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Monday, March 03, 2008

Arab media feeding inciteful lies

The Palestine Press Agency reported two interesting items today:
UNRWA commissioner general "Karen Abu Zayd" demands effective international intervention to put a stop to "bloody violence" in Gaza
Pope calls for an unconditional cessation of military operations in Gaza
By saying "in Gaza", the "news" agency is making it sound like the Pope and Abu-Zayd condemned Israel only, thereby justifying Qassam and Grad rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. (Of course, both the pope and Abu-Zayd condemned both sides equally.)

Similarly, even English-language Arab media tends to overlook condemnations of public figures of Qassam and Grad rockets and only mention condemnations of Israel. From Bahrain's Gulf Daily News:
European Union president Slovenia condemned Israel's attacks as disproportionate and violating international law.
(Of course, even Reuters gets in on the act, headlining only condemnations of Israel and burying the same people condemning rocket attacks in the text of the article.)

Another example of absurd media bias in Arab sources is this article from Ma'an:
A Palestinian student was killed on Monday morning after Israeli forces opened fire on a peaceful demonstration in the West Bank against the Israeli mass killings in the Gaza Strip.
Of course, the "peaceful" demonstration included hundreds of peaceful rock throwers and a Jewish citizen felt so threatened that he first fired in the air, then at the legs of his attackers.