UPDATE: I originally featured a different image in this post. It was a photo collage that used an original photo by Dorit Jordan-Dotan and replaced the advertising image behind the Palestinian woman who was attacked, with a historical photo from the Nazi era showing a Jew similarly assaulted in a public setting. Ms. Jordan-Dotan objected to her image being used in this way for such an artistic purpose. Even though Amir Schiby’s photo collage is a brilliant piece of political satire, he asked me to remove it so as to avoid possible legal entanglement with her. I have written to her in an attempt to make her understand the importance of Schiby’s work. I hope I can persuade her to alter her opinion and apologize I cannot use the image that would be most suitable here.
In the U.S., Schiby’s work would be protected from copyright infringement as a derivative work which comments on the original photograph and adds depth and meaning not included in the original. This is a provision of the Fair Use doctrine under copyright law. I understand Israel has a similar Fair Use provision. But I also understand that it is sometimes complicated (and expensive) contemplating protecting one’s artistic perogatives when lawsuits may be involved.
If this were just up to me I would attempt to persuade the original photographer to understand the importance of the derivative work. If she didn’t, I would not remove it here. But I must respect Amir Schiby’s request, since he is the one who may be responsible if he is sued.
* *
Wonders never cease when it comes to the Israeli criminal justice system. It manages to put people in jail, but often the wrong people. A case in point is Hanna Amtir, a young pregnant Palestinian women who was attacked on Purim by a vicious gang of Jewish settler women at a Jerusalem light rail station. Photos of the incident clearly show the Jewish women pushing and hitting her. One image even shows a woman’s fist in her face. The photos do show as well that Amtir objected strenuously to their assault. But they do not show any physical violence on her part or that she initiated the incident.
Yet after questioning the Jewish women, the Israeli police, who like the Royal Canadian Mounties, always get their “man,” even if he’s the wrong one, decided (Hebrew) that Amtir was not the victim but the instigator. Let’s keep in mind some facts: Amtir was in a crowd alone with no other Palestinians nearby. She was pregnant. She was bundled in a coat that prevented free movement. She was surrounded by Jews. It was Purim, a holiday on which Israelis are known to get drunk and inflamed. Taking all this into account, these are the circumstanced under which Amtir picks a fight.
In court, the prosecutor admitted that the three Jewish settler girls first picked a fight with Amtir by cursing her and pushing her up against a wall sign. When she rebuffed them, then the altercation became physical. A Jewish eyewitness even said:
“It was almost a lynching. And no one nearby intervened to help [the victim]. They tore off her head-covering. The light rail security police stood by the entire time doing nothing, with smiles on their faces. They didn’t do anything. Just the opposite, they tried to stop me from photographing [the incident].
How much evil can there be in human beings? There is now in Jerusalem a sense of great violence and hatred.
The only thing that stopped the incident was the arrival of the train, on which all the attackers embarked, leaving the victim in pain and injured.”
So the message appears to be if you’re Palestinian you can’t defend yourself when you’re assaulted with racist shouts and shoves. You just have to grin and bear it for the sake of…for the sake of what? For the sake of shalom bayit? Maintaining civil order? Jews can wail on Arabs, but Arabs have a responsibility to say: “Yes massa, you be a good massa.”
The settler attackers are represented by Itamar Ben Gvir, another rabid settler extremist who seems to represent the worst of the settler scumbags who end up in court. He reminds me of those defense lawyers whose entire clientele is made up of “made” guys. Lawyer to the mob=Lawyer to the settlers. Ben Gvir has been arrested by the police 46 times in the past 18 years and never convicted (funny thing about that). He vandalized Yitzhak Rabin’s car only minutes before he was assassinated. Israel allows this jackass to make a mockery of the justice system.
Only a few days ago two women, one Palestinian and one Jewish were traveling to Jerusalem to pay a shiva (condolence) call on the principal of their school. There they were set upon by children, possibly the same ones who attacked Amtir, who spat on them, broke the windows of the car (which belonged to the Jewish woman) and slashed her tires. The Palestinian needed an escort from the neighborhood to get home.
