On December 23, 2015, two frustrated Palestinians aged 21, Anan Abu Habseh and Issa Yassin Asaf from the Qalandiyah refugee camp, came to Jerusalem. Inspired by Palestinian polls which showed 67% support stabbing Israeli Jews (even higher in refugee camps), they left their cellphones and ID cards at home after posting on social media that they were looking to become martyrs. The pair went looking for Jews who walked the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem with impunity, as if their “filthy feet” (to quote Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) had any right to walk on purely Islamic holy land.
Rabbi Reuven (Eduardo) Birmacher, age 45, had just finished teaching bible classes to Spanish speaking students at Yeshiva Aish Hatorah in the Old City. He had moved to Israel from Argentina and loved teaching Judaism to young men in Jerusalem. His fluency in Spanish made him an excellent teacher to students who came to Israel from Spanish speaking countries, such as Argentina, Costa Rica and Uruguay.
As Rabbi Birmacher was heading home to his wife and seven children out of the Jaffa Gate, the two Palestinian Arabs set upon and repeatedly stabbed him. He died a short time later.
Rabbi Reuven Birmacher, age 45, a teacher from Aish Hatorah Yeshiva, stabbed by two Palestinian Arabs because he was a Jew in Jerusalem.
Israeli border police shot and killed the two Palestinians who had to resort to violence because Jews had the audacity of teaching Judaism in Jerusalem.
The father of Anan Abu Habseh celebrated the actions of his son. As posted on Fatah’s website, Muhammed Abu Habseh said “with our skulls we pave the path to victory, until the liberation of Palestine. Our compass will not deviate from Jerusalem nor from Palestine.”
The United States House of Representatives had just recently met on October 22, 2015 to discuss the incitement to hatred and violence of Palestinian leadership. It said of PA President Abbas and US Secretary of State John Kerry:
this culture of hate is being cultivated by Palestinian leaders. After being exposed day in and day out to these types of messages for most of their young lives, many of these young people will react and once the
Palestinian President declares, in his words, ``We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem'' there are consequences to that.
And it doesn't help when those in the media--or the Secretary of State for that matter--give this incitement a pass.
The terrorist-apologists are telling you that Arabs resort to violence. If only there were no Jews in the holy land, they wouldn’t have to kill them.
The New York Times has spent considerable ink this year telling its readers that Israeli leadership loves a murderer of Arabs, yet it never prints anything about Palestinians who do it daily.
The anti-Zionist and very anti-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paper has written repeatedly about a new member of the Israeli government Itamar Ben-Gvir. It portrays him as a racist extremist who praised a killer of Palestinians, over and over, again and again.
October 24, 2022: “Until recently, he hung a portrait in his home of Baruch Goldstein, who shot dead 29 Palestinians in a West Bank mosque in 1994…. The portrait of Mr. Goldstein, who killed the Palestinians in 1994, no longer hangs in Mr. Ben-Gvir’s home.”
November 2, 2022: “Itamar Ben-Gvir, Jewish Power’s leader, seeks to grant legal immunity to Israeli soldiers who shoot Palestinians and deport rival lawmakers he accuses of terrorism. Until recently, he hung a portrait in his home of Baruch Goldstein, who shot dead 29 Palestinians in a West Bank mosque in 1994.”
November 4, 2022: “The mosque massacre in 1994, whose perpetrator, Baruch Goldstein, was once feted by Mr. Ben-Gvir in his home, occurred a few hundred yards away. “I’m afraid that fanatic settlers will feel more empowered” by Mr. Ben-Gvir’s rise, said Mr. Amro. “I’m afraid that more Baruch Goldstein massacres will happen.”
November 13, 2022: “Mr. Ben-Gvir, a resident of Hebron with a history of provocations and racism, who until recently hung a portrait in his home of Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Israeli doctor who massacred 29 Muslim worshipers praying at the city’s holy site in 1994.”
