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Yesterday night, I noticed several Israeli Facebook users infecting my feed with false claims that Mohamed Abu Khdeir, the 16 year-old who was murdered by suspected Jewish terrorists, was killed in an honor crime because he was gay. With the help of an Israeli friend, I traced the rumor to, of all places, the Israeli police (Hebrew). They leaked (Hebrew) this false information to the media, which dutifully reported it as if it was true (it wasn’t). The police claim (made anonymously of course) that it had “information” Abu Khdeir was gay was false. But this calumny spread like the wind, and a credulous Israeli public eager to believe the worst of Palestinians and refusing to take any responsibility for their own brethren spilling the blood of a Palestinian, took to social media like a raging plague and spread this bile everywhere.
This is the proverbial “blaming the victim” tactic often used by accused rapists and their defense attorneys. But this is worse because the victim in this case is dead and the fellow citizens of the accused killers refuse to acknowledge the pain and suffering of the murder. They want to wipe it out because they hate Palestinians and believe them undeserving of sympathy.
This Haaretz report (pictured on right) by Nir Hasson and Jack Khoury documents the fraud and conveys the angry response of the victim’s family:
Our family is not involved in any dispute and he was a good boy. this is not a family problem. It is a kidnapping [now murder] and everyone must know this.
The police are living up to their reputation of being the most corrupt, incompetent, racist and thuggish agency in the entire nation. I’ve reported here their incompetence in handling the 911 calls from the Hebron kidnapping victims and their family. The families of the victims now complain (Hebrew) that the Shabak lied to them initially telling them the shots heard on the 911 call were “blanks.” They were not. They were also told that no DNA was found in the burnt vehicle used to kidnap the boys (blood and bullets were found). All this gave them false hope they might still be alive. At a certain point, the families realized the police could not handle an investigation of this magnitude. That’s when the IDF became involved.
Now, in the current case, instead of solving the crime and apprehending the Jewish terrorist who likely committed it, they prefer to create red herrings which confuse the case and the public, thus diverting attention from the real killers. You’d almost think the police are in cahoots with them or at least so sympathetic they don’t want to catch them. What I’d like to know is whether the false reports to the Israeli media were part of an orchestrated police or even government campaign or whether this was an impromptu idea some idiot cop thought up on his own.
To add further fuel to this fire, Maan reports that instead of the kid gloves treatment accorded the Israeli families, the Palestinian victim’s father was questioned for hours by the police, who tried to get him to say that there was a family feud in which Mohamed was caught up. Though the father doesn’t mention the claim of his son being gay, that is no doubt due to the fact that subjects like this aren’t publicly discussed by families. The father vehemently denied his family had disputes with anyone. This angle of investigation is spurious and an attempt to sow deliberate confusion. The father also reveals that there is surveillance video of the kidnapping which clearly show the perpetrators.
The family is deeply critical of the police “response:”
Muhammad’s father Hussein Abu Khdeir said the family notified police about the incident immediately after it happened but are still waiting for a response.
“We notified the police of the incident when it happened, but until now they haven’t moved a muscle or arrested the kidnappers, despite their clear appearance in the surveillance cameras,” he said.
“If things were different and an Arab kidnapped an Israeli, it would have been uncovered in moments.”
Hussein said that following news of the killing he was detained and interrogated for several hours and his wife was forced to take a DNA test.
“Police want to cover the issue up, to protect the settlers, but the cameras were clear,” he added.
If the police would exert half as much energy in finding the real killers as they are in spinning lies, they might find them.
Sheera Frenkel, one of the few reporters based in Israel I trust writing about this story adds some potentially incendiary developments in her reporting. We knew that when Abu Khdeir’s body was found it had been burnt. But we didn’t know the scenario of what had happened and how he was killed. Frenkel sheds light on this:
The body of a Palestinian teenager was found in the Jerusalem Forest on Wednesday, beaten and burned to death.
The notion that this boy was tortured before his murder and that he may not have been dead when they set his body alight takes this crime beyond mere blood vengeance into the realm of deviant pathology. When this new development makes its way through the Palestinian community and into the wider world, it will light a tinderbox. If you wonder what it might take to cause a Third Intifada, this is precisely the fuel that would do it.
