Israeli ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer slammed CNN for its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Thursday on OutFront, telling host Erin Burnett the network did a disservice to viewers by not providing facts and context in their reports on the violence there.
The latest example came with the story of 16 people killed in a U.N. hospital in Gaza during an strike. Although Israel was blamed for the hit, the Israeli military said the attack could very well have come from Hamas in a misfired rocket, and Burnett asked whether Dermer knew more on the matter.
Dermer reminded Burnett Hamas has been using schools, hospitals and other non-military installations as weapon depots.
"It would be a disservice to your viewers for a reporter from Gaza not to mention that in the last week we had two different UNRWA schools where we had actually rockets found in the schools and handed over to Hamas," he said.
Dermer grew angrier when he mentioned he'd watched two hours of CNN and not heard a single reporter tell the viewers of this practice.
"I have not heard a single person say what I just said to you now, and I think that that does a disservice to your viewers to not give them the context they need to make these judgments," he said. "Hamas is placing missile batteries in schools, in hospitals, in mosques, and there must be outrage by the world at Hamas to end this."
Dermer's criticism comes as part of a larger pattern of outrage against media coverage of the conflict that has been sympathetic toward the Palestinians, when it was the Hamas terrorist organization that started the conflict, is confirmed to use its own citizens as human shields and has refused multiple attempts to agree to ceasefires.
"I'm blaming the media for not connecting the dots," Dermer said. "The dots point to the responsibility of Hamas for using schools as weapons depots and caches for hamas. It's unacceptable, and the outrage of the world has to be turned on Hamas."