The AP is doing what it does best: Refusing to blame the Palestinians for their part in the deaths of Palestinians due to riot.
Check out this CBS/AP headline, in REALLY BIG TYPE on the page:
Israel forces kill 3 Palestinians, including U.N. worker, in West Bank refugee camp, delaying peace talks
Palestinian officials said they called off a planned round of peace talks Monday after Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians — including a United Nations aid worker — during clashes following an arrest raid in the West Bank.
Note that the lead paragraph tells you almost nothing about how the deaths occurred. Perhaps none of the AP writers could take the time out to watch the video at this link.
Here’s what the JPost had to say:
A large scale Palestinian attack against security forces in Kalandiya early Monday in which rioters shot at army jeeps, hurled washing machines and large concrete blocks from the rooftops left three Palestinians dead from Israeli gunfire.
Note that they threw WASHING MACHINES off roofs. But there’s a lot more.
Some 300 Palestinians circled the soldiers and hurled concrete slabs at them.
The IDF attempted to disperse the rioters with nonlethal crowd-control measures.
One soldier on a rooftop identified a Palestinian on an adjacent rooftop about to hurl a concrete block on soldiers under him, and shot him in the hand using 0.22 caliber ammunition, the source said.
But according to the AP, the soldiers were firing randomly into the crowd. They have Palestinian “eyewitnesses”. I wonder if they were among the 500 encircling the soldiers and trying to kill them.
According to the U.N. official, who spoke to CBSNews.com on the condition of anonymity to discuss the on-going investigation, there was “absolutely no question” that Zayed wasn’t involved in any violence when he turned a corner on his way to work and a bullet went straight through his chest.
“As soon as he appeared in eye-shot of the IDF patrol, they literally shot him in the chest,” said the official, calling it “hugely significant that an unarmed worker who was showing no involvement in any violence at all was shot dead.”
The official said the incident “illustrates the overwhelming and disproportionate use of force” routinely employed by Israeli security forces in the occupied Palestinian territories.
According to eyewitnesses interviewed by UNRWA, the Israeli forces “opened fire randomly” on Palestinians in the camp during the melee, even shooting indiscriminately into the windows of homes that opened during the clashes.
When they asked the IDF for their side, here’s what was printed:
Asked by CBS News about the allegations on Tuesday, an Israeli military source would say only that the defense forces own review “suggests that all three of the individuals that died from injuries were actively engaged in the violent riot against IDF forces as they apprehended a terrorist.”
Note how the writer denigrates the IDF response, which is actually pretty damning to the Palestinians that were killed and utterly refutes the “eyewitness” testimony repeated second-hand by a UNRWA worker. And is the UNRWA worker a Palestinian as well? Why, of course the reporter can’t say, because that was part of the anonymity deal. Would they have al Qaeda commenting anonymously on a strike on al Qaeda terrorists? Probably not. Wouldn’t lay odds, though. But you see the anti-Israel bias in this article.
Take a look at this video. You’ll see what happened. It was so much more than the media ever tell.