Nana has published a video (featured in this Hebrew article) of the brutal beating of U.S. citizen, Tariq Khdeir, the cousin of Mohamed Abu Khdeir, who was murdered by Israeli extremists a few days ago in East Jerusalem. His parents says he was in the yard of his uncle when he was assaulted mercilessly by two Border Police wielding truncheons. They repeatedly kicked and beat him in a display videotaped for posterity. I’ve tweeted to AP State Department correspondent Matt Lee asking him to bring this up at the Monday press briefing.
UPDATE: Apparently spurred to action by the plethora of world media reports on this story, the State Department released a statement that it was “profoundly troubled” by the beating of the Palestinian-American. That and a few bucks will buy you a Starbucks coffee. How about “outraged?” “Appalled?” How about “behavior that cannot be accepted among civilized nations?” A tad stronger rhetoric may be called for, no? Since Obama likes to use his daughters in his political speeches, perhaps he might give some thought if it was one of them beaten senseless and brought almost unconscious to Hadassah Hospital? Would the response be a bit more muscular?
Unfortunately, the burning alive of Abu Khdeir elicits almost no response from the world press. But this brutal beating of a U.S. citizen finally gets the world to take some notice. Whatever it takes, I guess.
You also will not hear much about the mass riots swirling throughout East Jerusalem and environs in which hundreds of Palestinians are burning and pillaging whatever they can get their hands on. The Jerusalem light rail stop in Shuafat, where the martyred boy lived has been burned to the ground. Protesters are even cutting down the electricity pole to eliminate any chance of restoring the system to full operation. This signifies the rejection of the Israeli attempt to exert full sovereignty over the entire city, especially the Palestinians neighborhoods.
Ironically, in a story reported exclusively here, a clever Israeli or Palestinian hacker once inserted a message endorsing the Right of Return into the LED messages that flash in the Jerusalem light rail stations. A small act of resistance.
In response to the civil unrest, Israel is resorting to the only thing it knows: violence. It’s installed a massive presence of Occupation forces blanketing the Palestinian areas with tear gas, rubber bullets and truncheon wielding goons. Beating the native population into submission seems to be the operative form of pacification for Israel. Let’s also remember that the Jerusalem police’s Arab liaison is Doron Zahavi, the notorious IDF rapist of Mustafa Dirani. That gives you some idea of the methods the police are using against Palestinians.
UPDATE: Electronic Intifada has published a video displaying the faces of the likely Israeli killers of Mohemad Abu Khdeir. They appear to be quite young, possibly around the same age (22) as the Palestinian killers of the three Israeli teens.
Despite a gag order on details of the killing, details are beginning to emerge. We already know that Abu Khdeir was burned alive by his torturer-murderers. Now Nana reports that security forces have confirmed the killers were radical Jewish terrorists. Because of the gag, Nana treads delicately. But it does say that certain details known to the Shabak point to this being a “nationalist” crime (Hebrew code for “Jewish terror”). It also notes that the IDF has been enlisted to take part in the pursuit of the killers. Involvement of the IDF in the crime implies the search has entered the West Bank (the military would not be involved in solving a crime within the Green Line) and that the terrorists are being harbored in a radical West Bank settlement. I said from the beginning they’d be found in Yitzhar or a place like it.
Another detail reported by Palestinians is that eyewitnesses gave the license plate of the getaway car to police. Given that they are searching the West Bank, it’s highly likely the license plate was Israeli, attesting to the fact that the killers are Jewish terrorists. Knowing the make, model and license plate of the vehicle should give the Shabak a huge advantage in locating the killers. There are only a handful of hardcore settlements that would harbor such villains. In fact, in light of the fact that the Shabak has had the above video from the beginning of the investigation I’d bet that the Jewish terror unit could identify these faces and knows who the killers are. It’s shameful there has not yet been a break in the case. It’s even more shameful that a Jewish settlement may be harboring these terrorist fugitives.
This should not take a feat of epic police work to solve this crime. But given the tortuous dissembling engaged in by the police and Israeli terror sympathizers thus far, it’s no wonder it’s taken this long and will likely take longer.
