Hamas held its anniversary celebration in Gaza on Sunday. Their “celebration” including burning effigies of religious Jews, parading long-range missiles around, and, oh, yeah, threatening the destruction of Israel.
Vowing to destroy Israel, Hamas paraded some 2,000 of its armed fighters and truck-mounted rockets through Gaza on Sunday, marking its 27th anniversary with its biggest show of force since the end of the Gaza war this summer.
Reuters managed to make that the lede. And they found room to put this information pretty high up:
At the parade, a senior Hamas leader reaffirmed the Islamist movement’s founding charter’s pledge to destroy Israel.
“This illusion called Israel will be removed. It will be removed at the hands of the Qassam Brigades,” said Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas leader, referring to the movement’s armed wing.
The AP didn’t so much as mention the calls for Israel’s destruction. Its lede was quite different from Reuters.
The Islamic militant group Hamas displayed rockets and other heavy weapons Sunday during a rally marking the 27th anniversary of its founding.
This is the most they could muster, eight paragraphs down:
With Sunday’s weapons display, Hamas appeared to be sending a message to both Israel and the residents of Gaza that another round of fighting is an option.
And then, in the very last paragraph, the AP decided it might mention something about the calls to destroy Israel. Maybe.
The man in the recording identified as Deif said, “We will return to them (Israelis) with fighters that they cannot fight and will drive them out … God willing.”
The AP continues to deny that it whitewashes the news for the Palestinians. I think we can judge for ourselves whether or not that is true.