While we’re on the subject of assaults, here’s a picture of the damage done to a Palestinian waiter at a Tel Aviv fast food restaurant by a bunch of Jewish hoodlums. An Israeli in a neighboring hospital bed (who apparently had been in a car accident) took this picture and wrote on Facebook:
He [the waiter] was crying the whole time and I felt like I wished I would be run over again.
Returing to Amtir’s case, please, people–what do the police take us for? Idiots? Will this pig fly? There are many miscarriages of justice in the Israeli system. This would be but one of hundreds or thousands. But must Israel turn to its citizens and the world and piss on them? Not to mention its Palestinian citizens?
I once had a conversation with a former Rhodesian policeman, who told me that he’d always been more inclined to arrest whites than blacks for drunkenness and public disorder, because they were supposed to know better.
Interesting to see that the one attitude which Israeli police do not share with those of Rhodesia and Apartheid-era South Africa, is that one.
Why? We are all sons and daughters of the same Almighty God. Why not (Jews and Palestinians) unite in one nation and love one another like brothers and sisters? They are from the same father, Abraham. The only different thing is the how their faith is. But still we are all the children of the same God, Jews, Muslims and Christians. Why is ti that in the Holy land peace cannot triumph?
Makes me very very sad 🙁
Richard.
Your photoshopped image juxtaposing Nazis and settler girls is as offensive as it is childish.
Nazi violence against the Jews was carried out by the State. This attack on an Arab woman was carried out by individuals and the State is prosecuting them for it.
The photo image displayed here is meant to be thought provoking. It is an art work juxtaposing images in order to make a political and social statement. As an art work it may be subjective and one may argue about appropriateness of historical parallels and comparisons…. but it conveys powerful messages and expresses a valid point of view.
There are unmistakable parallels between the two events/incidents… but it is not a complete match, no. These images stand for more than the known facts concerning the respective individual events.
The viewer is invited to explore the overlaps.
You see no overlaps….
The extent and depth of suffering experienced by victims of Nazism is well documented- though one can say that we may probably never fully know or be able to document such large scale events, nor the impact on the victims…. Nazism expressed itself in many ways and at many levels: from the petty government official carrying out his mundane duties of keeping the state machinery running smoothly to someone engaged in life and death decisions … to the narrow minded racist gratuitous acts of violence of vicious individuals in the street or the mob, violently preying on lone individuals, empowered by the state and a sick ideology of superiority…
Placing yourself in that lone Palestinian woman’s shoes for a minute. Looking at her face and the terror she obviously was feeling at that moment. How can one deny the fear and terror she, a Palestinian must have been feeling about the attack perpetrated by her ‘neighbours’ or more probably complete strangers and passers by in the street …… It is not an isolated example of violence inspired by some very nasty racial or ethnic hatred at its lowest level- on the street. this did not happen in a social/political or historical vacuum…. I think it illustrates what many if not most Palestinians feel and experience, daily , in their homeland-whether in the occupied territories or in the state of Israel. Their lives are filled with uncertainty and violence in one form or another. Others have made the point that the Palestinians have less control and power over their lives than non Palestinians. ….they have less rights and less justice..
There are individual acts of racism/ethnic violence and there is institutionalised oppression…what is the connection?
Where does the licence for such bad behaviour come from? Ie the licence to attack those not in the ‘in group’, at will?
I would suggest it comes from above ie from the state/ regime, its institutions and its founding chauvinist ideology , which reinforces a sense of divine entitlement to other people’s land/ property and conveniently hands them immunity from ever having to account for their bad behaviour towards non members….
It is sad…it is disgusting…but mostly it is sad that people are doomed to repeat the same mistakes and commit the same crimes….
