Today, on International Women’s Day, the Agence France Presse (AFP) wire service published an article celebrating the wives of convicted Palestinian terrorists. Not all terrorists of course, only those who attack Israelis.
AFP starts by explaining that, “More than 7,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, with around 600 serving life sentences.” In a startling example of unashamed media bias, AFP makes no mention of why those prisoners are held, the terror that many have committed, or the number of lives they have claimed.
AFP says nothing of the Israeli victims or their families, nor does it mention that the Palestinian Authority government pays incarcerated terrorists sums far beyond what they could earn while free, thus creating a strong economic incentive to kill Israelis.
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AFP goes on to make an emotionally charged case study of one Ahed Abu Golmi, mentioning only at the end of the article that he went to prison because of his role in the 2001 assassination of Rehavam Ze’evi, the Israeli Minister of Tourism. (Is there any country in the world where assassinating a government minister wouldn’t land the assassin in prison?) Not surprisingly, the article does not bother to interview, or even mention, Ze’evi’s family: he was survived by his wife Yael and their five children.
The heart strings are tugged again for Khalida Muslih, the wife of Mohammed Muslih, who “was given nine life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis.” Again, we are told nothing of these attacks nor their victims. Instead:
According to her, being the wife of a prisoner serving time for attacking Israelis is something to be proud of, and she will never change her mind.
When her husband was sentenced in 2002, only a year and a half after they were married, she ululated in joy.
“All these years I have never regretted a thing,” said Muslih, whose son was just four months old when his father was jailed.
“I was proud to be the wife of a fighter, even if that meant depriving myself of many things and breaking my heart.”
AFP makes no mention that out of a Palestinian population of 6.08 million people, 7,000 prisoners comes to an incarceration rate of 115 people per 100,000 of population, one of the lowest in the world, which is astonishing given the amount of terrorism that Israel faces. (The median incarceration rate in Europe, for example, is almost the same at 98 per 100,000, while the United States is over 6 times higher at 716 per 100,000).
Yet the most incomprehensible part of the article is why any journalist would think that glorifying the wives of terrorists is an appropriate way to mark International Women’s Day.
If your local media outlet republishes this AFP piece, send your considered comments and ask why this is the case.
Photo credit: Feature image by Olivier Fitoussi /FLASH90
