Here’s how that AP story might be rewritten:
The body of Ori Ansbacher, 19, was found in the woods in the West Bank near Jerusalem on Thursday with extensive stabbing wounds. She had been working as a volunteer at a youth center, and apparently went for a walk in the woods. She had been raped and her body mutilated. She was buried Friday in the Israeli settlement of Tekoah amid calls by Israelis for her killer to be executed. Only one person has been executed in Israel’s history: Adolf Eichmann.
Her killer lived in Al-Bireh, near Ramallah, in the West Bank. Over 600,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories Israel won in the Six-Day War. The Palestinians claim they must be given up by Israel to become part of a Palestinian state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to Tekoah to meet with Ansbacher’s parents, Rabbi Gadi and Na’ama Ansbacher, to personally express his condolences. The murder of this young girl, and the manner of her murder, has shaken the country. “You were a child of light. You brought so much light and happiness to the house,” her mother Na’ama said. And her father, Rabbi Ansbacher, described Ori as “a holy soul seeking meaning, with a sensitivity for every person and creature and an infinite desire to correct the world with goodness.”
In the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians attended the funerals of the teenagers killed by Israeli fire while engaged in protests near the security fence.
The mother of 14-year-old Hassan Shalabi wailed as mourners brought his body on a stretcher for a final farewell at their home in the Nusseirat refugee camp.
“He was everything beautiful at home; his voice, his happiness fills the house. There is laughter and play when he is home,” said the mother, Fatma, soon after the body was carried away, wrapped in a Palestinian flag.
The Palestinian group Al-Mezan claims that when they were shot by Israeli forces, the two teenagers were standing 50-60 meters (160-200 feet) from the fence. There has been no corroboration from other sources.
In Gaza City, mourners buried Hamza Ishtiwi. The Health Ministry put his age at 18, but Al-Mezan claimed he was 17. Footage of the teen lying on his back the moment after a bullet struck him in the neck spread on social media.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers have organized mass demonstrations along the frontier every Friday since March, in which demonstrators hurl rocks, Molotov cocktails, grenades, and incendiary kites into Israel, under a smokescreen of burning tires, and attempt to breach Israel’s security fence and to enter the country to kill Israelis. They have not succeeded. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed and thousands have been wounded. Hamas is not deterred. It believes that the Great March of Return is of great propaganda value to the “Palestinian” cause, precisely because of the number of casualties.
The “Palestinian” marchers frequently hurl firebombs and explosives of every type. But their latest weapon — the incendiary kite — may be their most effective, for they have managed to set aflame thousands of acres in Israel. And the Israelis have as yet found no good way to counter the damage those kites, with gasoline-soaked rags tied to them and lit, have caused.
Israeli soldiers respond first with tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades, in their attempt to stop the marchers. Any marchers who get close to the fence or start to cut through it, can expect live fire, which is first aimed below the knees. Israel, which has been accused by the Arabs of using excessive force, says it does what it must to protect its borders.
The U.N. children’s agency, as expected, condemned the killing of the two Palestinian teenagers, warning of the “significant violence” Palestinian children endure. It had no comment on the murder of Ori Ansbacher, also a teenager.
“Children are children. They must be protected at all times. Children should never be a target. Nor should they be exposed to any form of violence, by any party,” UNICEF Middle East director Geert Cappelaere said in a statement. There was no comment by UNICEF on the use of children by Hamas for propaganda purposes.
Whoever wrote the original AP report might take a look at this suggested rewrite. There is always room for improvement, especially when it comes to the mainstream media’s coverage of Israel and the “Palestinians.” I allow myself to believe that in the version just above, I’ve made a start.
antonia says
The so-called ‘West Bank’ (of the Jordan River) is mostly historic Judaea, the homeland of the tribe of Judah from whence comes the modern English word ‘Jew’. We are to believe that it is ‘immoral’ for Jews to live in their historic homeland of Judaea. That’s a real stretch, isn’t it?
Even the Koran commands Jews to ‘dwell in The Land’. A number of Koranic verses connect the land of Israel with the Banu Israil (children of Israel). This is a typical example of how Muslims flipflop to reinterpret the Koran in contradictory ways in a completely dishonest and opportunistic manner.
Islamic ethics are based on the idea that anything that promotes Islam is approved, no matter how immoral.
gravenimage says
Hugh Fitzgerald: How the AP Covered the Murder of Ori Ansbacher (Part Four)
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Grotesque false moral equivalence in this article. Just despicable from the Associated Press.
Kay says
Thanks for the rewrite Hugh.