The Washington Post came under fire Monday for publishing what critics called a fawning puff piece about a Palestinian terror cell in the West Bank. The outlet was accused of "legitimizing" the terrorist group with sympathetic reporting driven by an alleged anti-Israel bias at the paper.
In the story, headlined "‘Tomorrow’s martyrs’: Inside a Palestinian militant cell in the West Bank," Washington Post reporter Steve Hendrix detailed his experience embedding with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which has been designated a terrorist group by the United States and Israel. Hendrix, joined by photographer Lorenzo Tugnoli, followed the group's every move for three days, describing in great detail the meals and daily activities of the militants and their leader "Zoufi."
The experience, writes Hendrix, "afforded a rare window into the lives and actions of fighters on one side of the worst violence to grip the West Bank in decades."
"In the daylight hours, the men rested out of the sun and watched TikTok videos, many of them showing the funerals of militants killed in recent Israeli raids," Hendrix writes. "…Most of the fighters said they are focused on defense, shooting back at Israeli forces that enter the camps. But several said Jewish settlers in the West Bank also are considered fair targets."
The story, which features photos of Palestinian children at the graves of their "fighter" relatives and heavily armed terrorists, recounts the "grim and growing" death toll of Palestinians at the hands of "Israeli military raids" like the recent Jenin operation, which resulted in the death of one Israeli soldier and 12 Palestinians. The operation targeted "the Hamas terrorist organization responsible for all terror activities emanating from the Gaza Strip," Israeli leaders said. Jenin has been a hotbed of Palestinian terrorist activity for months, with Iranian-backed militants using it as a base from which to carry out attacks in Israel.
ISRAELI FORCES REVEAL WEAPONS CACHES HIDDEN UNDER PALESTINIAN MOSQUE AFTER RAID
Hendrix said Israel's raids and ongoing mayhem in the West Bank leaves fighters like Zoufi feeling compelled to take up arms, filling several paragraphs about the terror leader with details of his upbringing and earlier life.
"Zoufi has been an on-and-off fighter, his life mirroring the rhythm of the Israel-Palestinian conflict," Hendrix writes, adding that Zoufi inspires "both fear and fealty" in the cell. Buried in paragraphs of Zoufi's early adult life, Hendrix notes that the leader of the terror group was "active in the second intifada as a teenager and served more than six years in Israel’s Megiddo Prison for shooting and wounding a Jewish settler."
"They started wielding their own weapons as a formal unit after a major Israeli incursion into Nablus in February that killed 11, including someone close to Zoufi," Hendrix writes. "'When you kill a friend, a fighter is born,' Zoufi said, handing a half-eaten chunk of ka’ak — a Palestinian sesame bread — to the attendant always nearby with an M16 of his own."
Militants spoke "admiringly of gunmen who ambushed Israeli civilians, including an attack last year outside a Tel Aviv pub that killed three civilian Israelis and a mass shooting at a West Bank gas station that left four Israelis dead in June. They spoke of a secret 'quick response' team — ‘Even we don’t know who they are,'… two of whom carried out the gas station shooting," the WaPo report reads.
"The 19-year-old subordinate, nicknamed Sheamus, nodded. He joined the brigade after seeing his best friend shot to death by Israeli soldiers as the two were throwing rocks, he said. ‘Before that, I was normal,’" the article continues.
The sentiment in the group, reports Hendrix, is that "[t]here are no innocent Israelis… They kill our women and children. We will do the same."
The fighters, Hendrix writes, consider themselves "tomorrow’s martyrs."
"Zoufi and the fighters he commands have no illusions about the likely end of the lives they have chosen. For most, death feels like a calling," he concludes.
The article was immediately denounced by critics online, with some accusing the outlet of spreading anti-Israel "propaganda" and others calling the reporting consistent with the Post's "double standard for covering terrorist groups."
"The @washingtonpost actually embedded with a #Palestinian terrorist cell to tell their story! Would they do so with Al Qaeda or #ISIS? This isn’t journalism - it’s propaganda," former Netanyahu advisor and Jerusalem Post columnist Michael Freund tweeted.
"Leftist American newspapers despise Israel so much that they can't help themselves from giving sympathetic coverage to suicide bombers and terrorists under the guise of 'showing both sides,'" Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., wrote.
"In other words, the @washingtonpost embedded its reporters within a group of murderous Palestinian terrorists and legitimized them just to make some click bait article. Congratulations," activist and veteran of the Israeli Air Force Eitan Fischberger wrote.
"You should ask why WaPo doesn't embed reporters in Israel to actually understand Israeli life & the threats they face, instead of having them parrot the left-wing media line," the Jewish Policy Center replied.
Several others took issue with the WaPo's characterization of the terror cell as "one side of the worst violence to grip the West Bank in decades."
"Would you name ‘freedom fighters’ Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, ISIS, The Muslim Brotherhood too? No, only terrorists who kill Jews, are ‘one side’ ‘fighters,’" lecturer Julio Alejandro tweeted.
"'On one side.' ‘Militant’ instead of ‘terrorist’ to describe a U.S.-designated terrorist group. All of this language is in keeping with @washingtonpost double standard for covering terrorist groups," foreign affairs analyst Sean Durns wrote.
"Interviews like this always raise Qs: what did the journalist do to get access? & why does a terror group think it’s in their interest to cooperate? Also worth noting that Hamas brutally repressed protesting Gazans & @washingtonpost didn’t say a word. No report from @SBHendrix," Durns added in a separate tweet.
"WaPo just did a friendly profile piece for the Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades, a terrorist group that *checks notes* Sends suicide bombers to sandwich shops and bus stations," journalist John Hasson weighed in.
"Shameful," The Land Center director Daniel Darling replied.
"Decency dies in darkness," Colin Smothers, executive director of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, tweeted.
Other critics pointed out the Washington Post's past reporting on the 2019 death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whom they famously described as an "austere religious scholar at the helm of Islamic State."
"This isn't the first time The Washington Post has ‘handed it to em,’ GOP staffer Alec Sears tweeted.
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