Israel has released a palestinian Arab terrorist Ahmad Manasra from prison, and the mainstream media coverage needs to be seen to be believed.
Just kidding. It is about as bad as you’d expect.
Take CNN for example:
Israel has released a Palestinian man who was controversially arrested at the age of 13, after he spent nearly a decade in jail.
Ahmad Manasra has been reunited with his family, his lawyer Khaled Zabarqa told CNN.
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Ahmad Manasra was arrested and imprisoned in 2015 after being caught with his cousin Hassan who stabbed two Israelis in East Jerusalem.
Hassan was shot dead at the scene while Manasra was run over by a car.
Manasra’s case gained international attention after a video emerged of crowds shouting abuse at him after the incident while he lies motionless, seriously injured and crying out. Other footage allegedly shows Israeli officials interrogating Manasra under duress as he is visibly shaken and vulnerable, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.
He was sentenced to 12 years for attempted murder in 2016, despite Israeli courts’ recognizing he had not been involved in the stabbings, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society added. His sentence was revised down to nine and a half years following an appeal in 2017
International groups have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities for his release over the years over concerns of his treatment and extended stays in solitary confinement, coupled with mental health issues and a schizophrenia diagnosis.
The entire tone of this report paints Manasra as almost an innocent victim, whose only crime was being with his cousin who stabbed two Israelis – stabbings Manasra was not himself involved in. This is highly misleading; he was very much involved in the terror attack, trying to stab Israelis himself as footage at the scene shows:
This is why the crowd shouted abuse at him.
This is why he was interrogated.
This is why he was sentenced to jail.
The Associated Press coverage is almost as bad; while they at least mention Manasra’s involvement, they focus on his mental health diagnosis:
Israel on Thursday released a Palestinian who took part in an attack when he was 13 and developed schizophrenia in prison as requests for early release were denied.
Israel says Ahmad Manasra is a terrorist who tried to kill Jews his own age. Palestinians accuse Israel of subjecting a child to harsh incarceration that led to serious and potentially permanent mental illness. His lawyer, Khaled Zabarqa, said he was released after completing his nine-and-a-half-year sentence.
In 2015, Manasra, then 13, and his 15-year-old cousin rampaged through a Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem with knives. His cousin, Hassan, critically wounded a 13-year-old Israeli boy who was leaving a candy store and stabbed an Israeli man before being shot dead by police.
Ahmad was run over by a car, beaten and taunted by Israeli passers-by. A graphic video of Ahmad lying in the street, bleeding from the head while Israelis taunted him, garnered millions of views.
He was later convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. Doctors said he developed schizophrenia in solitary confinement and tried to harm himself and others.
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Authorities first moved Manasra to isolation in November 2021, following a scuffle with another inmate. In interviews the following year, his family and lawyers said he was locked in a small cell for 23 hours a day and suffered from paranoia and delusions that kept him from sleeping. His lawyer said Manasra had tried to slit his wrists.
His family said he was transferred to the psychiatric wing of another prison every few months, where doctors gave him injections to stabilize him. A physician who was allowed to visit him when he was 18 diagnosed him with schizophrenia and attributed it to the toll of being in prison, warning that continued incarceration could lead to permanent disability.
It is not like some mentally healthy kid was sentenced to prison and came out a sick puppy. He attempted to murder people, including children. He was a sick puppy to begin with, and perhaps is coming out a bit sicker, but still a dog, albeit an older one.
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