November 17, 2022 podcast: “Patrick Kingsley (NY Times reporter): Why have you got a picture of Baruch Goldstein, this extremist, on your wall? And when your son asks who he is, what do you say? And he defends it. Archived Recording (Itamar Ben-Gvir) Patrick Kingsley: He says, I tell my son, he’s a righteous man, he’s a hero. Sabrina Tavernise (another NYTimes journalist): Wow. A picture of a mass murderer hanging on his wall. Patrick Kingsley: Exactly.”
November 20, 2022: “Mr. Ben-Gvir has also been a source of alarm. He has expressed admiration for Meir Kahane, a politician who called for expelling Israel’s Arab citizens and banning sex between Jews and non-Jews, as well as for Baruch Goldstein, a West Bank settler who killed 29 Palestinians and wounded 125 more when he attacked a mosque in 1994.”
The examples continue. Over and again, the paper mentioned that Ben-Gvir once hung a picture of Baruch Goldstein, a man who shot 29 Muslim worshipers in the Cave of the Jewish Matriarchs and Patriarchs in Hebron, nearly 30 years ago.
It’s repetitive and lazy journalism, but that’s not really the point. The issue is that the Times never points out that the lionization of many Palestinian mass murderers of Israeli Jews is a daily occurrence in Palestinian society. It happens in schools, public squares and the government-controlled media. Constantly.
Dalal Mughrabi was a woman who killed 37 people including 12 children. Her name appears in public squares and elementary schools. She is a featured celebrity in Palestinian society. School children call her the “bride of Jaffa” to this day.
Video shown to school children praising Dalal MughrabiSupporters of the Palestinian Fatah movement march with a poster of female militant Dalal al-Mughrabi during a rally marking the 55th foundation anniversary of the political party in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on January 1, 2020. (Photo by Musa AL SHAER / AFP)Pictures of Dalal Mughrahbi in elementary schoolNaming of a public square for Dalal Mughrabi
Abd Al-Baset Odeh was a Hamas operative who killed 30 Jews enjoying a Passover seder in a hotel in Netanya in 2002. In 2003, the Palestinian Authority sponsored a soccer tournament named the “Tulkarm Shahids Memorial soccer championship tournament of the Shahid Abd Al-Baset Odeh” describing the mass murderer as a “martyr.” According to Palestinian Media Watch’s translation of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, official PA daily, the event was under the auspices of the Department of Education, and the mass murderer’s brother handed out trophies to the winning team.
In 2020, the Student Union Council at Palestine Polytechnic University gifted the school with a gate named after Salah Khalaf, the leader of the Black September terror organization who planned the Munich Olympics massacre, in which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered in 1972. According to the Israeli watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch, there are four Palestinian schools named after Salah Khalaf.
In March 2022, Palestinians planted a garden in a boys’ school naming various trees after several mass murderers.
According to Palestinian Media Watch, there are 31 schools named after terrorists, aside from the various other mentions of killers in places like gardens.
This is never mentioned in the mainstream media.
Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, wrote that the recently deceased Nasser Abu Hmeid, a murderer of seven Israelis, was in an Israeli prison because of his “activism in the resistance of the Israeli occupation of their homeland.” The media site then called him a “martyr” and “resistance fighter,” as did Palestinian leadership including PA President Mahmoud Abbas, cleansing his crimes and vaulting him to hero status.
In October 2022, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh went to Jenin to pay his respects to the mass murderers of Israeli civilians in Tel Aviv in April. He stood next to Fathi Khazem, the father of the terrorist Raad Khazem, and said “This struggle is an ongoing process, from generation to generation, victims to victims. Jenin has created national unity on the ground.” Mahmoud Abbas had told the father “We are all mourning. That is our destiny and we can’t escape it. We must make sacrifices for the homeland.”
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh seen during a visit to a mourning tent alongside Fathi Khazem, October 16, 2022. (Screenshot/Twitter: used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
These comments are in addition to the terrorism incentive scheme orchestrated by Abbas. The weak president scores points with the Palestinian street with his pay-to-slay program which rewards the families of terrorists with salaries for life.