@Chris
” I think it illustrates what many if not most Palestinians feel and experience, daily , in their homeland-whether in the occupied territories or in the state of Israel”
Well, Chris. I live in Israel and I see more Palestinians in a day than you probably see in a year. The Palestinians living in Israel are the most relaxed and confident ‘minority’ I’ve yet to encounter and I’m from New York, a city full of ‘minorities’.
I’ve been all over Israel, a very small country, and I’ve never seen a Palestinian, or any other ‘minority’ here, threatened, spoken rudely to, or assaulted.
Joel is a cosseted New York Jew who came to Israel with all sorts of pre conceived notions about minorities, whether they be Blacks or Palestinians. I know people like Joel since I too grew up in NY. Some of the most racist people in NY are Jews.
Joel just carries over his condescension and ignorance qua racism to an Israeli context. Joel “sees” Palestinians. And because he’s never seen anything bad happen to a Palestinian he knows that his judgment is right. He wouldn’t care to have any of that certainty shattered by considering he doesn’t know what the f(^k he’s talking about.
What never ceases to amaze me is Israeli Jews who are only too happy to substitute their own perception of Palestinian reality for the perception of Palestinians themselves. Who & what gives you the right, Joel, to say what it’s like for Palestinians to live among you?? ANd what gives you the right to think you know Jack about Palestinians. Because you don’t. You really don’t. The fact that you think you do shows how little you really know.
the phrase ” there are none as blind as those who refuse to see….’ comes to mind. Next time you ‘see’ a Palestinian and if you can gain their trust, try to engage them and find out about their lives….what its like to be them and listen to their stories. you may learn something. I have met quite a few Palestinians over the years living in various places[ their diaspora] All have been touched in some way by some suffering and loss. I would say they all yearned for justice and recognition of their suffering….
Joel, you’re either profoundly deaf – and blind – or a shameless liar.
I live in Central Israel with my family, and my eyes and ears are always open, if only for their sake.
Quite honestly, I don’t hold you or Richard in such high regard that I’d bother lying to either of you.
Have you not read the post I wrote? The police (i.e. the State) is charging the VICTIM with a crime. Jews were also both victims and guilty of crimes in the Nazi era.
The only difference thank God is that Amtin did not end up in a concentration camp. But she very well could end up in jail for doing nothing more than being a victim of Israeli Jewish racism.
As for the charge of “photoshopping,” this is a work of political art, not a photograph that claims to be a precise representation of the event. The Nazi era photograph is a totally legitimate commentary on the contemporary Israeli action that is represented.
There’s no justice to Arabs in Israel, take this as the rule.
As for the exceptions – yes, you can come across the occasional blip in the horrid trend. There might be an occasional pretence of venturing into the wild minefields of “justice-for-all”, but never in your life a consistent effort to deliver colour-blind, equal justice.
@yankel
http://www.timesofisrael.com/co-existence-workshop-ends-with-rock-hurling/
Where’s the justice?
Joel, how typical that you consider yourself so enlightened about Palestinian affairs yet get your knowledge of them from the Islamophobic Times of Israel. Where’s the justice?
I’m pretty sure that’s not the waiter pictured but the guy who was in the car accident. Look at his facebook account.
You’re wrong. Just read the Hebrew captions.
No, You are wrong Mr. Silverstein. This is a photo of Ohad Aviv who was injured in a car accident. Look for ohad.aviv1 in Facebook.
Once again, find us a picture of the Palestinian waiter. Unless of course you’d rather people not see HIS injuries. That wouldn’t be the case, would it?
The Hebrew captions do not state that the man in the photograph is the Palestinian. It claims the waiter was in the bed next to the man involved in the accident, and does not at all claim that the man in the photograph is the waiter. Also, the pictures in Ohad Aviv’s profile are definitely of the same person. One of these pictures are of a local news article, presenting a photo of him in the hospital bed, describing how Ohad Aviv was run over.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=501919296531523&set=t.519058485&type=3&theater
It’s possible, though the juxtaposition of the image and the caption clearly infer that the picture is of the waiter.