Speaking of pathology, Rabbi Noam Perel, the worldwide leader of the Bnai Akiba youth movement which, at one time, was known as a bastion of modern Orthodox Judaism, called for vengeance for the Hebron killings:
“An entire nation and thousands of years of history demand revenge,” Perel posted on his Facebook page…
“The government of Israel is gathering for a revenge meeting…The landlord has gone mad at the sight of his sons’ bodies. A government that turns the army of searchers to an army of avengers, an army that will not stop at 300 Philistine foreskins,” Perel wrote, alluding to the biblical tale of David, who killed 200 Philistines and gave their foreskins to King Saul as the bride price for his daughter.
“The disgrace will be paid for with the blood of the enemy, not with our tears…”
I wish I could say this is deviant Israeli Jewish behavior. But at a certain point you have to admit that the lunatics have taken over the asylum and are running it. If there are any sane people remaining they’re too ashamed, too frightened, or too tired to do anything to stop it. Which may mean that Israel is doomed. Unless the rest of world comes to its senses and restores sanity by knocking heads together and forcing compromise.
Amidst all this misery, the only small flicker of hope and humanity is this statement released by the uncle of one of the murdered Israeli boys:
Yishai Fraenkel, uncle of Naftali Fraenkel, called upon Israelis and Palestinians to “refrain from any type of violence” following the deaths of the four young men.
“The life of an Arab is equally precious to that of a Jew. Blood is blood, and murder is murder, whether that murder is Jewish or Arab,” Fraenkel told CTV News Channel in a telephone interview from Israel.
“There’s no justification whatsoever to revenge or do anything as a result of the barbaric murder of my nephew.”
The wild-eyed lunatics in Yitzhar and other warrior settlements won’t accord the Fraenkels any respect, even in their period of mourning.
The net is full of images of hundreds of Israelis ramping throught the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on the night of the funeral shouting “Death to the Arabs” and people who express their will to kill but I guess these mean Palestinians – who don’t love their children anyway – just profited from this to kill their own son in order to blame it on the Jews…….
It reminds me of an interview with Yehudah David, the French-Israeli doctor who had operated the father of Mohamed al-Durah on an earlier occasion. Just before the final court ruling last year, he claimed in an interview with Arutz Sheva (on the net) that he had proofs Mohamed al-Durah had died earlier that day, that the kid in the images from Netzarim was his brother, and that the whole shooting had been orchestrated by the Palestinians to make the Jews look bad in the eyes of the world….. I piy the Israelis who’re still sane in this State that has become a madhouse.
Errata: ‘through the streets’, ‘I pity’
I know! These devious Palestinians waited for exactly the right moment to kill their own son. Clever.
[comment deleted–yet more Arabophobic racist nonsense. It simply won’t be published here. Read the comment rules.]
So, now that we have the truth, the question becomes: Will the parents be apprehended and charged for this murder? Who will apprehend them? What would count as evidence, crocodile tears perhaps? The parents probably conspired with the Rest of the World to embarrass Israel, so there might be some traces…
One can hardly wait for the next progress report from the police, some new smear or libel perhaps on the victim or family. After more investigation, perhaps the Hamas link will turn up. Stay tuned.
We hate you no less then you hate us
A true Jew, not Erev rav like you – go worship your golden calf. Tikun olam my ass
○ Funeral of Mohammed Abu Khdair delayed, row with Israel over release of body
Appears to be a dispute over another autopsy report before handing over the body (Al Jazeera TV). Checking the BBC webpage, has just been updated with a new headline and info as follows:
“The funeral of the young Palestinian abducted and killed in Jerusalem has been delayed because his body has not yet been released by police. The father of Mohammed Abu Khdair says the authorities are carrying out a post-mortem examination.”
According to AJ broadcast, the funeral is expected later today.
Police won’t let me see body, says slain teen’s father | Times of Israel July 3, 2014, 11:35 am |
Hussein said he was certain his son Muhammad was kidnapped, killed and burned by Israeli Jews, “probably settlers or the Shin Bet.” He said footage from a surveillance camera located near the site of the kidnapping clearly showed three men, all of them Hebrew-speakers, seizing his son.