Such is the essence of Palestinian leadership and society: a culture of anti-Semitism and terrorism. All deliberately hidden from western eyes.
On the Israeli side, there is an extremist politician who once hung a picture of a solitary Israeli terrorist, and The New York Times mentions it almost daily. On the Palestinian side, there are dozens of mass murderers who are celebrated everywhere in Palestinian society, and the Times refuses to mention it a single time.
That is neither hypocrisy nor double standards. It is corporate anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism; vile propaganda to incite hatred and actions against Jews and the Jewish State.
Tor Wennesland, the poorly-named United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process, who is in fact just a Palestinian promoter, took to the stage to report about the Arab-Israeli Conflict on November 28, 2022.
He once again lied straight to the UN Security Council.
As reported in the UN Press report, Wennesland said that the “two-State solution… still garners considerable support among Palestinians and Israelis.” In fact, the Palestinians poll themselves every three months and have NEVER had a majority supporting a two-state solution.
The PCPSR October 2022 poll showed that Palestinian Arab support for two-states stood at 37%. Three months earlier it was 28%. That’s quite a bit lower than Palestinians who support full blown terrorism, now at 48%, a bit lower than 55% supporting killing Jews three months earlier.
More specifically, according to Palestinians themselves, “Support for the concept of the two-state solution stands at 37% and opposition stands at 60%.” Further, “a majority of 68% opposes and 24% support an unconditional resumption of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.“
The simple reality is that a majority of Palestinians oppose the two-state solution and negotiations, and support killing Jewish Israeli civilians. Yet the United Nations deliberately lies and misdirects to maintain its position in the conflict, an insidious vanity project which has contributed to the deaths of thousands and misery of millions.
Tor Wennesland, the poorly-named United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process
On December 1, 2001, two frustrated Palestinian Arabs from Abu Dis, just east of Jerusalem, could not stand seeing so many Jews walking around on a Saturday night in a popular Jerusalem pedestrian mall. Osama Bahar, age 25, and Nabil Abu Habaliya, age 24, took explosives which were supplied by the terrorist group Hamas and blew themselves up amongst the young Israelis strolling on Ben Yehuda Street. A short time later, another terrorist blew up a car nearby.
The eleven dead included: Assaf Avitan, 15, of Jerusalem; Michael Moshe Dahan, 21, of Jerusalem; Israel Ya’akov Danino, 17, of Jerusalem; Yosef El-Ezra, 18, of Jerusalem; Sgt. Nir Haftzadi, 19, of Jerusalem; Yuri (Yoni) Korganov, 20, of Ma’alei Adumim; Golan Turgeman, 15, of Jerusalem; Guy Vaknin, 19, of Jerusalem; Adam Weinstein, 14, of Givon Hahadasha; Moshe Yedid-Levy, 19, of Jerusalem; and Ido Cohen, 17, of Jerusalem. Roughly 180 others were injured, 17 seriously.
Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism at a popular pedestrian mall on Saturday night December 1, 2001
The Martyr Izz ad-Deen al-Qassam Brigades – Information office described how angry the Arabs were with the Jews, stating:
“As part of our retaliation to [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon’s madness and with the success granted by Allah and His protection, the two fighting martyr brothers, Osama Bahar and Nabil Abu Habaliya, have carried out on Saturday evening, 12/1/2001, the night of Ramadan 17, their bold and painful attack in one of the enemy’s dens in occupied west Jerusalem as a revenge for the blood of our martyrs and a punishment to all the reckless leaders in the enemy’s army and ministry.
“We do not only do this in self-protection or in retaliation of a future killing, but we also do this as part of our absolute right to react towards the continual aggression and usurpation of our country for more than 50 years. We also wish to emphasize our right of resistance and our right to die as martyrs [istishhad], which is the pinnacle of resistance – that is to say, to sacrifice one’s self, spirit and blood is an absolute right, despite the aggressive attack by the enemy and some liars, meant to rob us of this right.“
Saudi Arabia funded the families of these terrorists in cooperation with the Arab Bank as part of the Saudi Committee for the Support of the Intifada al Quds. As the support for terrorism was too blatant (or to keep the funds flowing after the end of the intifada), the committee changed its name in 2004 to the Saudi Committee for the Relief of the Palestinian People. The Saudis also cannot stand Jews enjoying a Saturday night in Jerusalem.
