Israeli Ambassador to France Slammed for Attempt to Censor News

Complained report on Gaza children crippled by Israel vilifies Israel

Israeli Ambassador to France Aliza bin Noun is under fire for attempts to censor a news report on the situation in the Gaza Strip. The report aired on France 2, despite her demands that it never be aired.

The report, titled “Gaza’s disabled teens,” was an investigative story on Palestinian teens who had been crippled by Israeli sniper fire into the Gaza Strip. This included a number of teens who lost legs, and their difficulty in getting by on a single leg in the strip.

Bin Noun argued that the report on Israeli snipers shooting and crippling teenage civilians “vilifies Israel” and subsequently posed a threat to the French Jewish community. French newspaper Le Monde noted that no one at the Israeli Embassy had even seen the report before protesting that it would be aired, and that bin Noun complained Israel wasn’t allowed to respond even though the Israeli military spokesman was interviewed in the report.

Israeli Embassy officials defend attacking the report without seeing it, saying it was “obvious” it would be one-sided. French media outlets, however, are attacking this as a cynical attempt by Israel to dictate the content of news media and undermining freedom of speech in France.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.