“We saw. There are cameras. We saw how they took him,” he said.
“I have the footage. You can see a car arrive at around 4 a.m., 4:10, 4:05. The car arrived, two people got out, and one stayed [in the car]. They came, took him and forced him into the car.”
Hussein added that it was not the first time the group had attempted a kidnapping in the area. Rather, he said, on Tuesday afternoon, the same men had come to Shuafat and tried to kidnap someone off the street. A few hours later, they succeeded in forcing 16-year-old Muhammad into their car.
Shuafat refugee camp East Jerusalem
Even today most Jerusalemites have no idea that there is a refugee camp within the city’s jurisdiction.
The Shuafat refugee camp encapsulates Israeli rule in east Jerusalem. All the maladies of the occupation are concentrated there, and it’s also a “prequel” revealing the direction the occupation is taking. The region, which includes five subdivisions, was created over the years in a gradual process in which residents of the refugee camp abandoned it due to congestion and terrible sanitary conditions, preferring peripheral areas – Ras Hamis, Ras Shehadeh, Dakhyat al Salaam, Anata and the refugee camp which gave the region its dubious name.
Richard, you still haven’t given any information that does not appear in Israeli media, except for the fact that the body has been burned. All rest (burnt alive, relatives say they saw the footage) are speculation.
What I would like to know: how much time does it take from finding a burnt body to finalize DNA sequencing? Why didn’t they publish it is the kid? Why don’t they let him be burried? What are they hiding? What can they say without risking the investigation?
Sorry, but our expectation from Tikun Olam are higher than what you’ve provided so far. Perhaps focus more on your sources and less on firing on Twitter.
You are clearly delusional in your hatred of the Jewish state. Not 1 single serious Israeli newspaper has run with this. Every single such paper are quoting police sources saying that most probably the murder was an act of vengeance. You are sir, a despicable liar.
@ Ofer Maimon: YOu can’t even be bothered to read the Israeli media reports to which I’ve linked which prove you wrong? Pathetic.
I don’t get it. Killing him for being gay wouldn’t make things even worse, since it would be not only ethnic prejudice, but also homophobia?
No, you didn’t get it 🙂 Israeli propaganda accused his own family of having killed him for being gay. Richard mentions it in this article by ‘honor crime’ but if you want to see examples read the comments to the previous article. Some Novak-thing is claiming this is the truth …..
1.Same day this boy was murdered. a 14 years old Arab girl murdered by her own family,no one talk about it..why?
2.I did not know CCTV cameras can record voices, how can the father know they were Hebrew-speakers?
How do you like this one Rooey:
“OK, three abducted teenagers in the West Bank were murdered, but look: An Israeli father killed his own children, let’s talk about that instead.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2656646/Israeli-police-Father-killed-2-US-children.html
Such cases of domestic violence have nothing to do with nationalist hate crimes like this, and you know it. You just want to deflect attention.
Couldn’t explain it better myself …
Daily Kos and the Zionist hasbara
“I expect that whatever McCarthyte policies take over in in Israel – which they are – as we all see – they will seed off-shoots in this country, as they are in Canada and Australia, and we, who care about liberal values and human rights, will have to stand and watch as reactionary forces rip what they helped sow.”
I was banned once at DK and reinstated after I wrote a damning diary @BooMan. A few monthe later, the dark forces at DK struck again. DK has become part of the establishment.
Well, according to the media, many people saw the teenager being abducted, and have described the kidnappers. Someone also wrote down the license number. By the way, earlier that day, a eight years old boy from Shuafat managed to escape from another group who tried to abduct him. Guess they’re all lying …..
If you know how the settler thugs have behaved in the West Bank for decades, this is hardly a surprise: beating up old shepherds and children on their way to school is a favorite pastime, particularly around Hebron.
@ Roey: Red herring and off topic. A comment rule violation.
A claim of homosexual motive has been a historical modus operendi by which Zionists seek to avoid responsibility for nationalist Zionist-motivated murders. See the cases of Jacob deHaan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Isra%C3%ABl_de_Haan] and Herschel Grynszpanand [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_Grynszpan].
