Palestinians throwing rocks and stones is an act of violence and can and has killed Israelis. It’s not surprising, therefore, that IDF soldiers in the vehicle targeted in the photo below fired back after stone-throwers ignored warning shots and continued their attack.
In the course of this incident, one of the stone-throwers was shot. He subsequently died of his injuries.
Ignoring the violence associated with stone-throwing, some media chose headlines that twisted the story.
The New York Times:
AFP:
Despite the fact that it was the Palestinian who initiated the violence and threatened the lives of IDF soldiers, the New York Times and AFP headlines both remove any context and therefore suggest that a Palestinian teenager has simply been “killed” by the IDF for no apparent reason other than, presumably, malice.
For the Irish Times, a stone-thrower is transformed into a “protester” who may in the minds of the reader be guilty of no more than peacefully marching with a placard in hand. The International Business Times conjures images of an execution carried out for a minor infringement of the law.
Compare the headlines above with some more reasonable ones:
- Israeli officer kills stone-throwing Palestinian youth in West Bank
- Palestinian killed after throwing rocks at Israeli vehicle
These are just the latest in a series of headline fails, particularly prevalent from AFP, which have sought to portray the Israelis as malicious aggressors while turning Palestinian attackers into innocent victims of punitive Israeli actions.
