Photo-Shopping Shelved For Straight, Direct Propoganda

Charles Johnson caught this this afternoon. The AP's headline is completely disingenous reading: "Palestinian teachers' strike hurts boy." Here is the main part of that story:

Masked militants trying to keep students away from school during a politically charged Palestinian teachers’ strike on Sunday shot and wounded a 12-year-old boy.

Palestinian teachers began striking Saturday, the start of the school year, to demand full back pay and regular salaries from the Hamas-led government, which has been financially crippled by six months of international sanctions. Most schools throughout the West Bank remained closed, some by force, as the strike continued.

At least three masked militants stood outside a school in the northern West Bank city of Nablus and fired in the air to keep children away, witnesses said.

Stray fire hit a 12-year-old boy, Issam Ghannam, in the abdomen, witnesses said. .
..
The child’s family, Fatah loyalists, refused to condemn the militants. “There were unknown men with weapons, preventing the students from going to school,” said the boy’s uncle, Ghannam Ibrahim Ghannam. “They fired, and as an unintentional result of the shooting he was hit.”

Now we only have the reporter's word that the shots were fired in the air, but the question remains why they even fired in the first place. Live fire, folks, on middle-school aged children. These were not militants storming the doors of the school. These were people in the crowd, and the crowd was, quite obviously, one comprised mainly of children. And note that the AP refuses to call these people terrorists. They're "masked militants."

But they're not making a big deal about the kid getting shopt. No, the AP guys went and spoke to the family. Want to read something outrageous?

The child's family, Fatah loyalists, refused to condemn the militants. "There were unknown men with weapons, preventing the students from going to school," said the boy's uncle, Ghannam Ibrahim Ghannam. "They fired, and as an unintentional result of the shooting he was hit."

"Unknown men?" "Unintentional result?" You have got to be kidding me. At least the AP could have done was dug up someone who could condemn Israel while excusing the actions of terrorists who opened fire on a crowd of schoolchildren. They couldn't even come up with that. But the AP does find a way to stick in the comments of parents regarding the teacher strike:

Some residents said they supported the strike, which they said proved how ineffectual the Hamas government was six months after taking office.

"If the teachers don't get salaries, they won't teach my children well," said Yasser Hajir, 38, the father of three children in Nablus. "If the government isn't working for students, and the government isn't able to open schools and hospitals, it has no use and should resign."

Other parents condemned the labor action, saying it could lead to youth crime and would damage their children's education.

"The kids are in the streets now, and there are many women who have lots of children like me, their children are in the streets and are not learning," said Nadia Hajj-Ibrahim, a mother of five. "If the strike continues, I won't be able to raise my children, they'll go wild on the streets."

Um, duh. That's what Hamas wants. They want children "wild in the streets." They're much easier to recruit when the hate and dissatisfaction already exists. All they need to do is provide a focus, and some training. And these kids will make excellent, obedient little suicide bombers.

Publius II