Terrorist? Motorist? It’s all the same to the BBC’s Kevin Connolly

As noted in a previous post, the October 18th edition of BBC Radio 4’s ‘The World This Weekend’ included an item by Kevin Connolly (available for a limited period of time from 25:41 here).

In addition to Connolly’s amplification of baseless conspiracy theories pertaining to Temple Mount and promotion of the notion that the “identity” of Temple Mount is “Islamic”, a number of additional themes seen repeatedly in BBC coverage of the current wave of terrorism in Israel were promoted by Connolly and the programme’s presenter, Edward Stourton.

Stourton’s introduction began with promotion of equivalence between Israelis murdered by terrorists and the perpetrators of those attacks – who clearly interest him more than their victims.

“Forty-one Palestinians and seven Israelis have been killed in the latest eruption of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories but the figures don’t really tell the full story. Many of the attacks which have resulted in those deaths were carried out by young Palestinian men with knives and they must surely have acted in the knowledge that they would almost certainly be killed themselves. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has thrown up violence in all sorts of forms, but this is new.”

The inaccurate notion that the current violence is “new” has also been seen in previous BBC content but of course there is nothing “new” at all about knife attacks or – as the second Intifada showed – about Palestinians committing terror attacks in which the likelihood of their being killed in the process was either obvious or intended.

Kevin Connolly opened his report in his typical flowery style.

“I have brought you to the Hass Promenade – a steeply terraced park not far from my home that looks east towards the hills of Jerusalem: a holy city, wholly divided.”

He later told listeners that:

“One of the recent stabbing attacks happened a few hundred meters from where I’m standing. The Palestinian village of Jabel Mukaber – home to at least one of the attackers of the last few weeks – is just beside me.”

In fact at least four perpetrators of attacks which took placebefore Connolly’s report was aired came from Jabel Mukaber – including the two who carried out an attack on a city bus in East Talpiot which has now claimed three fatalities and the one later described by Connolly in this report as “a motorist” – not, of course, a terrorist – who murdered a Rabbi waiting for a bus.

Connolly continued; his commentary too garnished with ample dollops of equivalence:

“Now I said ‘wholly divided’ but that’s not quite right. When the atmosphere suddenly sours as it has soured here in the last few weeks, Israelis and Palestinians alike are angry and frightened. There are victims on both sides, of course. But most people would struggle to identify with the sufferings of the victim on the other side.”

He next promoted a theme which has been dominant in his own previous reports and in other BBC coverage: the description of attacks directed at Jews (rather than “Israelis” as Connolly suggests) as ‘random’ events. Concurrently, Connolly ignored the known affiliations of some of the attackers with terrorist organisations and, predictably, refrained from telling listeners about the connecting thread between all those ‘random’ attacks: incitement.

“Israelis see their country as an island of democracy in a region of chaos and Islamic extremism and they crave a sense of normality. The attacks of the last few weeks have punctured that sense. They have been the work of individual Palestinians who’ve decided to take knives from their kitchens to randomly stab Israelis – soldiers, police officers and civilians. In one case a motorist drove his own car into a queue of pedestrians, with deadly intent. Those knives tear at the fabric of daily life here. Jewish Jerusalem is an edgy place these days where people suddenly feel that any Palestinian might be a knife attacker; any passing car might pose a deadly danger.”

But just in case listeners were by now drifting off message, Connolly brought them back with more promotion of equal suffering and inaccurate portrayal of violent riots as “protests”.

“But Palestinians are fearful too. It’s nearly fifty years since Israel captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank. You are almost a pensioner if you can remember when every detail of daily life wasn’t under the control of the occupier. […]

And there’s deep anger and resentment at the readiness with which Israeli forces resort to lethal force against Palestinians in protests.”

Of course the vast majority of Palestinians in “the West Bank” have actually lived under the control of the Palestinian Authority for the past two decades, meaning that Connolly’s attempt to persuade listeners that Israel controls “every detail of daily life” in places such as Ramallah, Nablus or Jenin is decidedly embarrassing.

This report from Connolly contributed nothing new to audience understanding of the wave of terrorism in Israel because it followed the now well-established template of BBC coverage according to which attacks not named as terrorism are portrayed as ‘random’ or ‘spontaneous’  and attributed to ‘fear’ and ‘anger’ created by “the occupation”. 

 

“They brought a hospital-ship with 1,000 beds, but it took them two weeks. We were there in 48 hours”.

 

by Yair Golan, Times of Israel

In everything that we do, I would like to believe that there is an ethical as well as a practical dimension, and that the two need to be integrated. The ethical dimension is, in my eyes, the principal guideline, and everything we do at the practical level—which should be followed through to the greatest extent possible—must be in keeping with our ethical values.

            From the earthquake in Mexico City in 1985, to the flooding in the Philippines this year, for 30 years the State of Israel has been sending relief delegations abroad. What is amazing regarding the Israeli phenomenon is that almost everywhere we go, we are the first to arrive, and in most cases, our contribution is the greatest in the period closest to when the disaster occurs. We cannot bring the rebuilding force of the United States, but we excel at arriving quickly and offering the necessary help in an efficient manner.

            This applies to the wounded Syrians as well. We look over the border and see indescribable human suffering and ask ourselves: What might help? We ask whether we should sit by idly or whether it is possible to do something.

