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Egyptian April Fools’ Prank: Palestinian Murders Netanyahu

April 3, 1997
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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.

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