Palestinian Women Tried to Smuggle Explosives as Cancer Medicine, Media Shrugs
Two Palestinian sisters tried to smuggle explosives into Israel from Gaza by labeling them as cancer medication. The Israeli security service Shin Bet caught the two women on April 19, 2017. Many major U.S. news outlets failed to report the event.
Judah Ari Gross, a military correspondent for The Times of Israel, reported that the two sisters, both residents of Gaza, “received permits to enter Israel as one of them suffers from cancer and was traveling to an Israeli hospital for treatment.” The women were carrying tubes labeled “medical materials” which, in fact, contained explosives.
Shin Bet stated that they believe the sisters, whom they would not identify, were smuggling the explosives on behalf of Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror group that rules the Gaza Strip. The explosives were found during a security check. Gross said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently mentioned Hamas plots to use sick Gazans who posses Israel travel permits to smuggle weapons.
The Times of Israel pointed out:
“While Israel tightly controls its crossings in and out of Gaza as part of a security blockade, it allows tens of thousands of Palestinians to leave the Strip to receive medical treatment in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan each year.”
A few U.S. news media outlets, such as Fox News, covered the incident. However, many in the U.S. press, such as USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Baltimore Sun, among others, failed to inform their readers about the smuggling attempt.
The Post’s omission is particularly egregious, as the paper has, in the past, run several Op-Eds that have criticized Israeli border security measures. For example, The Post gave column space to U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) whose July 29, 2014 commentary was entitled “End the Gaza blockade to achieve peace.” Other prominent Op-Ed writers, such as former President Jimmy Carter, have also, in years past, taken to the paper’s editorial section to decry Israel’s border security policies towards Gaza.
More from SNAPSHOTS
Mahmoud Abbas’ Diatribe Threatening Israel Included Bogus Canaanite Claim
September 10, 2019
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ recent anti-Israel diatribe that aired on PA TV was monitored and translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Excerpt: "I say to [Israel]: Every stone you have built on our land [...]
CNN Calls House’s Unifying Anti-BDS Vote ‘Divisive’
July 24, 2019
Yesterday, in an overwhelming vote of bipartisan support, the House of Representatives voted 398 to 17 to adopt a resolution opposing the anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions) campaign. Yet, CNN's headline casts the unifying vote [...]
NY Times Cites Poll, Hides Palestinian Support for Violence
July 9, 2019
The New York Times has struggled to accurately describe polls this year. In January, editor Jonathan Weisman misrepresented Pew polling data to describe a nonexistent surge in Israeli support for the United States under President [...]
CNN’s Zakaria Indulges Palestinian Propagandist Hanan Ashrawi
June 9, 2019
Fareed Zakaria’s weekly Cable News Network (CNN) program (grandiosely named “Global Public Square”) June 9 broadcast included a discussion of the current U.S. Middle East peace plan with guests Hanan Ashrawi (Palestinian Authority official) and [...]
In Robert Bernstein Obit, AFP Inappropriately References His Judaism
May 29, 2019
Robert Bernstein (Courtesy the New Press) In its obituary yesterday for American publisher Robert Bernstein, Agence France Presse inserted an inappropriate reference to the Human Rights Watch founder who later turned on the organization due [...]