            It is easy to ask these questions when you work in an organization like the army. We are a solid organization, one that is prepared for colossal emergencies, such as natural disasters, and for responding to events that require mobilization beyond the routine. Only afterwards do we ask: What lesson is there to be learned from this, or, What’s in it for the State of Israel?

            Already three decades ago we recognized that we had accumulated sufficient knowledge and capabilities to contribute to dealing with disasters. It’s not a matter of genius—it’s our reality. We understood that the Israeli temperament, with all its advantages and disadvantages, is well suited to functioning in disaster areas: we reach a site that is in complete chaos, and we know how to manage pretty well. We are able to handle authority, we know how to improvise, and we are good problem-solvers. I’m not saying that this is a timeless trait that we inherited from our forefathers, or one that has been part of the Jewish people for generations, but we Israelis get organized quickly and respond more accurately than others everywhere we go.

            "We cannot bring the rebuilding force of the US, but we excel at arriving quickly and offering the necessary help in an efficient manner" IDF clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal. April, 2015 | Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Office

            “We cannot bring the rebuilding force of the US, but we excel at arriving quickly and offering the necessary help in an efficient manner” IDF clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal. April, 2015 | Photo: IDF Spokesperson’s Office

            In Haiti there was an earthquake that caused extensive damage. The earthquake itself was not particularly serious, but since the infrastructure there is so unstable (for years they built with concrete without using steel supports) that the earthquake turned the capital to dust. We said: We’ll come to their aid.

            We understood that we had to dispatch a mixed convoy: an evacuation and rescue team, and medical staff—not just an infirmary—since everything had collapsed, which meant that we also had to arrive with a hospital. All we had was people’s experience; we didn’t even have a plane to get there. It takes three days for our Air Force Hercules planes to arrive.

            We called El Al, and they said, “We don’t have any planes for you.” So I called Eliezer Shkedi, then CEO of El Al, who had been the Air Force Commander-in-Chief. He immediately replied, “What do you need, and when?”

            We organized staff very quickly, and immunized everyone. We swarmed the baggage unit of Ben Gurion Airport, and I went from one shipping pallet to another to sift through what was going onto the plane and what wasn’t, because a Boeing 777 can only hold 14 tons of equipment in addition to the passengers. We organized a jumbo cargo plane that had come from India and would take off after the Boeing; all this happened within a few hours.

            When the Boeing was ready, the captain told me, “We don’t have approval for landing. I can’t take off without approval for landing.” I told him, “Go.” We agreed that he’d fly to Port-au-Prince and that he had enough fuel so that if something went wrong, he could land nearby, in a field, in the Dominican Republic, or in Florida…we’d work it out.

            Such things are unheard of. Only to an Israeli Air Force pilot who has become an El Al captain can you say, “Buddy, this is an emergency. Take off, now!”

            Meanwhile, from my years of service on the Home Front Command, I have ties with the United States National Guard; its chief is Craig McKinley, a giant Irish fellow, and a lovely man. I phoned him and said, “General, give me a sliver that I can land on.” The entire terminal at Port-au-Prince had collapsed, and only one lane remained on the runway. Only the US National Guard can get access to the single surviving runway and erect an air control tower next to it.

            I called him at home. He answered, “Hold on, please.” A half-hour later, he phoned to confirm: “You’ve got it.” After the plane had been in the air for an hour, I told the captain, “Authorization for landing has been received.”

            We had no understanding of what was going on there, no contact person; ultimately, we found an Israeli, of course. We landed and mobilized quickly. Within 12 hours we’d taken in our first patient. It was the only hospital operating on the entire island for the first 14 days following the disaster.

            Our staff numbered 240, two-thirds of them medical staff and the rest evacuation and rescue personnel. It included nurses who had left their children behind at home, doctors, hospital department heads. Their readiness to help—to just drop everything and come work under difficult conditions was amazing, e.g.

            living in tents, treating patients in intense heat and humidity, and with earthquake aftershocks all the time. One night, I felt as if the tent was sailing over the ground. It’s an inconceivable sensation. We did take with us an excellent chef from the Home Front Command; he gathered food from here and there, and together with the food he brought from Israel, he assembled meals. There is no doubt that satisfying meals preserve morale and provide the strength to continue despite the helplessness and the shocking sights.

            Now I ask: All this in order to glorify Israel’s reputation? No one convinced the staff members to come—no one preached to them about going on a mission for the sake of Israel.

            Two weeks later, we passed the torch to the US Army. They brought a hospital-ship with 1,000 beds, like a floating Tel Hashomer hospital. But it took them two weeks. We were there in 48 hours. The combination of Israel and America is a good one. Haste and improvisation go very well in combination with the immense American capabilities.

            Japan, unlike Haiti, is a nation unrivaled in its preparedness for natural disasters, but the 2011 tsunami was a blow from which it was hard to recover: 32,000 people killed within a few moments, and, in addition, the collapse of the nuclear reactor in Fukushima. The magnitude of destruction was difficult to grasp until you witnessed it. Villages and towns looked like someone had taken a knife and shaved the ground clean. We found ships and fishing boats five miles inland and on mountaintops.

