JERUSALEM — The Foreign Ministry expressed its shock Sunday over the publication in the London-based daily Al-Hayat of a photograph showing an Amal militiaman holding the severed head of an Israel Navy commando.
“It is most serious that the media in enlightened countries, which are supposed to uphold professional and moral standards, allowed the publication of such a shocking photograph,” the ministry said in a statement.
The Israeli Embassy in London is to lodge a formal complaint with Britain’s Press Council over the publication.
The features of the commando, one of 12 who were killed in the abortive operation in Lebanon Friday of last week, are clearly identifiable in the picture, which was distributed by Agence France Presse and published on the front page of the Saudi-owned paper on Saturday.
“Publication of this photograph was an act of barbarism,” said embassy spokesman Ron Prosor. “It contradicts all newspaper codes and journalistic ethics. We are devastated by the publication.”
Other pictures in the paper depict the dismembered limbs and organs, including a heart, of other Israelis who were killed in the operation.
The Britain Israel Public Affairs Center, a leading pro-Israel lobby in London, also announced that it will seek legal advice on action to be taken against Al-Hayat. The newspaper, which is regarded as one of the most influential among the elite in the Arab world, is based in London, but is printed simultaneously throughout the Middle East and in the United States.
The editor-in-chief of Al-Hayat, Jihad Khazen, told The Jerusalem Post Sunday he could understand why many people would find it “incomprehensible” that a supposedly reputable newspaper would decide to publish such a photograph. “As a reader, I didn’t like it myself,” he said.
He said the decision to publish was made jointly by senior editors at the paper because it had arrived via a widely distributed wire service and they believed other papers would publish the photograph.
“I was not on duty at the time, but I will not shirk my responsibility,” he said. “Perhaps I would not have used it on the front page. Perhaps I would not publish something like it again.
“We at Al-Hayat are peaceniks,” he added. “We just want this whole thing to finish.”