Tipsheet

AP Comes Under Fire for Reporting on Antisemitism, and This Time It's Over a Particularly Heinous Crime

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  June 25, 2024 5:00 PM

The Associated Press has certainly engaged in problematic coverage on Israel and antisemitism, including and especially when it comes to the Israel-Hamas war. This has extended to other international news stories though, including the news of the gang rape of a 12-year-old girl in France. "As France reels from alleged rape of a Jewish girl, antisemitism comes to fore in election campaign" read a headline from last Friday. 

As the piece mentioned:

Concerns came to the fore after two adolescent boys in a Paris suburb were given preliminary charges this week of raping a 12-year-old girl and religion-motivated violence, according to prosecutors. Lawyer and Jewish leader Elie Korchia told French broadcaster BFM that the girl is Jewish and that the word Palestine was mentioned during the attack. The prosecutor’s office did not specify the girl’s religion or release her identity, according to policies for the protection of victims, as is standard practice for hate crimes in France.

...

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal wrote on the social media platform X that the girl was “raped because she’s Jewish,” while French President Emmanuel Macron called on schools to hold a “discussion hour” on racism and antisemitism.

There's issues throughout the piece, but perhaps the worst part of the article comes at the very end, as the piece's authors thought it necessary to wade into defining antisemitism. 

Rachel Moiselle did a deep dive over X in order of the problematic parts of the article, picking up on how the last paragraphs claim there isn't an agreed upon definition of antisemitism. 

Here's how the last two paragraphs of the article read with more reference to the Jewish State of Israel, which is also referenced at times throughout the article, along with the October 7 attack perpetrated by Hamas:

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Antisemitism refers to hatred of Jews, but there is no universally agreed definition of what exactly it entails or how it relates to criticism of Israel. The Israeli government regularly accuses its opponents of antisemitism, while critics say it uses the term to silence opposition to its policies.

The war has reignited the long debate about the definition of antisemitism and whether any criticism of Israel — from its military’s killing of thousands of Palestinian children to questions over Israel’s very right to exist — amounts to anti-Jewish hate speech.

Moiselle notes that such paragraphs are "beyond irrelevant to the subject at hand," reminding that what that entails is "the brutal gang rape of a French Jewish girl and issues of violent antisemitism in France."

This last paragraph is also particularly nonsensical, though, especially since the AP itself acknowledged earlier this month that after they looked at the death toll in Gaza, they've realized Hamas has inflated the numbers. Hamas terrorists themselves revised the numbers months before, as did the United Nations. There's been evidence for months, though, that such numbers being put out are propaganda from Hamas. 

There's plenty of other examples of why AP's reporting is so problematic; the post above from Moiselle is the fourth in a thread. 

The article uses language such as "far-right" and "anti-immigrant" to describe those elected officials who might be rightfully concerned about the consequences of those illegal immigrants coming to Europe and committing heinous violent crimes. These concerns aren't merely limited to France, but throughout the European Union, and reflected in the results from recent elections.

AP also looks to make it a "both sides" kind of issue, with one paragraph noting "France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, but as a result of its own World War II collaboration with the Nazis, antisemitic acts today open old scars. France also has the largest Muslim population in western Europe, and anti-Muslim acts have risen in recent years."

In addition to emphasizing the "egregious" media bias at hand, Moiselle also referred to the paragraphs mentioned above as "a disgusting sanitisation of the gang rape and an obfuscation of the antisemitism behind it," pointing out that the "assailants hurled antisemitic insults at her including 'dirty Jew.'"

She also took issue with the phrasing of "old scars" of antisemitism, and mentioned "an exodus of Jews from France because of this threat."