospital story.)

Israel and our allies face a long battle with radical Islamic terror, a barbaric enemy with no regard for human life nor the truth. This is far from the first instance, and will definitely not be the last, that Hamas and its main sponsor Iran spread disinformation.

International publications must avoid spreading terrorist lies and stick to their mission statements of seeking truth and providing trustworthy reporting. Too many innocent lives have been lost.

Lieutenant Colonel Amnon Shefler has served in the Israel Defense Forces for over 22 years. He is the former IDF International Spokesperson and returned to serve in the Spokesperson’s unit following the recent Hamas attacks. He recently graduated with an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.