It hasn’t been a good week for the IDF. First, an IDF sniper executed a Gaza double-amputee protester at the fence during a protest against the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The protester, whose legs had been amputated after an Israeli missile attack in 2008, was sitting in a wheelchair waving a Palestinian flag when a bullet shot through his brain and killed him. Naturally an IDF investigation found that there were no violations of operational protocol in the killing.
Next, Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Nabi Saleh, and were met with the angry protests of a 16-year-old Palestinian girl, Ahed al Tamimi. When the soldiers touched her, she fought back. She screamed at them not to touch her, and then she hit them with her hand and kicked them with her foot. This video went viral and the idea of such humiliation angered the Israeli public, which could not sit still and take this insult to the army’s manhood.
The Tamimi family—which may not be a real family—dresses up kids in American clothes and pays them to provoke IDF troops on camera. This cynical and cruel use of children constitutes abuse. Human rights organizations must investigate!
https://t.co/Pm5nXhcbo0 via @wallanews— Michael Oren (@DrMichaelOren) December 19, 2017
Remember the Palestinian girl who tried to defend her younger brother from Israeli soldiers? She’s just been arrested. pic.twitter.com/eUvkye7yAp
— AJ+ (@ajplus) December 19, 2017
Israeli “education” minister Naftali Bennett said that little Ahed should be sent to prison for life. Michael Oren the “esteemed” professor of Jewish history, said that Ahed’s family was “not a real family.” Apparently, her blue eyes and blond hair raise suspicions among the hasbarati that either she was “planted” among the Palestinians or perhaps that Bassem al Tamimi had a dalliance with a buxom Scandinavian blonde at some earlier point in his life. The former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. also claimed that the al-Tamimi family dresses their children in “American clothes,” whatever that means. Does he think that Palestinian teenagers wear abayas and chadors? Has he set foot in the West Bank among the Palestinians walking the streets? Of course not. Unless, it was inside an Israeli military Land Cruiser. The coup de grace was Oren’s intimation that they pay their children to protest. These charges are of course racist. They’re not even worthy of being called hasbara. They are in fact slime, an even lower form of discourse than hasbara.
Earlier yesterday at 4 AM., Israeli troops invaded her village and assaulted her home. They snatched her from her family, handcuffed her, and hustled her away into a waiting vehicle where she was manhandled. When the family found out where she was detained, her mother went to visit her. Even Israeli regulations prevent a minor from being questioned without the presence of a parent. But in cases like this, rules and regulations go out the window. Instead of visiting and protecting her daughter, her mother was herself arrested. For what possible reason, only the occupiers know.
Those big bad boys in the IDF were so proud of the dangerous quarry they were about to nab, that they shot a video of Ahed’s arrest. For some strange reason they pixellated her face. Perhaps out of a bizarre decision to protect the privacy of a minor (doubtful since they routinely splash pictures of Palestinian children chained to hospital beds all over the Israeli media). Another theory is that they wanted to render Ahed faceless, thus stealing a bit of her dignity and her identity. That seems much more in tune with the Israeli obsession with humiliating Palestinians by kicking dust in their eyes at every opportunity.
Earlier today, Ahed was hauled before a court to have her detention extended. Naturally, her father came to the session to support her. Then he was arrested. All to show this individual Palestinian family that it could not thumb its nose at the state; that the State would come down upon them with all its might to show who is the boss. In truth, while the Israeli public demands vengeance for Ahed’s temerity, this brutality against a teenage girl shows the State to be a feeble doddering fool.
But there is decency in the world. Watch this video of Al Jazeera correspondent, Clayton Swisher’s young daughter asking Jeremy Corbyn to comment on Ahed’s arrest. Corbyn’s manner and overall response will make you kvell (if you have a Jewish heart) or swell with pride at his humanity. This is the epitome of the Yiddish term, menschlichkeit (“human decency”).
My 6 year old raises #AhedTamimi arrest by #Israel with UK Labour Party Leader @jeremycorbyn today—here’s his reply #ProudDad #FreeAhedTamimi pic.twitter.com/LOY2JNpU6C
— Clayton Swisher (@claytonswisher) December 20, 2017
The second bad day for the IDF was during the Gaza protests against the Jerusalem declaration, when Gazans approached the fence with Israel waving Palestinian flags. Among the demonstrators was Ibrahim Abu Thurayyah. He was a double-amputee who lost his legs in a 2008 Israeli missile attack. Despite his disability, he insisted at being in the front lines of every protest, including the one that day. There he was in a wheelchair waving his flag.
