Everything you need to know about today’s media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.
Palestinian politician injured in Land Day demo blames Israel but witnesses say he was attacked by other Palestinians. Blowback from revelations of Israeli access to Azeri airfields. Iran suspends Reuters over faulty ninja assassins headline.
Join the Israel Daily News Stream on Facebook.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti claims he was hit in the head by an IDF tear gas cannister. But as the NY Times bureau chief Ethan Bronner notes, other Palestinians contradict his story:
“I was hit with a tear-gas bomb on the side of my head and my back,” Dr. Barghouti said in a telephone interview from his hospital bed. “My scalp is injured, my right ear has problems, and they are checking to see if I have any spinal injury.”
The Israeli military spokesman’s office, in a set of Twitter messages and later over the telephone, said Dr. Barghouti had not been hit by an Israeli canister but had been attacked by other Palestinians. A few Palestinian witnesses offered a similar account.
I’m not surprised. Barghouti once managed to coordinate his arrest at a Temple Mount protest with Western reporters. It was great for his election campaign. Shortly before publishing this new stream, the JPost reported that the PA’s launching its own investigation, rather than issue a knee-jerk condemnation:
The assault was in the context of competition between Barghouti’s supporters and Fatah over who should lead the Land Day protests, they said.
One eyewitness said that a number of PA security officers participated in the assault on Barghouti, a former presidential candidate.
• Legal Insurrection sums up my attitude towards the Global March to Jerusalem:
What if you threw a Two Million Man Global March on Jerusalem, and almost no one showed up?
• Dodgy Financial Times headline (via Google News):
These protests weren’t about statehood. They were about helping the Palestinians lay claim to Jerusalem. By the way, correspondent Tobias Buck botched Barghouti, missing the Palestinian witnesses.
• Radical Neturei Karta Jews joined GMJ protesters in Jordan and Lebanon. In one Reuters photo near Beaufort castle, they’re escorted by Hezbollah bodyguards.
• Tsk tsk: AFP photographer Hazem Bader thinks Gilo’s a West Bank settlement. I hate it when this happens.
