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Most people remember the headlines: Massacre Of Innocents As UN School Is Shelled; Israeli Strike Kills Dozens At UN School.
They heralded the tragic news of Jan. 6, when mortar shells fired by advancing Israeli forces killed 43 civilians in the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. The victims, it was reported, had taken refuge inside the Ibn Rushd Preparatory School for Boys, a facility run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
The news shocked the world and was compared to the 1996 Israeli attack on a UN compound in Qana, Lebanon, in which more than 100 people seeking refuge were killed. It was certain to hasten the end of Israel's attack on Gaza, and would undoubtedly lead the list of allegations of war crimes committed by Israel.
There was just one problem: The story, as etched in people's minds, was not quite accurate.
Sound familiar: during a war with a neighboring terrorist army, a group of civilians are killed while standing around the launching grounds for missiles being fired into Israel. Israel is globally condemned. Even the UN gets into the act. And a month later, after the dust has settled, the people who were so eager to make blanket accusations and come to immediate conclusions while the war was going on are now slowly coming forward and "clarifying" their previous statements. Not that anyone cares - as long as Israel is labeled as the bad guy five minutes after the event, nothing else matters in the court of world opinion.
