Who do you think media and world opinion sympathies will favor? Yup.
Photos of an Israeli soldier attempting to detain a 12 year-old Palestinian boy with a broken arm went viral Friday:
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Images of two Palestinian women and a young girl scuffling with an Israeli soldier after he tackled a Palestinian boy with a broken arm went viral Friday evening, after the images became widely circulated on social media networks and mainstream media outlets.
The incident took place in the central occupied West Bank village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah, where local, international and Israeli activists gather for weekly Friday rallies in protest against Israel’s separation wall, a well as settlement expansion and other policies considered illegal under international law.
The rallies in Nabi Saleh were first organized in 2009 and have carried on every week since then.
In the photos, an Israeli soldier appear clinging to a boy from behind, attempting to detain the child who was later identified as Muhammad Basim Tamimi, 12, while his mother, Nariman Tamimi, his sister, Ahed Tamimi, and aunt, Manal Tamimi, attempt to pull the soldier off the boy.
The family seem to be well-known activists. Ahed Tamimi, the girl seen in the one photo and in the video biting the soldier’s hand, is said to be a star in a number of Pallywood videos:
it is thought the young girl in the photographs is Ahed Tamimi, whose parents Bassem and Nariman – also pictured – are well-known Palestinian activists in their village of Nabi Saleh.
The teenager has appeared in a string of similar videos where she challenges Israeli security forces and rose to prominence after she was filmed confronting one who arrested her brother, which resulted in her being presented with a bravery award.
She was handed the ‘Handala Award for Courage’ by the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Istanbul, where she reportedly expressed she would like to live.
Online blogs have dubbed her ‘Shirley Temper’ and accused her of being a ‘Pallywood’ star – a term coined by author Richard Landes, describing the alleged media manipulation by Palestinians to win public relations war against Israel.
There’s no question that whether any of this is ever staged or a setup, incidents like this one are milked for all they are worth for the sake of propaganda. I’ve seen accounts that talk about the broken-armed boy being held “at gunpoint” and in a headlock- the brave family trying to fend off the evil armed aggressor; painting the situation in language that will generate sympathy for the Palestinian “victims”- similar to the kind of feelings that the photos themselves are meant to generate.
Nowhere in the videos available do I see the IDF soldier point his gun at the boy; nor do I see him doing anything beyond the bare minimum in his attempts to restrain the boy and to protect himself from attack. Meanwhile I see the boy playing it up, screaming bloody murder and carrying on while not actually being brutalized.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvJNYjzm9jk[/youtube]
Here is a longer cut video:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg1-_oIfjqc[/youtube]
Here’s that adorable “Shirley Temple”, Ahed Tamimi, two years ago:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4FM9WGRWdQ[/youtube]
Yes, let the kids carry on like angry grown-ups while the actual grown-ups just stand back and watch, film, and take photos. She’s a star.
Her father, Bassem al-Tamimi, was convicted by an Israeli military court in 2011 for ‘sending people to throw stones, and holding a march without a permit’ – a charge his lawyers deny.
He has been jailed eight times, while his wife has been detained five times. Other family members, including their son Waed, has also been arrested.
Bassem organises weekly protests and it was reportedly at one of these demonstrations that the shocking images are said to have been taken.
An Israeli army spokesman said that Palestinians had been throwing stones at an IDF force which was set up in the area.
An image has emerged on the internet of a boy, said to be the youth that was held at gunpoint, throwing rocks with one arm, while his other remained in plaster and in a sling.
The spokesman added that a decision was made to arrest the boy and it was during the detention that a ‘violent provocation’ began, including a number of Palestinian women and children.
‘The youth who was photographed was identified by the lookout force as a stone-thrower, and because of this it was decided to detain him. At the time of the arrest, a violent provocation by a number of Palestinians developed, including women and children. In light of the violent altercation, the commander decided to not to go ahead with the detention.’
He added: ‘Two additional Palestinian youths were arrested for throwing stones during the violent clashes. The soldier pictured was lightly wounded as a result of the violent actions against him.’
The clash happened in the village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, during protests against Palestinian land confiscation to expand the nearby Jewish Hallamish settlement.
In another flashpoint, Palestinian protester hurled stones at Israeli army bulldozer during clashes which following a protest against Israeli settlements in Qadomem, Kofr Qadom village, near the the West Bank city of Nablus.
They come a day after the European Union’s outgoing envoy to the Palestinian territories said the 28-nation bloc was moving forward with measures against Jewish West Bank settlements.
The envoy, John Gatt-Rutter, did not provide a timeframe. But his remarks to reporters underline European discontent with Israel’s continued expansion of settlements in territory that Palestinians want for a future state.
If anyone knows more about this; or finds updates to this story, link them up.
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.
Watching that girl stop what she’s doing to look for her camera angle on that longer video is proof of a Pallywood production.
I read an account by a Swede, Daniel Borg, who trained the same way as Rachel Corrie.
Daniel Borg served as a human shield in Hebron in 2007.
Daniel Borg saw violence by his side, the Palestinians.
Daniel Borg NEVER saw violence by the Israelis.
The translation into English is rough, but not unreadable:
Only those that WANT to believe this sort of thinly-veiled propaganda will believe it.
This is not the reaction the videographer probably intended:
Pally wood? The tightening used to say it was the JOOS who controlled the media
Israel has not nor will it even say where it considers its borders to be
It has illegally occupied the West Bank for 50 years
Within Israel Arsbs are second class citizens and do not enjoy full rights
In my 7th grade history class. Democracy was defined as rule by majority but with full rights for all minorities Arabs in Israel do not enjoy full rights