Monday, August 15, 2005
Elder of ZiyonDozens of members of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, some of them armed, stormed into a government building in the West Bank on Saturday to demand jobs, witnesses said.
The incident in the town of Qalqilyah was another sign of growing lawlessness and frustration at lack of economic opportunities in the Palestinian territories.
'We belong to Fatah. We ask you to leave your offices. The offices will be closed until our demands for employment are met. Our protest is peaceful so far,' one of the Fatah members told the employees, who complied immediately.
The Fatah men then closed the offices with chains and locks and departed, leaving several members of the group behind to guard the building. Police did not intervene.
[Abbas] promised during the presidential campaign to boost employment and recruit into PA institutions gunmen who have confronted Israeli forces during a four-and-a-half year uprising. Promised jobs are yet to materialize.
OK, in five very short paragraphs, we see:
* Palestinians use violence and threats of more violence to extort what they want.
* Palestinian officials and police willingly give in to blackmail from any thugs who walk in the door.
* Reuters will excuse criminal behavior as simple "frustration" on the part of the criminals.
* Abbas promised to reward with jobs anyone who ever shot a bullet at a Jew.
What Reuters fails to mention in its background information is the small fact that most of the Palestinian "police" are just paid terrorists themselves who don't bother to go to work. For some reason, Reuters also fails to mention the likelihood that these "members of Fatah" would probably be considered terrorists by any sane definition of the term.
But you can only fit so much background information in an article, right? Might as well stress the information that shows the terrorists' points of view.
