"Using the term “patient” to refer to Palestinians who were forcibly taken captive and subsequently treated for injuries is a dangerous euphemism that obfuscates the fact that Israel is 1) holding these individuals captive and wrongfully detaining them and 2) “treating” injuries the Israeli military as almost certainly inflicted."
June 4, 2024
To:
Julia Frankel, Journalist, The Associated Press
Julie Pace, Executive Editor, The Associated Press
Josef Federman, News Director, Jerusalem, The Associated Press
John Daniszewski, Standards Editor, The Associated Press
Dear Julia Frankel,
The Associated Press has consistently referred to the soldiers and civilians taken captive by Hamas on Oct. 7 as “hostages.” In a recent article titled “Israel maintains a shadowy hospital in the desert for Gaza detainees,” you consistently refer to the Palestinians taken captive by the Israeli military as “detainees,” even though, as you write, many of these people have turned out to be “non-combatants taken during raids, held without trial and eventually returned to war-torn Gaza.” Yesterday, AP published an article using terms like “Israeli hostages and hostage negotiations,” even though a significant number of these “hostages” are, indeed, soldiers and legitimate targets. A “detainee” usually refers to a person who is being held in custody on “legitimate” grounds. A “hostage,” however, usually refers to a person who has been taken as a prisoner on “illegitimate” grounds. With that being said, AP’s reservation of the term “detainees” for Palestinians taken captive seems like a racist double standard. I, therefore, ask that you replace every instance of Palestinian “detainees” with “captives” or “hostages” or “political prisoners.”
In the same vein, you consistently refer to Palestinian captives who are being “treated” by Israel as “patients.” If one of the civilians or soldiers taken captive by Hamas on Oct. 7 were receiving treatment, shackled, and blindfolded on a bed in a tent in Gaza, I am certain that AP would refer to this individual as a hostage, not a patient. Using the term “patient” to refer to Palestinians who were forcibly taken captive and subsequently treated for injuries is a dangerous euphemism that obfuscates the fact that Israel is 1) holding these individuals captive and wrongfully detaining them and 2) “treating” injuries the Israeli military as almost certainly inflicted.
Perhaps most pressingly, the title “Israel maintains a shadowy hospital in the desert for Gaza detainees. Critics allege mistreatment.” The facility to which you are referring is not a hospital. This detention center is located at the Sde Teiman military base. Despite beginning your article with “Patients lying shackled and blindfolded on more than a dozen beds,” you’ve still referred to this detention center as a “hospital,” which is inaccurate. Early May, CNN published an investigation titled “Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center.” As stated in this piece, the camp you refer to as a “hospital” is part of the “infrastructure of Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, an amended legislation…that expanded the military’s authority to detain suspected militants.” Whistleblowers have detailed human rights violations, including doctors amputating prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing, wounds left to rot, and captives being strapped to their beds and fed through straws. This is not a hospital; it is a torture center. Please, at the very least, remove “hospital” from the title and replace it with “torture camp.”
Sincerely,
Rose Mardikian,
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East