            But the Japanese are descendants of a proud nation and they were not prepared to let in a single rescue mission. They received some help from the Australian and American navies in their search for survivors at sea and logistical assistance offered from the water, but they did not let any foreign aid onto Japanese soil. They did, however, let in our delegation. It turns out that the head of the district where the disaster occurred had volunteered in Israel in 1968. A year or two before the tsunami, there had been a severe tsunami in the Miyagi Prefecture. The Israeli ambassador went there, met with the district head, and asked what kind of help was needed; he asked for mobile water-purifying machines. The ambassador arranged for the dispatch of three such machines manufactured in Israel.

            After the more recent disaster, the ambassador again phoned the district head and asked if we could bring an envoy from Israel. He was interested, but it didn’t go smoothly and took three weeks of appealing to the Minister of the Interior; three weeks after the approval went through, we finally opened an infirmary in a public facility in the town of Minamisanriku. At first, the patients refused to accept medical treatment that did not follow Japanese protocol, and we therefore arranged for a Japanese medical professional to be present in the room. But afterwards, the trust grew, and there was no longer a need to adhere to this procedure.

            On a visit to Tokyo, I went to the Japanese government’s Institute for Disaster Area Response Training. There they practice how to find shelter during a typhoon, or what to do during an earthquake. After the tour, the director asked me to speak to the staff. I said that indeed we see that nature is unpredictable, that it is difficult to deal with disaster, and that we will do everything we can to help. The Japanese, who are known to be very reserved, stood opposite me, crying. When you touch people on a personal level, cultural differences fall away. I believe that they were moved by our identification with them.

            Regarding the bloody situation on the Syrian border, I can say, yes, the television images were good and Israel received positive publicity. But when you look at the humanitarian effort of the people who are actually administering the help, you know that it’s not for the public relations. Providing help makes us feel human. We’ve had our own disasters throughout history, and we were not always offered help. It is our responsibility, therefore, to be a “light unto the nations.” We’re talking about realizing a human obligation.

            Our offering help to those wounded in the civil war that is taking place across the border on the territory of a bitter enemy came about by chance. It’s sometimes hard to believe to what extent things depend on the hand of chance. The commander of the Golani Reconnaissance Unit, Kobi Heller, was patrolling the border and saw rebel soldiers on the other side. They had conquered villages nearby, and were moving eastward, towards the fighting, and had gathered their wounded near the fence because the area was secure. I received this information as head of the Northern Command, and I said, “We have to help them.”

            We decided to open a field hospital for them in the northern Golan Heights, and determined that when more help was needed than what we could provide on-site, we would refer patients to hospitals in Israel. Ultimately, it went like clockwork. They bring the most severely wounded, and we evacuate them to our hospitals. We open the field hospital only under extraordinary circumstances.

            Our message to our soldiers is that this is proper humanitarian behavior. The soldiers, the personnel of the battalion’s aid station, are those who administer the initial care. It’s not simple; the sights are difficult and therefore it speaks for itself.

            We say, “We save lives. We are not indifferent to suffering.” Yes, they come from an enemy country, and we do not give them a pre-test to find out what they think about Israel, even while the hospitalizations cost us millions.

            And if you ask, “What’s the gain?” we know that it doesn’t change Israel’s image in the world. Headlines change and newspapers are thrown away. But at the national level we are creating ties with the enemy that are of a different nature. We are saying to them: you can live alongside us without fighting.

            Would I say that it makes a difference? Maybe not. But I believe in “Cast your bread upon the waters.” If, one day, there will be a government there, and on both sides of the border there will be people who will say to themselves, “We know from the past that we can gain from these mutual ties,” that will be our reward.

            We must take practical steps and get involved, in the hope that the day will come when we have a different relationship with the massive Arab world surrounding us. We must not abandon that vision. Life without hope is barren. Life that has spirit beyond material gain is the only way to live, in my eyes. Otherwise, life is merely technical. We, the Jewish people, must seek out the added value in life. It is this sense of purpose that arose, grew stronger and strengthened the Jewish people throughout history, and it was the Zionist vision that insisted on revival through building. The Zionist perspective chose not to wallow in tragedy and in playing the victim. The highest expression of this value is the ability to help. We’ve been through it, we understand it, and we know how to help.

            That’s the thread that connects Haiti to Damascus.

Major General Yair Golan is Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces

Front > News

JNF to pay Zionist movement NIS 87m in secret deal

 


By Moshe Lichtman

Israeli political parties used jobs in Zionist institutions as political plums for their members.

The secret agreement signed by political parties and movements to distribute jobs in Zionist institutions reached at last week's World Zionist Congress shows that the jobs were given out according to the relative strengths of each party. The Yesh Atid Party, headed by MK Yair Lapid, the only party that did not sign the agreement, yesterday demanded exposure of the deal at the Knesset Special Committee for the Transparency and Accessibility of Government Information, but committee chairman Stav Shafir rejected the demand, accusing Yesh Atid of cooperation in the transferal of hundreds of millions of shekels to the World Zionist Organization settlement division without transparency. Signers of the agreement include representatives of Likud, Zionist Union, Yisrael Beitenu, the Mizrahi movement (formerly the National Religious Party), Shas, and Kulanu, headed by Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon. 

