The Washington Post, in its March 9 edition, runs an article by Ruth Eglash with a headline that reads “Israel tears down Palestinian homes in Jordan Valley.”  The demolition of half a dozen illegal structures belonging to a Palestinian herder gets the full emotional, up-close and personal treatment.

Buried farther down in Eglash’s piece is an eventual Israeli explanation that Palestinians can build in the Jordan Valley if they can prove land ownership and gain building permits.  Israel also, it turns out, is drafting plans for new Palestinian communities in the region, with five already announced.

Farther on in Eglash’s piece is an additional explanation that, under the Oslo Agreements, the West Bank is divided into some areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, Areas A and B, and in Area C which is under Israel’s full control. The herder’s illegal structures were built in Areas C.

None of these explanations makes it into the headline or in the top three paragraphs, however; so the false impression left for most readers is that Israel is persecuting innocent Palestinians.

The pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel slant of Eglash’s piece is even more apparent in view of her omission that Israeli authorities are about to demolish a couple of illegally built Jewish structures in the West Bank whose owner also ran afoul of lack of  building-permit and other requirements.  And this is by no means the only time that illegal Jewish structures have been removed by Israeli authorities.

But Eglash and the Post seem only interested in feeding Palestinian victimhood.  Shedding tears for Israelis, it seems, is not their bag. Bottom line:  It would behoove the Post to provide more even-handed coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict instead of engaging in selective, agenda journalism that only looks for ways to bash Israel.