True, the Israeli soldiers who killed the boy may not have known whom they hit. They were apparently firing through a wall. The Israelis blamed the Palestinian authority for organising riots. A listener might have been forgiven for thinking that 22 Israelis had been killed rather than 22 Palestinians in the previous 72 hours. The BBC then ran a tape of Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian spokesman, saying that the Israelis, not the Palestinians, had been shooting.
Truth is a hard bullet to bite.
Palestinian policemen had also opened fire on the Israelis. Ironically, the Arab press in Beirut had no hesitation in saying this. The press in Lebanon showed photographs of Palestinian policemen firing Kalashnikov rifles at Israeli troops. And so, by last night, the story had changed. What lies behind this, apart from the sheep-like inability of many journalists to call a spade a spade, was the continuing belief that Palestinians are, by nature, violent and riotous.