This article first appeared on the Council on Foreign Relations site.
On April 17, The New York Times ran an op-ed by Marwan Barghouti, and described him as "a Palestinian leader and parliamentarian." Period.
In his op-ed, Barghouti states that he was first arrested at age 15, then again at age 18, and he alleges physical abuse by Israeli interrogators.
Related: Elliott Abrams: What will the Palestinians give up for peace?
But nowhere does the Times tell readers what he was convicted of doing. Here is an account of the proceedings from The Washington Post in 2004:
Barghouti was found guilty of ordering attacks that killed a Greek Orthodox monk in the West Bank in 2001, an Israeli at the Jewish settlement of Givat Zeev in 2002 and three people at the Seafood Market restaurant in Tel Aviv in 2002. He was also convicted of one count each of attempted murder and membership in a terrorist organization…
Television news footage of the trial showed Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian legislature, responding to the convictions in a low voice, saying in Hebrew, "This is a court of occupation that I do not recognize."
"A day will come when you will be ashamed of these accusations," said Barghouti, 44. "I have no more connection to these charges than you, the judges, do. The judges cannot judge on their own. They get their order from above."
The three-judge panel said there was insufficient evidence to prove Barghouti's guilt in another 21 deaths that were originally part of the indictment….
Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said, however, that the verdict "demonstrates the independence of the Israeli courts. The fact that in most of the accusations he is found not guilty is clear evidence that his case was given a fair trial."
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz gave further detail:
The court ruled that Barghouti was directly responsible for a January 2002 terror attack on a gas station in Givat Zeev in which Israeli Yoela Chen was murdered. The attack, the judges said, was carried out at his direct order in revenge for the assassination of Raed Carmi. Barghouti had admitted his responsibility for this attack.
The attack in which a Greek monk was murdered in Ma'aleh Adumim on June of 2001 was also carried out at the instruction of Barghouti, the judges said.
The former Tanzim leader, the court ruled, also approved the March 2002 attack at Tel Aviv's Seafood Market restaurant in which three people were murdered, as well as a car bomb attack in Jerusalem.
Didn't Times readers have the right to know any of this? They did, and the byline the Times allowed Mr. Barghouti is a shameful abdication of responsibility to readers.
Related: Elliott Abrams: There's one rule for Israel, another for everyone else
Elliott Abrams is senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
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