Egyptian April Fools’ prank: Palestinian murders Netanyahu

JERUSALEM, April 2 (JTA) — In an attempt at some April Fools’ Day humor, an Egyptian newspaper ran an April 1 mock headline this week, “Netanyahu and Sharon Murdered by a Palestinian Woman.” The story in Al Watan al Arabi, a paper aligned with the centrist opposition, was described as a “Special Report from Tel Aviv.” The story described how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Infrastructure Minister Ariel Sharon were killed by a hand grenade thrown at them by a Palestinian woman whose three sons had been killed by Israeli soldiers. The paper, which explained that the story was a hoax in the spirit of April 1, said a real report of Netanyahu’s murder would not come as a surprise. “It is the logical result of his muscle-flexing acts,” the paper said. In a separate development, the Israeli Embassy in Cairo said Wednesday that it was filing a complaint after the Egyptian government newspaper al-Ahram left Israel off a map of the Middle East and replaced it with a depiction of Palestine in its pre-1948 borders. The map accompanied a story about a plan to export electricity from Egypt to other Arab countries. Israel is not part of the plan. Embassy spokesman Lior Ben-Dor said he was filing a complaint to the editor of al-Ahram, adding, “We will take the necessary steps to correct what has to be corrected.” The embassy has complained to Egyptian publishers in the past about attempts to ignore Israel’s existence.