Hamas has un-banned the banned book, which they’ve already pulled from the shelf and destroyed.

The Hamas-run Education Ministry on Saturday rescinded its decision to pull an anthology of Palestinian folk tales from school libraries and destroy copies, reportedly over mild sexual innuendo, following a widespread public outcry.

Education Minister Nasser Shaer, of Hamas, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he had not been informed of this week’s decision to ban the book, “Speak Bird, Speak Again.” Some 1,500 copies of the book were destroyed the most direct attempt by the militant Muslim group to impose its beliefs on Palestinian society.

“I have decided to correct the illegal measures that were taken regarding disposing the book,” Shaer said.

No word on how many more books were destroyed between the time this story was published and the time the edict went out. And my b.s. detector went off at the quote above. Shyeah. The minister didn’t know what his ministry was doing. Uh-huh.

In other, more cheerful news: The civil war is still there, seething just beneath the surface.

Palestinian gunmen on Saturday stopped a car carrying a Hamas Cabinet minister and opened fire on the vehicle, officials said, sparking a gunbattle and underscoring lingering tensions between rival movements trying to form a coalition government.

No one was hurt in the shootout, which came a day before President Mahmoud Abbas was expected to discuss the unity deal between his Fatah movement and Hamas at a summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Of course it’s still beneath the surface. If it hadn’t been, the Hamasnik would be dead. Then again, the IDF does point out that the palestinians are pretty crappy shots. So maybe they just missed.

You know, there are certain things that I don’t find amusing, and anti-Semitism is one of them. Apparently, this is not the case for a certain Hungarian Jew.

The background: Stories surfaced a few days ago warning Hungary’s Jews (there are 100,000 of them) to flee the country due to anti-Semitism.

Hungarian Jews were urged to considering leaving during Passover for fear of anti-Semitic attacks. The rise of the far right during recent political upheavals in Hungary prompted local rabbis to post an ad in a Jewish newspaper telling community members to go abroad for the holiday in April.

“We are really afraid of the troubles that will happen on the street during the holiday and think that it is better to leave Budapest or just stay home,” Hungarian Jewish leader Peter Feldmeier told Ma’ariv. “The notice expresses how fed up we are with the strong voices of the Hungarian Nazis and with the anti-Semitic movements in the country, which claim that the Jews are to blame for Hungary’s situation.”

Except it turns out that was supposed to be a Purim joke.

BUDAPEST (EJP)—A call by the leader of the Hungarian Jewish community for Jews to leave the country “for fear of anti-Semitic attacks on the occasion of the national holiday, “was a joke in a Jewish newspaper,” Rabbi Shlomo Köves told European Jewish Press on Friday.

“Jews in Hungary are not afraid and you don’t have to take seriously what was mainly a Purim joke,” he said.

“This is totally far from the reality,” the rabbi of the Chabad community in Budapest, said.

Ha. Ha. What a funny joke, telling Jews that they should flee from persecution. Nobody would ever think that could happen.

Peter Feldmajer, head of Mazsihisz, one of the largest Jewish organisations, was quoted in the Jewish local newspaper Ujelet as saying Jews should stay at home or leave the country for their own safety on March 15, which marks the a national holiday .

“We are advising people, especially if they are elderly not to go out, to stay at home,” he said.

“If you followed the events, they constantly blamed Jews for all Hungary’s problems with the harshest words,” he added.

On March 15, the main parliamentary right-wing opposition Fidesz party and radical fringe groups plan anti-government rallies.

Several Jewish and Israeli media took Fedmajer’s warning seriously, saying that Jews were urged to leave the country for the upcoming Jewish holiday of Pessach or Passover.

Feldjmejer later admitted that this was a “joke” and said he wanted only to focus attention on this problem.

Ha. Ha. Again. My sides are simply splitting from the incredible humor of Jews being persecuted. Please pardon me while I wipe away the tears of laughter.

Today’s Moron of the Week award goes to: Fledjmejer.

Idiot.