There’s much in the press about the Israeli decision to release Palestinian prisoners as a step towards re-starting peace talks, and how difficult the decision was for the Israeli government. Still, there are ways and ways of reporting the item. Here’s William Booth in the Washington Post:
The list of prisoners who may be released in coming days includes militants who threw firebombs, in one case at a bus carrying children; stabbed and shot civilians, including women, elderly Jews and suspected Palestinian collaborators; and ambushed and killed border guards, police officers, security agents and soldiers. All of them have been in prison for at least two decades; some were serving life sentences.
In the Guardian Harriet Sherwood gives another angle on these same prisoners:
The prisoner issue is highly emotive among Palestinian families, many of whom have direct experience of the imprisonment of a close relative. The release of long-term prisoners – seen as national heroes – is likely to warm public attitudes towards renewed talks.
Sherwood does also refer to an Israeli girl ‘whose mother was slightly injured in a suicide bombing eight years ago in which two Israeli soldiers died’. But from her the focus is not so much on buses carrying children or on the stabbing and shooting of civilians, including women and elderly Jews.
Facts may be sacred while comment is free; but facts are also selected and accentuated in different ways.