[comment deleted–comments must be factual and not based on prejudice or unsupported opinion]
“Jewish oligarch backed neo-Nazis in Ukraine…” Just curious. Doesn’t this violate multiple comment rules? There’s no link to justify this allegation and the circumstances of the deaths in Odessa are totally different from what happened to poor Mohamed Abu Khdeir.
@Canuck: Thanks for picking up on this. I read the comment very quickly & didn’t notice the last, offensive phrase which you did. I’ve deleted it.
How can you claim to be authentic and objective while ignoring Moshe Nussbaum’s report (chanell 2, last night) that three days ago the boy’s younger brother was victim to a kidnap attempt, and while his mother claimed that “Settlers” tried to abduct him, his father told the police it was Arabs!
Now either this is the world’s most unlucky family ever, being attacked twice in a week by settlers attempting to abduct their sweet little innocent children, and the father claims their Arabs, OR this is the usual Hamulla-Gang clashes in Arab villages everyb one who knows Arab culture is well acquainted with.
Do you expect being credited as an honest, even if clearly left-wing dispositioned, reporter, while ignoring, and worse – hiding, such reports???
Clearly a pathetic attempt to degrade Israelis, as usual.
@ hilla: You’re confusing the story I believe. Settlers (probably the ones who succeeded in killing Abu Khdeir) tried to abduct a 7 year old Palestinian in Shuafat 2 days earlier. But they failed. Why would you not believe killers who failed once wouldn’t try again?
I have not heard that the Abu Khdeir’s had another son who w faced a kidnap attempt. The 7 year old was not, I believe, a son or even a relative of the Abu Khdeirs. Nor have I ever heard the father claim the abductors were “Arabs.” You’re either making this up or confused or both.
Racist Israeli claptrap. If you publish another comment here in the same vein you will be moderated.
I wouldn’t care to be labelled ‘honest’ or anything else by you. There are others whose opinions & judgments I value far more than yours. I’ll rely on them rather than you.
Nussbaum seems to mix them up with the Zalloum family, who, according to Muhammads’s mother, experienced an attempted kidnap on the day before Muhammad was taken:
“Today my son was kidnapped and yesterday they tried to kidnap a kid from the Zalloum family. Who is next?” she added.”
So this whole story by Nussbaum seems to be about a different family in the same neighborhood:
“However, Nussbaum said, police were quite definitive that another call the family made to police on Tuesday turned out not to be the emergency the Abu Khadrs claimed it was.
On Tuesday, police said, the mother called police to say that “settlers” had tried to kidnap her younger son.
She said that individuals had stopped a car in front of her house where she was sitting with her son, and that they tried to grab him. She managed to hold onto him, she said, and they left, at which point she called police.
Officers arrived a few minutes later to take her statement, in which she said “settlers” had tried to kidnap her son, but could give no details. However, a few minutes later the father arrived, and he disputed his wife, saying that it was Arabs who tried to kidnap the son.
Police asked the father if he was positive regarding the identity of the would-be kidnappers, and he said he was. When they asked him to file a police complaint, he said he would, but that he would come down to the police station later on to do so in order to be able to comfort his son. He never showed up, police said, who contacted him several times asking him to file the complaint – but to no avail.”
This story seems nonsensical. The police called them several times, all on that same Tuesday? It must have been on the same day, because on Wednesday morning the family contacted the police about Muhammad:
” Seaking on Israel Radio Thursday, Mohammed’s father said he had called police at about 4 a.m. Wednesday to tell them that his son was being kidnapped, and said that they could trace his cellphone, which was still active. Police have not commented on the content of the call Mohammed’s father said he made.”
Haaretz: ” Police are also investigating suspicions that the six were also linked to the attempted kidnapping of 9-year-old Mussa Zalum, less than a day before Abu Khdeir was abducted and killed. Complaints lodged with police following that attempted kidnap were disregarded, it emerged on Sunday.”
And this is what the police told to the media about this case (if, as seems likely, what they said in reality referred to the Zalloum kidnapping attempt):
“When they asked him to file a police complaint, he said he would, but that he would come down to the police station later on to do so in order to be able to comfort his son. He never showed up, police said, who contacted him several times asking him to file the complaint – but to no avail.”
That is quite a difference with:
” Complaints lodged with police following that attempted kidnap were disregarded, it emerged on Sunday.”