The copy of the agreement obtained by "Globes" shows that the Labor Party, together with Meretz, obtained the posts of Jewish National Fund (JNF) chairman (MK Daniel Atar was elected), head of the Zionist enterprises department in the Jewish Agency, and head of the education department, which is responsible for many activities of overseas emissaries and the budgets for the Reform and Conservative movements. Likud and Shas are keeping the posts of Jewish Agency chairman (occupied by Natan Sharansky), vice-chairman of the World Zionist Organization, and a list of positions in overseas public relations and the struggle against anti-Semitism. 

The Mizrahi movement, together with Yisrael Beitenu and the National Union Party, received the positions of World Zionist Organization chairman, head of the settlement division (now the responsibility of Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Uri Ariel), JNF vice-chairman, the Diaspora Orthodox spiritual services apparatus, and the department for encouraging Aliya (immigration to Israel). 

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The agreement shows that Kulanu, which was taking part in these negotiations for the first time, was responsible for the election of former Minister and MK Uzi Landau as JNF co-chairman during the negotiations between the political parties. The agreement also includes a precise list of the jobs reserved for the parties. For example, Shas International is getting the vice-chairmanship of JNF, Likud International - vice-chairmanship of JNF responsible for the financial committee, Labor Party - chairmanship of the Spielberg archives, and Labor Party, Mizrahi, and Likud - directors in the JNF asset company. 

The agreement contains a special clause for additional funding for the institutions' activity. This budget comes from JNF's income on the sale of its land by the Israel Land Authority. It was stipulated that by 2021, JNF would give the institutions NIS 69 million a year, and would add a further NIS 18 million a year when their spheres of activity are expanded, for example in order to pay for the events celebrating the 120th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress. 

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 29, 2015

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015

PA and Fatah lies: Israel is fabricating stabbing attacks, planting knives at the crime scenes after killing "innocent" Palestinians

 

  

 

Official PA TV: 

“The Israeli version is always fabricated and false...

They [the Israelis] have the knives ready in case they target someone” 

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

 

A cartoon repeating the libel that Israel fabricates the many recent Palestinian stabbing attacks and even plants the knives as fake evidence at the scenes of the crimes appeared in both the official Palestinian Authority daily and on a Fatah website.

 

The cartoon claims that Israel victimizes Palestinians, framing them for the many recent stabbing attacks. A knife attached to the end of the rifle of an Israeli soldier cuts the hand of a Palestinian. The soldier withdraws the rifle, leaving the knife in the hand of the Palestinian, thus making it look like the Palestinian is the one attacking the soldier with the knife. The soldier then shouts: “Terrorist!” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, and website of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission, Oct. 17, 2015]

 

Palestinian Media Watch has reported on the PA's lies presenting terrorist stabbers whose intention is to kill as innocent victims who have been “executed in cold blood.” 

 

Official PA TV hosts also repeated this, claiming that Israel places knives at the scene after Israel attacks innocent Palestinians in order to frame them for terror attacks:

 

Official PA TV host 1: “Yesterday [Oct. 12, 2015] was a sad and bloody day in occupied Jerusalem: 3 Martyrs were executed [by Israel] in cold blood (i.e., terrorists who murdered 3). The photos and videos posted by activists on social media showed the cruelty and racism of the occupation as it deals with [Palestinian] residents of Jerusalem. The pretext is ready [in advance], the Israeli media is ready [in advance], and the Israeli version, security-wise and politically, is ready [in advance]: a stabbing attempt... When the settler, the policeman, and the border policeman may suspect that they are trying to carry out a specific action, the shooting and the Israeli version are ready [in advance].”

Official PA TV host 2: “These are executions of [Arab] citizens. The Arab is constantly exposed to cold-blooded murder for no reason, only because he is an Arab resident of Jerusalem...”

Official PA TV host 1:“The Israeli version is always fabricated and false...”

Official PA TV host 2: “Yesterday it was clear in one of the videos. After the assassination of one of the Martyrs, they [the Israelis] asked about the knife: "Where is the knife?" There was a settler who pulled out a knife. They [the Israelis] have the knives ready in case they target someone. They have the knives ready.” 

[Official PA TV, Oct. 13, 2015]

Click to view

 

Earlier this month, Abbas’ Secretary-General of the PA Presidential Office Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim repeated the lie as well: 

 

“The Israeli right-wing government has brought the situation to the point of explosion, for more than one purpose. The first goal is an attempt to look as if it [Israel] is the victim rather than the hangman. They [the Israelis] falsify stabbings with knives and fabricate events, etc.” 

[Official PA TV, Oct. 8, 2015]

 

Official PA TV recently broadcast footage showing weapons lying next to a terrorist who was shot and killed following an attack in which he had stabbed an Israeli border policeman, stolen his gun, and attempted to shoot a second policeman. PA TV News used this footage to reiterate the libel that Israel “fakes evidence” as a pretext to kill Palestinians. “The Zionists,” said the TV reporter, are “skillful directors”:

  

Warning: Graphic images

Official PA TV News reporter: “The occupation police is executing our children and youth in cold blood just because it suspects them. Then it falsely accuses them and fakes [evidence] to justify its crimes... Scenes of children being killed due to mere suspicion, painful scenes which even Hollywood's greatest directors have trouble directing, the Zionists direct skillfully. All they have to do is to murder the victim. Whatever comes next is already there, except for the law that is absent.”