What I don’t understand is the report that the police, having Abu Khdeir’s cell phone number, could track the getaway car as it sped to the Jerusalem forest. If they knew where the car was, why couldn’t they have stopped it before it reached the killing ground?
@Richard
“Protesters are even cutting down the electricity pole to eliminate any chance of restoring the system to full operation. This signifies the rejection of the Israeli attempt to exert full sovereignty over the entire city, especially the Palestinians neighborhoods.”
Maybe, but protestors attempted to cut the light rail line in Taibe, which is sovereign Israel.
Maybe the protestors are just mindlessly attacking the State along with the modernity it brings them.
“nationalist” crime (Hebrew code for “Jewish terror”).
Richard. The Israeli press references to “nationalist crime” encompass Jewish, as well as Arab, crimes.
This is not a Hebrew code for “Jewish terror” alone.
@ Lou:
Yes, those ungrateful savages not appreciating the civilized behavior and standards that you beneficent Israeli Jews offer them. How could they reject all those goodies?
In this particular case it is, and that’s what the term referred to, in the article to which I linked.
the physical appearacne of the attackers is at odds with hill-top youth, who could easily change clothes and not wear head-coverings, but would not shave their side-burns or beards for religous reasons.
Assuming they are jewish this would indicate they could be part of a different racist grop such as the jerusalemite “beitar-jerusalem” soccer fans.
Though i must say that by physical appearence the kidnappers could just as easily be arab – this video unfortunately doesn’t help much at clearing the picture here.
The liscence plate should have been enough to pin them though – why havent they been caught yet?!
@RS,
How can you tell that the torturer-murderers are Jewish or extreme settlers by the footage? In the footage, they don’t seem to wear a Yamaka or Tallit.
@ Nimrod: Ah yes because any settler who sought to murder a Palestinian boy would wear his knitted yarmulke & peyot in Shuafat at 4AM, right? Just to blend in?
[comment deleted–when your last comment was deleted for being racist & Islamophobic, you thought you’d just repeat it & this time have better luck??]
No. I had no expectations. You just proved what I already thought. Whatever and whoever dares to claim differently than you do is cursed and “moderated” (a nice and violent word for censorship – maybe you’re covering the Shin-Bet too much, ha?
Well, I guess this won’t be published either, no Islamophobia here, only questions regarding you’re objectivity. Good luck with the self-hatred under-taking!
You must be kidding. Strong language? Decisive action?
No way. The shocking arsenal as well as rivers of empathy have been squandered for the families who let their high school boys to engage in travelling and hitchhiking at occupied territories where civilians presence is disallowed by the international humanitarian law. An interesting perception of high school education isn’t it? An original concept of educational guardianship isn’t it?
Following such a dissipative and inflationary waste of words and moreover, a tangible support do you really expect the U.S.A’s administration or even the press to be shocked by the daily behaviour of Israeli police’s brutality and inhumane treatment towards “people of a lesser breed” i.e: Plantains?
○ Israeli police arrest six Jewish extremists on suspicion of murdering Palestinian teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir
The American people DEMAND FULL RIGHT OF RETURN for ALL Palestinians that the Apartheid Israeli state is currently keeping in Refuge Camps in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, Gaza and the Bantustans of the West Bank
Apartheid Israel must now be FORCED by UN Sec Council Action to ‘abide’ by UN Res 194 – and this means IMMEDIATE CREATION of the ‘One State Solution’ 1 P 1 V 1 S (one person one vote one state) and Jerusalem declared an OPEN CITY free of Apartheid Israeli ‘annexation’, Apartheid, and other crimes against humanity
WE ARE OVER THEIR WALLS – now let’s take out their Apartheid Israel-Support System in the US – the US Israeli Lobby
Read Peter Beinart’s breaking ‘Burn Notice #2 to the Diaspora’: U.S. Jews must save their people’s honor, which Israel is putting at stake’.
Apartheid Israel is taking AIPAC/The Israel Lobby and RACHEL MADDOW down with it….
America Free of the Israeli Lobby – it’s the 2nd American Revolution
What ever happenned to killing all the Jews? Why stop there? This Apartheid thing is Terrible!
