This item appeared in Sunday's Jordan Times. No big deal, it's the usual harangue (courtesy of Reuters).
NABLUS (Reuters) — Israeli soldiers shot dead four Palestinians on Saturday in some of the bloodiest confrontations in at least two weeks in the West Bank city of Nablus while a fifth Palestinian was killed in the Gaza Strip.
Senior Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the killings as "atrocities" and told Reuters he held Israel "fully responsible for the consequences of this escalation."
He urged sponsors of the stalled "roadmap" peace plan — the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia — to do more to restore peace efforts.
Palestinian witnesses said Amjed Al Masri, 15, was shot in the chest by a sniper as he threw stones at an Israeli armoured vehicle from a rooftop in the Old City of Nablus.
He and Rawhi Shuman — a 19-year-old shot in the chest in a separate incident — died of their injuries in hospital, medics said. Amer Arafat, 26, was shot in the back and pronounced dead on arrival.
The army claimed Masri was shot while dropping large "life-threatening" bricks on soldiers, while two Palestinians were shot, one holding a pistol and the other a petrol bomb.
The interference is clear, and we've heard it a million times. The Israeli army says they were being pelted with large, life-threatening bricks (ignoring, for the moment, the pistol and petrol bomb). Reuters knows better, though. They know it was just a couple of kids working off some steam throwing "stones."
So on Monday, I noticed this photo over at Meryl's place. According to the AP caption, it depicts "Palestinians hurl[ing] bricks and pieces of concrete at a passing Israeli vehicle during clashes" in Nablus this past weekend. What do you think? Do those things look more like "stones?" Or like "large, life-threatening bricks?"
Check out the photo credit, by the way. This pic wasn't snapped by an IDF soldier trying to justify the defense measures of his unit. It was taken by Nasser Ishtayeh, a palestinian photographer who has himself had at least one run-in with the Israeli army.
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Update: Honest Reporting is all over this, I now see, via Solomon.