Two frustrated Palestinian Arabs had to contend with Jews walking the streets of Jerusalem for their whole lives. The Saudis well understood their frustration and supported their “right of resistance to die as martyrs.” All had internalized that the Muslim world can have no dignity as long as Jews walk the streets of Jerusalem with impunity.
On November 29, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) condemned the sudden appearance of a “man-made cavity underneath the grounds of an UNRWA school in Gaza.” The agency “protested strongly to the relevant authorities in Gaza to express outrage and condemnation of the presence of such a structure underneath one of its installations.“
For the uninformed, the “man-made cavity” was a tunnel dug by the political-terrorist group HAMAS to store weapons and move their soldiers to attack and abduct Israelis. The “relevant authorities in Gaza” is the leadership of HAMAS.
But the words “Palestinian”, “Hamas”, “tunnels” or “terrorist” were completely absent in the otherwise strongly worded statement. It was as if UNRWA was only worried that a sinkhole might damage the structural integrity of their building.
UNRWA pretends that it is a neutral party to the conflict like the Red Cross, simply providing shelter, education and healthcare services inside the camps that it runs. The UNRWA statement made the point in closing with “UNRWA reiterates its demand that all parties respect the neutrality and inviolability of United Nations premises at all times. Such flagrant breaches of neutrality are serious violations of the Agency’s privileges and immunities, and they jeopardize the ability of UNRWA to provide support and protection to the 1.4 million Palestine refugees in need in Gaza.“
The reality is that UNRWA is not neutral. It frequently leaves its jurisdiction to investigate Israel. It specifically calls out Israel by name, while not doing so for Palestinians.
A recent example was UNRWA’s condemnation of Israel evicting Arab squatters in Israeli-owned homes in the Sheik Jarrah section of Jerusalem. That neighborhood lies outside UNRWA’s jurisdiction and purview.
A few weeks ago, UNRWA joined with several other UN agencies to go to Beit Iksa in Area B of the West Bank, near the Israeli town of Mevaseret Zion. It joined Palestinian farmers in an olive harvest – again, nothing to do with its mission and far outside of so-called “refugee camps.”
Meanwhile, when Palestinian children lost their lives in Syria from playing with dormant bombs lying on the ground from the civil war, UNRWA bemoaned the loss of life but only mentioned that the children were victims of the generic “conflict” without blaming the government of Syria.
Yet when a Palestinian man was hit by an Israeli army truck in a small town southeast of Hebron, no where near an UNRWA facility, UNRWA “condemned” Israel saying it showed “evident disregard for their responsibilities vis-à-vis internal law and standards.“
Supporters of Hamas in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, gather to express their solidarity with the Jenin refugee camp, against the Israeli operation in Jenin to root out Palestinian terrorists who killed three civilians in Tel Aviv on April 10, 2022. A few weeks later, the head of UNRWA went to Jenin to show his support for Palestinian Arabs in Jenin. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)
When UNRWA lambasts Israel far from its field of operations but refuses to clearly condemn Hamas and its terrorist tunnels abutting its facilities, it further underscores that the agency is not neutral and therefore deserves neither privileges nor immunities.
The New York Times remarkably parroted Palestinian propaganda on its pages as it wrote about Palestinian militants taking an Israeli teenager off of life support in a hospital, to hold his dead body as a bargaining chip.
In ten different sections of the article “Palestinians Join Forces with Israelis, Bringing Peace to a Teen’s Family,” the Times wrote that Israel holds the dead bodies of Palestinian terrorists in the hopes of dissuading future attacks. That narrative echoed throughout, seemingly giving an excuse for Palestinian Arabs deciding to do the same to Israelis.