I used to eagerly read your reports. But unfortunately lately I couldn’t find any scoop on this blog. It’s a pity that you have to keep you rating and popularity up by publishing such “yellow” and unproved information.
@ Anatoly: Ah a concern troll. How kind of you to show that you either can’t read or are being disingenous. If you haven’t found any scoops here it’s because you failed reading comprehension in elementary school.
My Hebrew is pretty good, like fluent. Where in the posted article does it say that he’s gay? Oh, it doesn’t.
@ Elliot: Oh, you mean Israeli rightists don’t understand the use of Hebrew code words like murder for “family honor” & understand that if this was such a murder it would have to be because the boy was gay?? After all, What other reason would a family murder a 16 year old boy? Because he wanted to go to medical school?
The thousands of rightists who flooded social media with these lies took them directly from this hoax about an honor killing.
I wonder if this murder will have consequences for Netanyahu and others as they clearly created an atmosphere revenge and incitement to violence against Palestinians. A leader that behaves in such an un-stateman-like manner does not belong in a civilized country.
As someone in Haarets zommented: ” At the hundreds & hundreds of abductions & murders that were carried out by the IRA over a long period. Did we hear the British PM ranting & raving, threatening to bomb this & that, invade Ireland & systematically root out the IRA. No, a true Statesman acts in a cool calm manner, not with the lunatic type of knee jerk attitude of Netanyahu who is doing more damage to his country than anyone.”
even if he was gay he was murdered and burnt -Israel has no shame left I am glad haertz is acting neutral -it shows some jewish values are still in force -this is an absolute apostasy to justify any murder by claiming the victim was gay -half the jewish men in new York are gay and are they all going to be murdered for being so
[comment deleted–homophobia, even as snark, is not permitted]
“נבדק החשד כי הרצח של הנער הערבי בן ה-17 משועפט הוא על רקע כבוד המשפחה. בידי המשטרה מידע כי הנער הוכנס בכוח לרכב מסוג יונדאי בצבע כחול ועצרו בו אנשים פלסטינים. המשטרה מזדרזת לבחון את הכיוון האפשרי לחקירה לאחר שהחלו להיווצר התקהלויות באזור מזרח ירושלים.”
“The suspicion that the 17-year-old Arab youth from Shuafat’s murder was an honor killing is being investigated. Police has information that the youth was taken into a blue colored Hyundai-model vehicle, and that Palesitnians stopped in it. Police is quick to investigate this lead after crowds had formed in East Jerusalem.”
Do you have any issues with my translation? Go ahead. Point out a bad choice of words on my part. Some of the phrasing is awkward in the original Hebrew, but it still doesn’t say what you or those right-wingers want it to say.
Strangely enough, you actually protest too much, as I didn’t even point out how you expanded “honor killing” to mean “killing over victim being gay.” He could easily have been killed over having sex with the wrong woman, which would also be consistent with an honor killing. All the police are stated to say in this update is that they are investigating the possibility of an honor killing, not that they are stating that this is an honor killing, or that it is a killing over him being gay. That is an extrapolation by right-wingers, which you were quick to adopt.
How about you admit you overreached, that you overstated your case? It’s not that hard. The internet is forgiving.
@ Hebrew Reader: You’re reaching for straws. Plus, you’ve shown your abysmal ignorance of Palestinian social and cultural norms. 16 year old Palestinian boys don’t have casual sex with anyone. Anyone looking at his picture would tell you this boy was barely into puberty. Palestine is not Los Angeles or Rome. Your claim is simply preposterous.
I did make one error in my reading of the text. I thought it said the police had information he was killed in an honor killing. It actually said it had information he was forced into a car. Other than that, my reading of the text stands.
Rightists drew the proper conclusion, the one whoever offered to the news media wanted them to draw.
Ironically, Nir Hasson now says this report on an honor killing was a hoax and not offered by the police, but by someone pretending to be the police. No evidence or detail is offered making it impossible to judge the credibility of the claim of a hoax. Not to mention, why & how would reporters all over Israel report this without testing the authenticity of the claim? Would they merely accept someone telephoning or e mailing them claiming to be a police source? The whole thing smells whatever the real explanation is.