So I challenge you to find a picture of the waiter and his injuries. Then we’ll know for sure.
Have you looked at the image I linked to? Honestly, two minutes of browsing Ohad Aviv’s facebook photographs will prove without a doubt that he is the man in the picture you linked to. We don’t need a picture of the waiter to know that the picture shown is or is not of Ohad aviv, and several pictures of Ohad, including a magazine article about him being run over, with a picture of him looking exactly like in the photograph you linked to, is enough to show that the picture is of Ohad. If you want to find a photograph of the waiter to replace the one you posted, do it yourself.
I’ll note that all you were interested in doing was minimizing the negative publicity of the attack on the Palestinian waiter. If I do get a picture of the waiter & his injuries I’ll dedicate an entire post to it & display the image itself.
Three or four of you pro Israel apologists have the goal of suppressing negative PR regarding Israeli racism. I don’t plan on letting you get away with it.
[Comment deleted. Comments must be substantive & relate directly to the post]
There’s also the Palestinian street cleaner from Yaffa, Hassan Usraf, who was attacked at 4:00 a.m during Pourim by a bunch of young Israeli Jews screaming “Death to the Arabs” and according to some sources “You’re invading/taking over our country”. He was knocked down with bottles and had heavy wounds to his head and face/eyes. Ali Abunimah has a video on his blog showing a mob celebrating the beating and shouting racist slurs. And the Palestinian man who was aggressed at Lake Tiberias on a holiday with his wife and kid. It seems to be the same thugs as in Tel Aviv/Jaffa (Eli Ashkenazi/Haaretz). There has been one or two other aggressions within the ’67-borders recently.
None of us made any statement regarding the waiter’s injuries, and were simply pointing out a mistake you made. I do not know why you assume the worst of us without substantiation.
Richard, the guy in the picture you linked to was Ohad Aviv
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=501919296531523&set=t.519058485&type=3&theater
The caption under the picture was a bit confusing.
I’ve been in touch with Ohad Aviv who’s going to try to get me a photo of the waiter & his injuries. Commenters here appear to believe that pointing out that Ohad Aviv’s picture was mistaken for the waiter’s means the waiter’s injuries were either non-existent or less serious than those of Aviv. That’s of course a political statement which is unacceptable to me. I hope I can feature that image asap.
It is Kiryat Moshe, not Yemin Moshe which is a gentrified neighborhood next to the Montifeore windmill
The police recommendation to the office of the DA is to press charges against the jewish girls.
They did so after reviewing the security camera footage.
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/449/743.html
And if they actually press charges agains the Jewish ‘girls’, let’s hope they don’t destroy – by ‘mistake’ of course – the tapes containing the interrogations as they did with the tapes containing I think it was 8 hours of interrogation of the main suspect in the aggression on Zion Square last August. That would be a shame wouldn’t it ?
DY: I am worried about the Jewish girls. If they are found guilty and have to do a few hours of public service, it will be a spot on their records for ever. Later, when they want to move into subsidized housing in “Judea,” land heisted from Pals of course, the record could disqualify them. Or not. After all: These are Jewish mothers in waiting and we want them pure as the water rights their landsmen steal.
PS. I better back up my story with a link. In fact it was ‘dozens of hours’ deleted by ‘mistake’. Amazing that such a thing could happen in a State that invented practically all technology…. and made the desert bloom of course.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=293668
Even though it would be obvious that the guy in the picture is not the waiter based on the links provided to you by others, I’m including a link to the film of the beating of the waiter. As you can see the waiter has short hair and the guy in the picture has long hair. http://www.mako.co.il/news-law/crime/Article-db150ea9f063d31004.htm
Do these jewish settlers believe in the true Almighty God? I don’t think so, because Our Lord, who is One, do not want people like these settlers doing such barbaric actions. God all he wants is PEACE on earth between all people of the world and to live as brothers and sisters. Shame on these kind of Jewish people. God forgive them for their barbaric attitudes.