Palestinians “hoped to exchange it for the corpses of dozens of Palestinians that have been held by Israel for years without burial.“
“… shifted rare attention on the Israeli practice of holding onto the bodies of slain Palestinians accused of terrorism.“
“the militants hoped to exchange Tiran for the bodies of dozens of Palestinians kept in Israeli mortuaries since 2016. Israel houses the unburied bodies of 111 Palestinians, 16 of them from Jenin, according to detailed records shared with the Times by the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, an independent Palestinian rights watchdog.”
“Israeli officials believe that Palestinians were all killed while committing violence, and that holding on to their bodies may help deter future attacks.”
“The militants actions also felt unethical to many Palestinians. While there is widespread Palestinian anger at Israel’s own practice of withholding Palestinian corpses, many felt the gunmen had picked the wrong target, particularly after it became clear that Tiran was a schoolboy, not a soldier.”
“‘It wasn’t a moral thing to do,’ said Muhammad Sabbagh, the head of a leadership council in the Jenin Camp. ‘From the beginning, the entire camp wanted to return the body.’“
“‘I immediately realized that a big mistake had been made,’ General Rajoub said in a phone interview. ‘We immediately planned how we would get the body back to the family.’“
“… a leading opponent of the Israeli occupation and a longtime critic of the Israeli policy of holding Palestinian corpses.“
“… the rare collaboration should not obscure wider Palestinian anger at Israel’s policy of withholding the bodies of dead Palestinians.”
“Dozens of ‘Palestinians families are waiting for their beloved sons,’ Dr. Tibi said. ‘For their corpses seized and captured by the Israeli occupation.'”
That’s a lot of time saying the same line over and again while NEVER mentioning that Israel only started holding the bodies of Arab terrorists after Palestinians refused to hand over the bodies of two Israelis killed in Gaza in 2014, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin. Instead, the Times said that Israel carried out the practice as a form of punishment, seemingly introducing the horrific action in the conflict.
The biased article made the militants seem remorseful for their action because the dead person “was a schoolboy, not a soldier.” That’s outrageous. Palestinians routinely celebrate the murder of Jewish children as confirmed in their own polls, such as the one which showed 80% of Gazans and 50% of West Bank Arabs supporting the killing of a 17-year old girl on a nature hike. Just days before, the region’s Islamic terrorists celebrated the murder of a 16 year old Jewish boy on his way to school.
The obvious reason for returning the body of this boy was because he was Druze and not an Israeli Jew. The obvious Arab anti-Semitism was omitted and redirected by The Times. #AbsolutionViaRedirection
What’s more, the Times quoted the “Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, an independent Palestinian rights watchdog,” which is NOT independent. It is an anti-Israel European-funded organization that has been vilifying Israel for years, as reported by NGO Monitor.
This week, Palestinian terrorists killed a young Israeli boy and kidnapped his body from a hospital, an action they have been using for many years, however, they decided to return the body after they realized the Israeli wasn’t a Jew. Readers of The New York Times were spun a different story. The anti-Israel propaganda piece penned over-and-again that Israel has been unilaterally keeping dozens of Palestinians corpses for many years, angering Palestinians waiting to bury their sons, which caused some militants to take a similar action, which they immediately regretted as immoral.
That’s Absolution via Inversion, a favorite of the anti-Israel media which falsifies that Israeli racism and brutality are the root cause of the conflict, not the refusal of Arabs to accept Jews living in their homeland.
On November 22, 2017, a young girl named Hodaya Nechama Asulin passed away. She had been living in vegetative state for almost seven years. She had been injured when a bomb blew up while she waited for a bus in Jerusalem.
Hodaya Asulin, back when she was 14 years old
On March 23, 2011, Hussein Ali al-Qawasmeh, a married Palestinian man and father of five from Hebron, went to Jerusalem. He was appalled to see Jews freely walking around in a city that he considered a purely Islamic holy place. His frustration at seeing so many Jews led him to plant a bomb filled with shrapnel near a bus stop. He managed to kill a Christian British woman named Mary Jean Gardner, who had worked for two decades in Africa doing humanitarian work. She had come to Jerusalem to study Hebrew at the Hebrew University, so she could translate the Bible into local African tribal languages.