You & I are done with this line of argument so move on to another comment thread. This one is closed to you.
Your whole post is a diatribe against the Israeli police, and you don’t think it’s relevant that you were wrong about what the Israeli police was claiming?
@ Hebrew Reader: When I tell you you are done in a thread I mean it. You have flouted what I told you. You are moderated. Only comments which respect the rules will be published in future.
hi,
if there where clear appearances on surveillance cameras. where are the videos of it then. go get them.
now is just all disinformation from both sides.
@tom: The videos are widely available on the internet including at the Guardian & on YouTube. Please don’t make statements like this without doing elementary research.
Dear Mr Silverstein
I so agree that you cannot right wrong, with wrong. If only those Jews and Arabs do, can and want to live side by side peacefully made up the majority rather than a very small voiceless minority.
Having said this, would you please investigate the possibility that this poor murdered young Arab man,
Was in fact a victims of a fundamentalist religious group, who chose this moment to send a harsh an frightening message to his family. A secular east Jerusalem family noted in a book as being denounced former secularity .
The peaceful people here in Israel are not a voiceless minority, its just so happens that ignorant people shout louder than the logical ones.
Ben
@Ben — I can’t avoid the conclusion that the Israeli people handed power to Likud and Bibi and your frustration may be with mainstream Israel in which case change cannot come from within, but from without, through BDS and more.
You were very right pointing out my frustration about Bibi’s election and the mainstream consensus. That said, people who DO believe in peace and equity do exist here in Israel and they aren’t that few as one may think. There are even large groups trying to spread these values – I myself was once one of them – through youth organizations, rallies and such. That is something to keep in mind. I dont think
boycotting and the like are the solution. It might be, but that would be a collective punishment (since like I said a LOT of Israelis want peace) and really is just another form of revenge, which to my understanding wouldn’t change how extremeist right-wingers act and might cause even more severe violence. Those Israeli terrorists doesn’t give a shit about the government. Now I don’t have another solution. Wish I did. What left for people like me to do is to try and spread sensible outlook on the world to as much people as we can. Peace, Ben.
I can appreciate the quandary but just as the Israeli government represents a collective choice of Israelis, so BDS rightly reflects a collective punishment. Obnoxious as it sounds, Israelis let this happen. There were peace loving decent folks in Japan or Germany in the 30’s but they were hooted down. Should the Allies not have pushed back? Besides — the World Jewish Congress and many other organizations initiated a total boycott of Germany in 1933! 1933!
With all due respect, the comparsion between Israel today and Germany in WW2 is way over the top. Personally, I dislike our current Israeli government to say the least, but they aren’t publicly promoting racism or mass murder. I think “a bunch of decent folks” is a big understatment for the left-wing party in Israel. Personally I care less for governments and more for people. Hate is generated inside people’s heart on a dumb, ignorant (though very human and understandable) impulse, and it is too easy to ignite and maintain. That impulse translates later to racism. Hatred is the root of this problem. As stupid or naive as it may sound, I truly believe the only solution to this conflict may come from finding a practical way to encourage love and understanding, for it is the only true antidote to the real cause of the dispute.
Ben
Just a little correction, the Haaretz article you posted here actually says the Israeli right-wing party (the people who refuse to divide the land. Extremist Israeli right-wing people are racist and might even be involved in acts of violence) started the rumour about the arab child being gay. As an Israeli I can testify it is hard being sane at these times, watching extremists from both sides spreading hatred and unfortunately seeing the racism level rising among the population. Even our prime minister is too blind to see that fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity. Sad times indeed.
[comment deleted–comments must be based on facts & credible evidence. YOur opinions in & of themselves have no weight nor interest.]
This is awful!! God… I’m glad that the Jewish victims uncle is not being racist about this. Seriously the UN should be stopping this. Jews came to Palestine AFTER WW2… They are like Americans stealing natives land and brutally killing them. I have nothing against Jews, Arabs or Americans- but at this point, I do not believe either party should have access to weapons.
There’s no denying U.S.A.’s culpability in supplying the funds and weapons that embolden Israel”s pained people to visit even more pain upon their neighbors. How can we taxpayers (whose money it is ) stop this flow of funds?