The horrid Jews (I heard they have horns which they hide under their filthy caps…) actually think it’s legitimate to try and live in the land thery were forced out of, and in a war they didn’t start the L-O-S-E-R-S want to win using boycots and stuff. Thus we establish the PLO in 1959 as an army and in 1964 organize several terrorist (sorry – militant liberation units to liberate the land yet to fall in the hands of the Zionists – makes sense…) to force Israel to its senses by killing hundreds of women, elders and babies. Then comes the six day war – the horrid filthy Jews win again! even though it was Natzer to close the Tiran Straits and Hussein to engage in a war without any Israeli provocacy.
and now, and this has nothing to do with the Kibbush, since all of these people don’t live in Israel – It is time to bring the losers back.
Of course, RS will say this is Islamophoboc, so he won’t publish it, but in fact, this is Islamopathetic. Their brothers in the Arab world make them live like homeless enemies, don’t give them citizenship or basic human rights, and that’s when they don’t kill then, the way they do often in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, etc. But yes – they have to be the Jewish State’s problem. Arabs don’t have enough land or money to occupy them. Poor things.
No coverage on Shelly Dadon? An Arab attempting to rape her, and when she resists stabs her 17 times!!!
Do all of the cab drivers you travel with carry stabbing tools?
Yep, only Jews are monsters. The poor Arab guy just needed some fun after being held captive by the Kibbush as a cab driver, and the three young Israelis who tried to kidnap two innocent Palestenians driving by car, eventually they had to kill them for self-defence.
AHHH, nothing like the Arab narrative…
Etnic Cleansed
Migdal HaEmek is built on the land of the depopulated Arab village of Al-Mujaydil.
According to CBS, in 2001 the ethnic makeup of the city was all Jewish and other non-Arabs. The Jewish Agency estimated Migdal HaEmek’s population at 28,000, almost half foreign-born, from Russia, the Caucasus, Ethiopia, Morocco, Iraq and South America.
In 1950, after intervention from Rome, the Christians of the village were offered the opportunity to move back to the village, but refused to do so without their Muslim neighbours. Israel then destroyed half of the houses and one of the village mosques. [Source: Wikipedia]
Richard, you’ve done some good work on this story, but you also got some things wrong. Does this give you pause moving forwards?
Involvement of the IDF in the crime implies the search has entered the West Bank (the military would not be involved in solving a crime within the Green Line) and that the terrorists are being harbored in a radical West Bank settlement. I said from the beginning they’d be found in Yitzhar or a place like it.
Oops, no. You were completely wrong.
But given the tortuous dissembling engaged in by the police and Israeli terror sympathizers thus far, it’s no wonder it’s taken this long and will likely take longer.
It took less than another 24 hours from you writing this. More unhelpful speculation that you will never recant, because you never get things wrong, because you have better sources than everyone else.
#justsayin
@ Not Always Right: I’m glad you use this nickname since you yourself have no basis on which to make some of your claims. Regarding the West Bank, no one has said where the suspects were arrested. As the IDF was involved my guess is that either they were arrested there or the Shabak had strong reason to believe they were there. So no, I wasn’t completely wrong. Not wrong at all. And as I wrote, one suspect is from a settlement.
As for how long the arrest took, you yourself admit it “took longer” since the arrest happened a day later. But considering they used their own car, had the license plate number, had their images on CCTV footage, why did it even take five days? Perhaps it was because the police were on their own wild goose chase trying to prove Palestinians, indeed his own family, murdered him?? The longer it takes to apprehend murder suspects the more evidence can be destroyed and witnesses tampered with. So the amount of time it took to apprehend them is very material.
○ Child’s beating in Jerusalem brings unprecedented coverage of Palestinian experience to U.S.
Note that Ron Dermer, Israeli ambassador to the U.S., went on national television yesterday, ABC, and accused this boy of throwing Molotov cocktails and petrol bombs. While NPR reports that the police have accused him of using a slingshot. So Dermer was wildly exaggerating Israeli police claims, which the youth has denied?