Kesher Talk

The Inquirer sympathizes with terrorists? On June 9, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a front-page story addressing the after-effects of Palestinian terrorism. But instead of focusing on the victims of terrorism and their families, this report filed by Michael Matza — the Inquirer’s correspondent in Israel — homed in solely on the complaints of the relatives of the terrorists. It detailed what Matza called a "controversy" over the disposition of the remains of some (though not all) of those Arabs who have blown themselves up while massacreing Israelis. According to Matza, the bodies of some of these murderers have not been returned to their families. His report contained the charge that this practice, if true, was a form of “collective punishment” against the Palestinian people.

His editors went even further, concocting a front-page headline alleging that “Palestinians’ remains fuel a bitterness.”

The story jumped inside the paper, where underneath a picture of the grieving mom and brother of one suicide bomber, the editors added another headline, “Fate of corpses fuels passions in Mideast.”

Philadelphia's Jewish paper, The Jewish Exponent, has more.

posted by Howard @ 6/20/2002 05:09:00 PM