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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Photos of poor PalArabs fenced in - by Pali fence

Palestinian children take part in a human chain protest near Erez crossing with Gaza, calling for an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip February 25, 2008. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

Palestinian youths gather at a fence during a protest calling for the end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip near the Erez Crossing in Beit Hanoun, Monday, Feb. 25, 2008. Israel deployed thousands of troops and police officers along the volatile border with the Gaza Strip on Monday, fearing a mass demonstration by the Hamas militant group against Israel's blockade of Gaza would turn violent and spill into Israel. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)


Quick - where do you think this fence is?

If you answer that it is obviously the border fence between Gaza and Israel, you lose. While this is clearly the what the photographers want to imply in showing poor, photogenic Palestinian Arab kids on the "other side" of some fence, this is clearly not the border. It was certainly easy enough for the photographers to walk around to the other side of this fence.

In the unbelievably sickening LA Times article about the fizzled "human chain" protest yesterday ("The demonstration is mostly peaceful, though 11 rockets are fired into Israel.") it mentions that "Palestinian organizers ... ordered demonstrators to stay at least 1,100 yards from the border."

So this fence that the wire service photographers are showing was over a half mile away from Israel. While the captions did not explicitly say that this was the border fence that handsome Arab boys were pasting their faces against, the implication is obvious.

Yet another way that pictures can lie.