Will Owen Jones apologise?

Last November, during another exchange between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza, the left-wing columnist Owen Jones appeared on BBC Question Time. Invited to comment on recent events, what he read out (or so it appears from the tape) was a catalogue of errors about Israel. Among them were big, sweeping incorrect allegations – such as the claim that Israel is enforcing ‘a siege which stops basic supplies’ getting into Gaza.

But there were also some new and more specific errors. Take his striking and emotive claim that Israel’s ‘onslaught’ included ‘targeted strikes’ which killed children. Here is one of the things he said:

‘I don’t want to just throw statistics around – I’ll give you one example of one of those children.  Omar Misheri [sic]. He’s 11-months old, he’s a little boy, the son of a BBC journalist and he was killed in a so-called “targeted strike”.’

The case which Owen Jones was reading out and built his case upon would appear to be the tragic case of Omar Jihad al-Mishrawi. His father, Jihad Mishrawi, a BBC Arabic journalist also lost his sister-in-law in these terrible events.

Of course during any military exchange there will always be fatalities. And even the most democratic and accountable armies will make mistakes. When terrorist groups seeking to maximise human casualties are involved there is a particular need to be wary of all claims. Journalists, as disseminators of information, have a particular duty to be careful at such times. It should go without saying that they must be especially careful about claims that might encourage hatred of one side or other on the basis of claims that do not appear to be supported by evidence. It is not known what evidence, if any, Owen Jones had that the Israelis had killed this 11-month old boy.