[Official PA TV, Oct. 13, 2015]

Click to view

Another cartoon published in official PA daily also reiterated the claim that Israel is using the claimof “stabbing attack” as an excuse to harm Palestinians. The drawing shows a man with blood on his hands saying to a parrot standing on the Facebook logo: ‘Stabbing attack.” The parrot repeats after him: “Stabbing attack, stabbing attack, stabbing attack.” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 15, 2015]     

 
 

In August, the official PA daily printed another cartoon, purporting that Israel is fabricating Palestinian stabbings. An Israeli soldier is sticking his rifle with a knife attached at the end into the belly of a Palestinian and saying: “I’ve caught you with a knife.” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 20, 2015]

 

Several PA and Fatah leaders have promoted these false accusations against Israel:

 

Former PA Prime Minister, PLO Executive Committee member Ahmed Qurei “condemned the murder of the young Fadi Alloun” and “the killing of the young Muhannad Halabi.” [WAFA (the official Palestinian news agency), Oct. 4, 2015] - Terrorist Halabi stabbed and murdered two Israelis in the Old City of Jerusalem and Alloun stabbed and injured one. (See more about the attacks below.) The PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs “strongly condemned the field executions being carried out by the occupation forces against children, youth, and young Palestinians,” mentioning “the atrocious execution of the young person, Fadi Alloun,” as one such “execution.” [WAFA (the official Palestinian news agency), Oct.  4, 2015]

 

PLO Executive Committee member and Fatah Central Committee member Saeb Erekat also supported the false claim that terrorist stabber Alloun had been framed, and further claimed that Israel lied about female terrorist Israa Ja’abis who detonated a gas balloon in her car near Israeli police officers at a checkpoint near Ma’ale Adumim, a few kilometers east of Jerusalem, falsely claiming she tried to carry out a suicide attack. [Official PA TV, Oct. 13, 2015] 

 

The official PA daily referred to Israel’s shooting of 6 terrorists who all stabbed Israelis as “executions” of “Martyrs,” and stated that Israel justifies these “executions” with a false accusation of “a stabbing attack”:

 

“The [Israeli] excuse of a 'stabbing attack' is present at every execution the occupation soldiers are carrying out at the various checkpoints, and is presented on a 'platter of blood' immediately after they take out their targets.”

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 18, 2015]

Disregarding all Israeli terror victims, an op-ed in the official PA daily also claimed that Israel is fabricating all attacks since “ambiguity surrounds the stabbings which Israel is announcing” because “we haven’t seen any injured Israeli.” The writer even pretended that one of two terrorists who stabbed and seriously wounded a 13-year-old boy and a man had “died as a Martyr under unclear circumstances.” “It is easy for a settler to shoot any Palestinian,” he claimed, and “it is easy for a border policeman to throw a knife near the body of a young person after his cold-blooded murder and to claim a student was making a stabbing attempt.” He ended his article claiming Israel fabricates most of the attacks:

 

“Most of the Israeli versions of stabbings are false and forged, and we can appeal the stabbing stories, since the Israeli government is exaggerating with lies and fabrications.”

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 13, 2015]

 

The following are longer excerpts of the reports and statements mentioned above:

 

Official PA TV portrays terrorist murderers as innocent victims killed by Israel - says Israel fabricates the attacks

Official PA TV host 1: “We will follow the atmosphere in the field, given the Israeli escalation [of violence] and attacks against [Arab] residents in all the areas, especially in occupied Jerusalem. Yesterday [Oct. 12, 2015] was a sad and bloody day in occupied Jerusalem: 3 Martyrs were executed [by Israel] in cold blood (i.e., terrorists who murdered 3). The photos and videos posted by activists on social media showed the cruelty and racism of the occupation as it deals with [Palestinian] residents of Jerusalem. The pretext is ready [in advance], the Israeli media is ready [in advance], and the Israeli version, security-wise and politically, is ready [in advance]: a stabbing attempt. There is [Israeli] security insanity and the madness of dealing with the [Arab] residents of Jerusalem with direct gunfire and the wounding of every [Arab] resident of Jerusalem. When the settler, the policeman, and the border policeman may suspect that they are trying to carry out a specific action, the shooting and the Israeli version are ready [in advance].”

Official PA TV host 2: “Execution based only on [suspecting] intention.”

Official PA TV host 1: ”An intention that only Allah knows.”

Official PA TV host 2: “Anyway, in the end, these are executions of [Arab] citizens. The Arab is constantly exposed to cold-blooded murder for no reason, only because he is an Arab resident of Jerusalem...”

Official PA TV host 1:“The Israeli version is always fabricated and false. Yesterday morning at the Lions’ Gate, Martyr Al-Khatib (i.e., terrorist who stabbed 1) was executed... The most recent Martyr, yesterday at a bus station, was also executed in cold blood...”

Official PA TV host 2: “Yesterday it was clear in one of the videos. After the assassination of one of the Martyrs, they [the Israelis] asked about the knife: "Where is the knife?" There was a settler who pulled out a knife. They [the Israelis] have the knives ready in case they target someone. They have the knives ready.” 