The bomb explosion injured many others, including Hodaya. The blast damaged her brain stem and put her into a coma. She was 14 years old at the time.
Hussein Ali al-Qawasmeh was sentenced to life in prison in November 2013, for simply protesting the Judaization of Al Quds. He said “You occupied my land, stole my country, and killed by brothers, and now you expect me to give you some roses?! I do not regret what I did, I defended my country.”
People who believe that Arabs resort to terror also think that Jews living in Jerusalem is a well-documented crime against humanity. It is echoed daily at the United Nations, and the world is not surprised by frustrated Palestinians resorting to violence to purge the colonial-settler-invader-fake Jews from the Islamic holy city and holy land.
Six Turkish civilians were killed by a terrorist on Sunday. The labeling of the killer and her murderous mission was made clear in news reports, as were the names of the innocent victims.
The same cannot be said of Israeli Jews slaughtered by a Palestinian Arab terrorist the next day.
New York Times calls out Kurdish terrorism and Turkish victims of attack, as well as relays US sympathies
Terrorist Designation
The New York Times wrote about “the Kurdish Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., a Kurdish group that has been fighting a war with the Turkish state for decades. Turkey, the United States and the European Union all consider the P.K.K. a terrorist group.” The paper would only write six paragraphs later that “the P.K.K. denied any involvement in the bombing,” but the reader already knew the score – the P.K.K. are terrorists fighting Turkey and they seemingly committed the terrorist attack.
The next day, when a Palestinian Arab associated with the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad killed three Israeli civilians, there was no such accounting by the Times. Instead, the paper wrote that a “Palestinian assailant stabbed several civilians…. Three Israelis were killed and several more were severely injured.” The lone attacker was not associated with any terrorist group. The Times only offered at the very end of the article that “No Palestinian organization immediately took responsibility for the attack, but a spokesman for Islamic Jihad in the West Bank, Tarek Izz al-Din, told an Islamic Jihad-linked television channel that his organization welcomed what he called the ‘heroic attack.’ He said that it came as a response to the Israeli election results and to Israeli politicians’ calls to take firmer action against the Palestinians, Kan radio reported.” Palestinian Islamic Jihad is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European Union, much like the reference to the P.K.K., but the Times did not mention the terrorist designation for Palestinians.
The Times also did not quote the spokesman for Hamas, another designated terrorist group that “the operation demonstrates the ability of the Palestinian people to continue their revolution and defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque from daily incursions,” supporting the murder of Jews because Jews visit their holiest site, the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
American Sympathies
After the Times labeled the P.K.K. a terrorist group, it mentioned American sympathies for the Turkish victims. “The U.S. embassy in Turkey wrote on Twitter on Sunday that it was ‘deeply saddened’ by the bombing. ‘We extend our deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and wish a speedy recovery for the injured’ it said.“
The Times said nothing about the U.S.’s sympathies for the Israeli victims of terror. Not surprisingly, as it took the Biden administration some time to post a response… that equated the Jewish victims of terror with the murderer. The press release on the U.S. Embassy in Israel’s site stated “The United States is deeply concerned by the increased violence in the West Bank. We convey profound condolences to the families and loved ones of the Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children, who have been killed in the past 48 hours. We strongly condemn today’s terrorist attack, which killed three Israelis and wounded three others. The recent period has seen a sharp and alarming increase in Palestinian and Israeli deaths and injuries, including numerous children. It is vital that the parties take urgent action to prevent further loss of life.” The U.S. would not take sides.
