A view of the Israeli community of Ma’ale Adumim in the West Bank. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad

Many anti-Israel smears are just too ridiculous to be taken seriously. Yet time and time again, media outlets fail to separate fact from fiction, even when it comes to some of the wildest conspiracy theories.

In the January-February edition of Educate, the bulletin published by the National Education Union (NEU), the UK’s largest teachers organization gave credibility to perhaps one of the most bizarre charges in the history of anti-Israel lies: the claim that Jewish “settlers” release wild pigs to scare and attack Palestinians.

Reporting on an official NEU trip to Jerusalem and the West Bank, delegation member Mohammed Aziz recounted a “tearful” visit to a school in Ramallah. “We were told that wild boars are released in and around the camp [sic] by settlers to scare children,” Aziz noted after lamenting the large class sizes and apparent teacher shortage in the Palestinian Authority-controlled city.

As HonestReporting pointed out in a January 2 critique, the suggestion that Israeli Jews would be raising aggressive, wild (and non-kosher!) animals for no reason except to terrorize Palestinians is, obviously, a mere fabrication promoted by the Palestinian leadership.

Shortly after the publication of our article, the National Education Union silently removed the offending sentence in its entirety (see page 39). While Aziz’s piece still raises serious issues, the NEU should be commended for taking swift action in response to our complaint.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian propaganda machine has already manufactured a new accusation against Israel that smells like a load of manure.

In an interview with Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the PA’s official daily newspaper, the elder of an Arab village in the West Bank recently claimed to have found cows that are actually “recruited and trained” spies for the Jewish state — or, as some social media users suggested, the secretive Moossad agency.

Sent by the MOOssad ??https://t.co/THgkLCAlrz

— Asher Fredman אשר פרדמן (@fredman_a) January 5, 2023

“On the neck of each cow they hang a medallion with an eavesdropping and recording device on it, and sometimes cameras, in order to monitor every detail in Khirbet Yanun large and small,” Rushd Morrar said, according to a translation provided by Palestinian Media Watch.

Will mainstream organizations and media outlets make the mistake of falling for this bogus beef? Only time will tell…