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When does an ‘aggression’ turn into a ‘massacre’?

As many as thirteen Palestinians died in Gaza on January 28th, after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) entered the A-Zeitoun neighborhood. At least five were activists in the terror organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad. And at least four were under 20 years old. These are the facts.

So how is it that three Palestinian newspapers regard this IDF operation in their headlines in such different manners?

“Madhbaha” [Massacre], wrote the daily Al-Hayyat Al-Jadida in its headline.

“‘Udwan” [Aggression], wrote Al-Ayyam.

“Tawaghul” [Raid], wrote Al-Quds.

So which was it?

“It was a massacre,” Ayham Abu Ghoush, an editor at Al-Hayyat Al-Jadida, told The Media Line (TML). “A military operation turns into a massacre when a few criteria combine: When the number of victims is high; the fact that it happens in one place in a short span of time; the nature of those who die – children, women; and the way they died – whether by a gun-shot or by a tank-missile. What also has an effect on the use of the word ‘massacre’ to describe an incident, is the nature of the attack – did the soldiers fire randomly or aim at armed personnel only,” explained Abu Ghoush.

“We used the word ‘aggression’, but in my opinion it was a mistake. We should have used the word ‘massacre’,” editor of Israeli Affairs for the daily Al-Ayyam, Farid Hammad, told TML. “An ‘udwan means an unprovoked attack. A madhbaha means that a lot of people die…we don’t have a policy concerning the wording in such cases, but in my opinion when nine people die it is a massacre,” added Hammad.

“The word massacre has a very distinct meaning – it is used when a very large amount of people die,” an editor at Al-Quds (who wishes to remain anonymous) told TML. “Kafr Qana was a massacre, ‘Sabra and Shatila was a massacre too [93 people died in Qana, hundreds of people died in ‘Sabra and Shatila]. In the Palestinian territories one, two, five people die every day. You cannot use the word massacre each time,” explained the editor.

What is important to stress here, is that Al-Hayyat Al-Jadida (“massacre”) is a Palestinian Authority (PA) organ, funded by the PA. So when reading it, one should think about what message the PA is trying to convey. Al-Ayyam (“aggression”) is considered more independent, but it is published in Ramallah, so it is still under the control of the PA. Al-Quds (“raid”) is published in Jerusalem, and is considered the most independent of the three.

This is how the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘massacre’: 1: the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty; 2: a cruel or wanton murder; 3: a wholesale slaughter of animals; 4: an act of complete destruction.

It is left to you to decide which is the appropriate word to use.