ABSTRACT
When Israelis were stunned on the Eve of Passover 1983 by the spreading rumors that Palestinian girls in the West Bank were poisoned by some unknown agent, they were incredulous at first, then defensive about it all, and finally outraged at the broadsides against them not only by the Arabs, but also by the world media. They felt hounded, all over again, by the specter of anti-Semitism, blood libel, and persecution, and helpless to make themselves understood. The Poison Affair of 1983 indeed showed that the orchestrated press attack on Israel for an event that was later proven as a mammoth hoax, did create a reality that had nothing to do with facts on the ground. It also proved that politics and political bias, which are used by politicians and bigots to bend the truth, can also be a tool in the hands of journalists and their editors to manipulate the truth.