[Official PA TV, Oct. 13, 2015]

 

Pisgat Ze'ev stabbing attack - On Oct. 12, 2015, two Palestinian terrorists, Hassan Manasrah (15) and Ahmad Manasrah (13), stabbed Yossef Ben Shalom (21) in the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood of East Jerusalem, then repeatedly stabbed a 13-year-old boy (name undisclosed at time of writing) who was riding his bike. Hassan Manasrah was killed while fleeing the scene, and Ahmad Manasrah was shot by Israeli police and hospitalized. Both victims of the attack were seriously injured. The terrorists, who were cousins, came from the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina.

 

Mustafa Al-Khatib - 18-year-old terrorist who tried to stab a soldier near the Lions Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 12, 2015and was shot and killed by Israeli police.

 

Muhammad Nazmi Shamasneh  - 22-year-old Palestinian terrorist who choked and stabbed an Israeli soldier in order to take his weapon on Oct. 12, 2015, on bus 185 near the central bus station in Jerusalem. The terrorist also stabbed and injured two additional people. He was shot and killed by Israeli police.

 

Official PA TV News shows weapons near dead terrorist after attack, repeats libel that Israel “fakes evidence” as pretext to kill Palestinians

The footage shown in the beginning of this PA TV report is from a terror attack on Oct. 9, 2015. Palestinian terrorist Muhammad Fares Abdullah Al-Jaabari stabbed an Israeli border policeman in Kiryat Arbanear Hebron, stole his gun, and attemptedto shoot a second border policeman.The second policeman shot and killed the terrorist.

Warning: Graphic images

Official PA TV News reporter: “In a fit of hysteria and madness of the occupation government against our defenseless youth, the occupation police is executing our children and youth in cold blood just because it suspects them. Then it falsely accuses them and fakes [evidence] to justify its crimes in the eyes of the world, and to present itself as a law-abiding country defending its threatened people... Scenes of children being killed due to mere suspicion, painful scenes which even Hollywood's greatest directors have trouble directing, the Zionists direct skillfully. All they have to do is to murder the victim. Whatever comes next is already there, except for the law that is absent.”

[Official PA TV, Oct. 13, 2015]

 

Headline: “[PA] Foreign Ministry: ‘The current escalation is a direct result of the Israeli attacks against the Al-Aqsa [Mosque]”

“The [PA] Foreign Ministry stated in a press release today [Oct. 4, 2015], Sunday, that the current escalation in the Palestinian territories is a direct result of the Israeli attacks against the Al-Aqsa Mosque...

Likewise, the ministry strongly condemned the field executions being carried out by the occupation forces against children, youth, and young Palestinians, the last of which was the atrocious execution of the young person, Fadi Alloun, from the village of Al-Issawiya in Jerusalem, who was murdered today in cold blood by the occupation’s police while on his way to work in the early hours of the morning.”

[WAFA (the official Palestinian news agency), Oct.  4, 2015]

 

Headline: “Qurei condemned the murder of the young Fadi Alloun”

“PLO Executive Committee member and Head of the Department for Jerusalem Affairs Ahmed Qurei condemned the murder of the young Jerusalemite Fadi Alloun by the Israeli occupation forces.

The young Alloun died as a Martyr (Shahid) after the occupation police fired ten bullets which penetrated his body in the Musrara area near the Damascus Gate in occupied Jerusalem, after a group of settlers chased him.

Likewise, Qurei condemned the killing of young Muhannad Halabi by the occupation police in Jerusalem yesterday [Oct. 3, 2015] evening.”

[WAFA (the official Palestinian news agency), Oct. 4, 2015]

 

Fadi Alloun - 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist who stabbed and injured Israeli citizen Moshe Malka (15) near the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 3, 2015. Alloun fled and was shot and killed by Israeli police.

 

Muhannad Halabi - 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist who killed 2 Israelis, Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Bennett, and injured Bennett’s wife, Adele, and their 2-year-old son in a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 3, 2015. Following the attack, he was shot and killed by Israeli security forces. Prior to his attack, in a post to his private Facebook page, the terrorist referred to recent terror attacks as part of a "third Intifada,” and said that it was a response to Israel’s actions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and that the Palestinian people would not “succumb to humiliation.” This is a reference to the PA libel that Israel is plotting to take over and destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to the PA's portrayal of Jews praying on the Temple Mount as "an invasion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

 

Headline: "The occupation and settlers execute 5 [Palestinian] citizens - and a video refutes the allegations that there was a 'stabbing'"

• “Hebron is afire after 3 executions of two young men and a young woman, and the settlers 'celebrate' 
• Mutaz Awisatwas shot in Jerusalem because he laughed and carried a backpack, and the accusation: 'suspicion' 
• The occupation closes the Qalandiya checkpoint after the young Omar Muhammad Al-Faqih from Katana died as a Martyr (Shahid) 
• UN official: 'The arbitrary steps of the Israeli government will lead to an escalation of the violence 

The occupations' soldiers and settlers continued in their crimes against our people yesterday [Oct. 17, 2015]. They executed 5 [Palestinian] citizens (two young men and a young woman in Hebron, a boy in occupied Jerusalem, and a young man from Katana), alleging that they tried to stab soldiers and settlers. However, a video exposed the lie in the occupations' claims, while the last videos showed settlers in Hebron 'celebrating' the murders.