Humanizing the Victims
The Times devoted the final five paragraphs of the article to the Turkish victims. Names and ages were given. Pains of anguish were echoed in quotes from the grieving parents “‘She is my baby,’ she said. ‘I want a piece of her hair.’“
Nothing was said by The Times about the Israeli victims. They were: 50-year-old Tamir Avihai, a father of six from the settlement of Kiryat Netafim; 36-year-old Michael Ledigin, a father of two who moved to Israel with his family five years ago and lived in Bat Yam; and 59-year-old Mordechai Ashkenazi, also from Bat Yam.
Rationalizing Terror
The Times sought to give context to the Palestinian violence. It wrote that “Israel is to swear in a new Parliament later on Tuesday, after the Nov. 1 election, and the prime minister-designate, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been working to put together a right-wing and religious coalition government with the help of far-right parties that have pledged to act more aggressively to protect Israelis. The attack also occurred on the anniversary of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s symbolic proclamation from exile in 1988 of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. That state has never materialized.” The Times essentially defended the terrorism and saying that it was a protest against a new “far-right” Israeli government, and in marking the anniversary of the P.L.O. declaring an independent state.
The Times incorrectly stated that the PLO’s declaration of independence only sought a state “in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967.” The declaration was for the entirety of “Palestine”, including all of Jerusalem and all of Israel. It essentially rationalized the terrorism as an act of fighting for independence.
In contrast, the P.K.K., which is also seeking an independent Kurdish state, was only described as a terrorist group by the Times, without mentioning its desire for independence and sovereignty. It was thereby cast as a violent aggressor, while the Palestinian Arabs were painted as freedom fighters.
Celebrating Terror
While some media outlets like the Jerusalem Post noted that “In some parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians were documented celebrating the attack by handing out sweets to passersby and drivers,” which is a common occurrence in both Gaza and the West Bank after the murder of Jews, the Times decided to not report on it.
Maybe that fact was too much for its readers to handle.
The media repeatedly rationalizes and defends Palestinian Arab terrorism against Jewish civilians. Perhaps one should be content that the anti-Zionist media is not also celebrating the murder of Jews. At least, not yet.
For many years, the United Nations berated the Jewish State that it was using ‘disproportionate’ force against Palestinian Arabs. As the global body now attacks Israelis for proportionate responses to Arab terror, it is clear that the UN’s problem is really about Israel defending itself at all.
Consider the events of May 2021 when Gazans fired thousands of missiles into Israeli towns. The United Nations said “Owing to the vast asymmetry of power, the victims of this conflict are disproportionately Palestinians in Gaza, of whom over 74,000 have been forcibly displaced and made homeless, mostly women and children.“
After Israel responded to missile attacks in 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that “deplores the use of any excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force by the Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and particularly in the Gaza Strip, including the use of live ammunition against civilian protesters, including children, as well as medical personnel and journalists, and expresses its grave concern at the loss of innocent lives.“
Similarly in July 2014, the UN Human Rights Council published an opinion that Israel’s “disproportionate use of force amounts to war crimes and must be brought to justice as it seriously violates international humanitarian law.“
The examples are numerous, that despite Israel acting in a defensive manner against terrorists, the UN seemingly wanted Israel to fire thousands of crude missiles into Gaza (a proportionate response to the Gazan actions), rather than using its limited sophisticated weaponry which was designed to target the evil actors. Of course, the damage Israel would have caused using thousands such crude missiles would have been much worse as the Arabs do not possess Israel’s Iron Dome defensive shield.
The issue in those past conflicts was not really about disproportionate force but disproportionate defenses. However, since there was no legal way of investigating and censoring Israel for disproportionate defenses, the United Nations attacked Israel for “asymmetry of power.”
The farce of UN anti-Israel prejudice continues today with the notion of “settler violence” in the West Bank.
According to the UN’s own biased accounting, West Bank Arabs commit more attacks than Israeli Jews living in Israeli territory of Area C every month. The “settlers” mostly use stones, just like the Palestinian Arabs. However, the UN only comes down harshly on the Israelis.