Just then, an Israeli sniper bullet tore through his brain, killing him instantly. A clean shot, a good kill. The authorities, who always investigate these incidents to ensure they’re kosher, found the killer operated within organization ethical guidelines.
The Israeli hasbara media has put out the word that the sniper wasn’t intending to kill Abu Thurayyah. Somehow it was an unfortunate accident. But I can tell you that a sniper doesn’t accidentally kill a man sitting in a wheelchair. He aims to kill. And if he does miss, he should be drummed out of the corps. But if we could follow the career of this expert killer we’d find that he earns a commendation for this brave act in defense of the homeland. No, he’s going right up the career military ladder. On his way to glory.
Just like that, another murder whitewashed. And Israel cleanses its conscience of any guilt. Except the world noticed. Pictures of Abu Thurayyah waving his Palestinian flag, cartoons of him championing resistance have coursed through social media and the internet. This disabled man is now a lion of the Palestinian resistance.
Though they first ripped off his legs and then murdered him outright, he will have the last word. Images of these two outrages will not be forgotten.
[Comment deleted: i will not permit you to smear & slander the al Tamimi family with unfounded slime claims. As you’ve been warned multiple times of comment rule violations, you are now banned.]
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in a perverse way I want to hear what this guy said. Was he just trying to out-oren Oren?
That’s gross.
The former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. also claimed that the al-Tamimi family dresses their children in “American clothes,” whatever that means. Does he think that Palestinian teenagers wear abayas and chadors? Has he set foot in the West Bank among the Palestinians walking the streets? Of course not. Unless, it was inside an Israeli military Land Cruiser.
I think you’re being a lot more charitable here than Oren deserves: he probably understands very well that this is normal clothing for Palestinian children and is saying that on purpose to portray the Palestinians in a certain image.
Funny that you claim to be an expert on Hasbarist propaganda but you can’t even see that.
I read it as irony.
Even if Abu Thurayyah had had legs, shooting people who are locked behind a fence, from watch towers… There are no words for it. Truly.
If I did not despise war, I would wish a real war on these disgusting IDF cowards.
Yeah, the Birmese army is worse. (The comparisons get lower and lower though.)
With regards to Tamimi– only you Richard could provide such a twisted and obviously incorrect narrative of the events in the video which you yourself posted which speaks for itself.
The girls approach the soldiers and start swatting at them. The soldiers responses are defensive– looking the other way, backing away or trying to deflect her strikes. The way the girls approached them so calmly and deliberately looks very much like the whole thing was staged. But assuming it’s not–and I have no idea where Oren got his information– to claim the the screaming and kicking girls are “defending” themselves is so strikingly tendentious as to completely discredit your reporting.
I know that this is great PR for all the pro-Palestinian crowd who are howling and crowing at the teenage girl “defending” herself.”cruelty” of the occupation.
But believe me, to the average Joe it convinces nobody.
I don’t think the girl should have been arrested but perhaps her or the family should be fined for disorderly conduct.
The way you portray this, except for your fan club of commentators here, demonstrates to everyone that you have zero ability for critical or objective thinking because of your extreme bias. You simply echo the narratives of the Palestinian or extreme left.
@ Yehuda: The Occupation violates international law. Soldiers have no right to be in occupied Palestine. Hence whatever they may or may not have done, whatever the reason they were there doesn’t matter. Further, the Palestinians have every right to defend their land from interlopers, as does Ahed.
I am offended that you use the word “staged” which is unsupported by any evidence whatsoever. DO NOT offer smears like this here of the al Tamimi family.
The notion that women don’t have the right to defend their families and property without being called “screamers” is also misogynist. If my children found armed soldiers in my front yard I’d be proud of my children for doing what Ahed did. And you would too if they were your children.
You don’t know anything about “Average Joes.” Unless he’s an Israeli flag waving settler spitting on Arabs. Fortunately, most of the Average Joes in the world aren’t. So they’re quite apalled at this mess you’ve gotten yourself into.
I do not appreciate your snark and abuse of other readers and commenters here. If you insult anyone similarly in future you will be moderated.
