Thursday, November 11, 2010

The day the anniversary died

There were two recent news stories about attempts to stop commemorations of what Ma'an News terms "the death of anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat." Oh well, we get the idea. I can't say for sure, but I think this one, ascribing anti-Arafat motives to Zionist Entity Forces, is false:
Israeli forces surrounded a school in the northern West Bank to prevent students from marking the death of anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian president.

Forces threatened to raid the school if the celebration did not immediately end, the director of education at the Jeet Male Secondary School east of Qalqiliya said. The principal said the school was evacuated.

An Israeli military spokesman said forces were responding to rock-throwing. [...]
To my mind, the fact that Maan bothers to include this little contrary claim does not bode well for the veracity of the good Director of Education, but Angry Arab just quotes the first sentence and gives the post one of his famous "This is Zionism" titles. He obviously believes the Director. What can I say? I'm just a lowly Judeopundit, while he is a Professor of Political Science at the Tomato Cannery--I mean, California State University, Stanislaus. This Maan News article, however (h/t: EOZ), contains no contrary claim:
The Foreign Press Association in Israel condemned on Thursday the reported arrest of a television crew at a Rafah event celebrating the life of former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.

In a statement, the FPA denounced "in the strongest terms," the detention of the journalists, who the association said were detained and ordered to turn over news footage to the authorities. [...]
If only Abu Amar were here. He'd make sure his death-anniversary was celebrated properly.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

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