The Martyr Iyad Khalil Al-Awawdeh (i.e., terrorist who stabbed one), 27, was barely buried when the occupation forces executed Tareq Ziyad Al-Natsheh (i.e., terrorist who stabbed one), 20, Fadl Muhammad Awad Al-Qawasmeh, 18, and Bayan Ayman Al-Esseili, 16, from Hebron.  Tareq died as a Martyr from the occupations' gunfire yesterday evening at the entrance to Al-Shahada Street in the center of Hebron, [they] claimed he stabbed an occupation soldier. Occupation forces let the young man bleed in the street for 40 minutes, and then he was taken in an Israeli ambulance to an unknown Israeli location. A number of settlers did not let the ambulance pass and gave out candy. The excuse of a 'stabbing attack' is present at every execution the occupation soldiers are carrying out at the various checkpoints, and is presented on a 'platter of blood' immediately after they take out their targets. As with the execution of Al-Qawasmeh (i.e., terrorist who stabbed one) on Al-Shahada Street... by an extreme settler, the occupation soldiers are quick to find an excuse: One of the soldiers gave another soldier a knife, so that he would put it by the Martyr's body. This was documented and exposed in the video of 'the young people against the settlements.'"

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 18, 2015]

 

Fadl Al-Qawasmeh - 18-year-old Palestinian terrorist who tried to stab an Israeli citizen in the town of Kiryat Arba in the West Bank, on Oct. 17, 2015. The Israeli man shot and wounded Al-Qawasmeh, who later died of his wounds. 

 

Mutaz Awisat - 16-year-old Israeli Arab terrorist who drew a knife when he was stopped by Israeli soldiers who wanted to search him in Jerusalem on Oct. 17, 2015. Awisat was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers.

 

Tareq Al-Natsheh - 16-year-old Palestinian terrorist who stabbed an Israeli soldier in Hebron on Oct. 17, 2015. After the attack, he was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers.

 

Omar Muhammad Al-Faqih - 23-year-old Palestinian terrorist who stabbed a border policeman at the Qalandiya checkpoint on Oct. 17, 2015. Al-Faqih was shot in his lower body by another border policeman. Al-Faqih then tried to stab a sapper with scissors he took from him, and was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier.

 

Iyad Khalil Al-Awawdeh - 26-year-old Palestinian terrorist who stabbed an Israeli soldier near the entrance to Hebron on Oct. 16, 2015. He was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier.

 

Bayan Ayman Al-Esseili - 16-year-old female Palestinian terrorist who stabbed an Israeli soldier in Hebron, near the Cave of the Patriarchs on Oct. 17, 2015. The soldier shot and killed Al-Esseili.

Official PA TV broadcast from a press conference organized by PLO Executive Committee member and Fatah Central Committee member Saeb Erekat 

PLO Executive Committee member and Fatah Central Committee member Saeb Erekat: “A woman from Jericho, Israa Ja’abis, who has an 11-year-old son and travels to Jerusalem daily. Her car had an electrical fault and the airbags inflated, and [the Israeli forces] immediately fired at her. They [Israel] immediately said it was a suicide attack. The same happened with Fadi Alloun.”

[Official PA TV, Oct. 13, 2015]

 

Israa Ja’abis - 31-year-old Palestinian terrorist, resident of East Jerusalem, who carried out a car bomb attack near Ma’ale Adumim, a few kilometers east of Jerusalem, on Oct.11, 2015. A policeman who noticed a suspicious vehicle signaled the driver to stop, after which she drove closer to a group of police officers and detonated a gas balloon. One policeman suffered light injuries and Ja’abis was seriously injured.

 

Headline: “Objection to stabbing stories”

Op-ed by Hafez Al-Barghouti, regular columnist for the official PA daily

“It seems to me that every Israeli settler, policeman, or soldier has received the authority to kill and shoot every Palestinian in order to kill, regardless of his age, looks, way of walking, or clothing. This is because ambiguity surrounds the stabbings which Israel is announcing, since there are witnesses that contradict the Israeli versions. Likewise, we haven’t seen any injured Israeli, only the body of a young Palestinian by the Lions’ Gate on the ground, nothing on him, next to a young woman lying on the ground, and there is also a boy who has died as a Martyr (i.e., terrorist who stabbed 2) under unclear circumstances is the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement. It is easy for a settler to shoot any Palestinian, as happened yesterday at the Jabara checkpoint near Tulkarem, it is easy for a border policeman to throw a knife near the body of a young person after his cold-blooded murder and to claim a student was making a stabbing attempt, while we see her stained with blood, but we do not see who was stabbed. Likewise, it is easy to claim a woman with a child has a bomb after the steering wheel air cushion opens, and it has even reached the point where a citizen from Umm Al-Fahm is accused of intentionally running [someone] over, and is attacked and suffers harassment...

The occupation - which have allowed the settlers to invade the Al-Aqsa Mosque at all times, and which is at the moment exacerbating its mistake and allowing the spilling of blood, such that every Israeli will turn into a murderer who can kill any Palestinian, claiming he tried to stab [him] - is responsible for the situation we have reached. This is so as most of the Israeli versions of stabbings are false and forged, and we can appeal the stabbing stories, since the Israeli government is exaggerating with lies and fabrications. I can only say to us: ‘Do not throw your children into the battle.’”