@Yehuda Was her 14 year old cousin being shot in the head also ‘staged’? Was the presence of the soldiers where they have no right to be also ‘staged’?
its funny (or should i say pathtic) how creative and flexible you can be while trying to discribe what happened… “When the soldiers touched her, she fought back. She screamed at them not to touch her, and then she hit them”…
too bad the video shows something alse
@ ilan: Apparently you don’t read the comments. There were eyewitnesses who described the scene. A video is only one form of evidence of what transpired. Unless you have a video that shows the entire incident from start to finish, you don’t know the whole story. But witnesses do.
But regardless, the main issue is the soldiers HAD NO RIGHT TO BE THERE AT ALL! Israel is stealing the village’s land and water on behalf of Halamish. Anyone who justifies any IDF actions in this village is defending its pillaging by Israeli settlers. Which makes you as good as one yourself.
i never voted for this government ,i don’t believe in their political point of view and i dont like the fact the Settlers are where they are… but i also dont like double Standards…. we all know that you wouldn’t believe the eyewitnesses if they was zionist.. we all know this family and the fact they and this teenager provoking the soldiers and make them hit her so they record it on video… so dont lie and say the truth as it is
Suggestion for the old Chinese idea of Rectification of Names, Richard: ‘hasbara’ is more accurately rendered as ‘hasbarollocks’; those who do it are ‘hasbarollocksers’. There are a couple of them at it right here in your comments section, of course. For those who may not be familiar with it, ‘bollocks’ is a British-English word with two meanings: male testicles, and utter rubbish. Another necessary rectification is ‘IOF’ – ‘Israeli Offence Force’, for the cowards who are only good for brutalising and murdering defenceless civilians and stealing undefended land belonging to other people. Put them up against a real fighting force, such as Hezbollah, that starts inflicting some serious casualties, and watch ’em run.
I hope to live to see the day when zionism joins Boer apartheid in the rubbish-bins of history, where it assuredly belongs. The land of the Levant is for all who are born there, muslim, jew, christian, whatever, living in equality and justice in the secular, democratic, law-respecting state of Greater Palestine, with Al-Quds/Jerusalem as the shared holy city of all of them. That has a chance of happening once the zioentity-in-Palestine (the ziP; another necessary rectification of names) has “vanished from the page of history”, as Ahmadinejad actually said, when translated honestly. Now that the US empire is well into its final decline and fall, there’s a growing probability that it’s constant subsidising, arming and general defence of the colonial-settler ziP project will cease. And after that, the ziP’s days are numbered, like the equally racist apartheid SAfrica before it. No-one else, anywhere in the world, is going to pick up that toxic baton. Roll on Greater Palestine, bringing even-handed, genuinely democratic justice for ALL who live there – and for all Palestinian exiles who dream of returning! Can’t happen too soon.
For being a general waste of time and space, Michael “shoulda been a used car salesman” Oren should be sentenced to 72 years in a Gulag chain gang, creating “sarcophagi” underground in Siberia to store all the Soviet/Russian nuclear waste. I don’t trust Oren to move the nukewaste but I do trust him to heft a pick and use a shovel.
For the rest of his miserable life.
RE: “Michael Oren the ‘esteemed’ professor of Jewish history, said that Ahed’s family was “not a real family.” Apparently, her blue eyes and blond hair raise suspicions among the hasbarati that either she was “planted” among the Palestinians or perhaps that Bassem al Tamimi had a dalliance with a buxom Scandinavian blonde at some earlier point in his life.” ~ R,S.
MY COMMENT: It is my understanding that some instances of individuals having blonde hair and/or blue eyes in the Palestinian population are attributable to the fact that quite a few of the Crusaders ‘went native’ instead of returning to Europe.
Richard – excellent article. I have nothing but respect for Ahed and her entire family. Funny how her standing up to the IOF with nothing but her voice and convictions, scare the living shit out of them. “Moral army”? In another galaxy or dimension, but not here.
Probably meant “voice, fists, kicks, slaps and convictions”.
You can still call her hero but offering “alternative facts” is what Trump does.
@ Ginger: a 16 year old girl slapped a grown man holding a lethal weapin & wearing 30 lbs of protective gear. What was hurt except his & your ego?
Israel the Land of Eternal Victim-hood.
[comment deleted: neither Israel or Palestinian denialism is permissible here.]