In March 2022, Tor Wennesland, on behalf of the UN Secretary General, addressed the UN Security Council about activities over the three months December 2021 to early February 2022. He noted that “Israeli settlers or other civilians perpetrated 144 attacks against Palestinians, resulting in 47 injuries and/or damage to Palestinian property,” while adding that “One Israeli civilian was killed by Palestinians, and 100 Israelis, including five women and one child, were injured by Palestinians in clashes, the throwing of Molotov cocktails, attacks and other incidents. In total, Palestinians perpetrated 277 attacks against Israeli civilians, resulting in injuries and/or damage to Israeli property.” By his own math, Palestinians committed twice a many attacks and injured twice as many civilians, including killing someone.
No matter. His report would disproportionately target Israelis.
“we deplore continuing attacks by Israeli settlers on ordinary Palestinians“
“Settler-related violence remains significant across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem“
“repeated raids by Israeli settlers on Burqa led to clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces“
“Israeli settlers drove a convoy to Huwwara, near Nablus, throwing stones at Palestinians and their property“
“I remain deeply concerned about the level of settler-related violence in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem“
There was no such detailed concern about Palestinian Arabs attacking Israeli civilians, despite engaging in violence more frequently.
When the Israeli military protects Israeli civilians against Palestinian terrorists, the world rebukes the Jewish State for “disproportionate force” so it can defend punishing the Jews in court. When Israeli civilians defend themselves with proportionate means, the anti-Semites drop the pretense of proportionality being the concern, and accuse the Jews of living in their homes illegally. The Arabs are cast as victims of Jewish aggression in all cases, despite instigating the violence and committing more attacks.
The United Nations has fostered the Arab-Israeli Conflict for decades, with disproportionate focus on perceived Israeli crimes and absolution of Arab terrorism. It is well past time for the global body to examine itself with the scrutiny it reserves for the Jewish State.
Police and rescue workers at the scene of a terror attack on Dizengoff street, central Tel Aviv. At least six people were wounded in the shooting, 3 severly. April 07, 2022. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/FLASH9015 Jews killed and 130 injured when Palestinian Arab blows up Sbarro pizza store in central Jerusalem, August 9, 2001Arab mob pelts Jewish man’s car with stones outside Jerusalem’s Old City, May 10, 2021. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** בירושלים שוטרים שומר שומרים שער האריות נסיון לינץ נהג פצוע22 civilians killed and 50 injured when Palestinian terrorist blew up bus in central Tel Aviv in 1994Two Palestinians with axes and knives kill six people in Jerusalem synagogue, November 18, 2014Five members of the Fogel family stabbed to death in their sleep by two Arab cousins, March 11, 2011
Jewish children will freely live their lives
to ride a school bus,
play in a playground,
attend school,
take a nature hike,
relax in their bedrooms,
ride in a car with their fathers
Hamas fired an anti-tank missile at a school bus killing a 16-year old boy, April 7, 201114 rockets launched from Gaza pound Sderot, two landing in a children’s playground, February 24, 2020Hamas blew up the cafeteria of Hebrew University, killing nine and injuring 100, July 31, 200217-year old Rina Shnerb, killed while on a nature hike, from a bomb planted by the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine, August 23, 201913-year old, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, stabbed to death while siting in her bedroom, June 30, 20161-year old Yonatan Palmer and his father Asher, 25, killed by Palestinian Arabs stoning their car, September 23, 2011
All Jews will be free to live anywhere and everywhere
not barred entry to their homeland,
not ethically cleansed from their land,
not denied citizenship,
not have their holy places destroyed,
allowed to pray openly at their holy sites,
Not to told that their basic physical presence is illegal
Arab riots of 1936-9 and lobbying made the British pass the White Paper which capped Jewish immigration during the Holocaust yearsTransjordan ethnically cleansed all Jews from Judea and Samaria during the 1948-9 Arab-Israeli WarJordan illegally annexed Judea and Samaria and refused to grant any Jew who lived there citizenship in 1954Joseph’s Tomb vandalized by Palestinian Arabs, April 2022The Jewish Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews, forbids Jewish prayerUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 declared Jews living east of the 1949 Armistice Lines to be doing so illegally
First One Through 