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 13, 2015]

 

Marah Al-Bakri - 16-year-old female Palestinian terrorist who stabbed an Israeli border policeman at a light rail station in Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem on Oct. 12, 2015. She was shot and wounded by the policeman.

 

Alaa Zayoud - Israeli Arab terrorist from Umm Al-Fahm who on Oct. 11, 2015, near Hadera, deliberately ran over and seriously wounded a 19-year-old Israeli and stabbed and wounded her, as well as a 19-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man. The terrorist was handed over to the Israeli security forces for interrogation.

Who's Right, Me or My Cantor?

by Philologos 

My cantor told me the plural for yad, the Hebrew word for Torah pointer, is yadot. I think it’s yadayim. Who’s right? 

A torah and yad in the museum of the Włodawa Synagogue in Warsaw, Poland. Wikipedia.

Got a question for Philologos? Ask him directly at philologos@mosaicmagazine.com.

Ruth Fath writes from Princeton, New Jersey:

Recently, after my husband’s death, I donated to our local Jewish Center a very old Torah scroll that we had bought many years ago. With it, I also gave the Center two yadayim, as I thought they were called. When I mentioned them to our cantor and Torah reader, however, she corrected me and said they should be called yadot. Others have told me I was right and she was wrong. What is the correct plural form of yad when referring to the pointer used in reading the Torah?A Torah pointer, held by the reader to keep track of his or her place in the parchment scroll of the Pentateuch, is called a yad, Hebrew for “hand,” because it traditionally takes the form of an arm with a hand, its fingers curled in a fist except for a pointing forefinger. And the regular Hebrew plural for yad is indeed yadayim, –ayim being a special dual ending for items that come in pairs. (The standard plural ending in Hebrew is either –im or –ot.) In pre-biblical times, presumably, such an ending was used, as it still is in the dual ending of –eyn in Hebrew’s fellow Semitic language of Arabic, for two of anything, whether houses, goats, or watermelons. But this feature had already vanished from the Hebrew of the Bible, in which the dual plural is restricted to a fixed and not very large number of words and cannot be freely applied.

Although this is the situation in contemporary Hebrew, too, many of the words that do take the dual plural are common, everyday ones. The largest group of them pertains to body parts, as in ozen, ear, plural oznayim; katef, shoulder, plural k’tefayim; berekh, knee, plural birkayim; and so forth. Others categories pertain to numbers (me’ah, hundred, ma’tayim, two hundred; pa’am, once, pa’amayim, twice); units of time (sha’ah, hour, sha’atayim, two hours; yom, day, yomayim,“two days); and coupled objects (kav, crutch, kabayim, crutches; m’tsilah, gong, m’tsiltayim, cymbals). Some anomalous dual plurals—like shamayim, sky, mayim, water, and tsohorayim, noon—have no singular form and function in both capacities like the English fish and deer. And while, for the most part, the dual ending has ceased to be productive in Hebrew, new words have occasionally continued to be coined with the help of it even in modern times, such as ofanayim, bicycle, from ofan, wheel, and n’kudotayim, colon (the punctuation mark), from n’kudah, point.

Yet the Princeton Jewish Center’s cantor is right. Torah pointers in Hebrew are yadot, not yadayim. The reason for this is not difficult to discern. Unlike hands, Torah pointers do not come in pairs, so that a dual ending for them would not be logical. Indeed, this is the rule for all body-part duals having other, secondary meanings. Safah, for instance is the Hebrew word for lip, in which sense it takes the plural s’fatayim; but it also means language (compare the similar double meaning of English “tongue”), and when it does, its plural is safot. Or take kaf, palm (of the hand), whose plural is kapayim. It also, though, denotes a spoon (the physical resemblance is obvious), and spoons are kapot. 

Still another example is one with which some of you may be more familiar. Regel in Hebrew (dual plural raglayim) means leg or foot, but when it takes a non-dual plural in the phrase shalosh ha-regalim, “the three regalim,” it refers to the three holidays of Sukkot, Pesaḥ, and Shavuot on which Jews made the pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. (The expression comes from the Hebrew words for pilgrimage and pilgrim, aliyah l’regel and oleh regel, which might be translated as “an ascent on foot” and “an ascender on foot,” although not all scholars would agree with this.)

In a word: one hand is the same as one Torah pointer, but many Torah pointers are different from many hands. That’s the long and short of it.

***

I can’t resist sharing with you the following letter, sent in response to my remarks two weeks ago about the Hebrew/Yiddish drinking chant eleh toldoys noyakh. It comes from David Goldenberg, who writes:

Your last column on bilingual or even trilingual rhymed couplets reminded me of an incident from my youth. In the old-fashioned school I went to, we were taught Bible, starting with the story of Creation, by declaiming first the Hebrew and then its Yiddish translation in a typical sing-song chant, e.g.: “Breyshis, in onfang [in the beginning], boro eloykim, hot got beshafn [God created], es ha-shomayim, di himl [heaven] . . .”

When I was still in elementary school, I landed my first job, which was tutoring a young boy just starting out in school who had difficulty in learning his Bible. By this time, bilingual ḥumesh-taytsh [Yiddish-Hebrew Bible translation] had transmuted into trilingual Hebrew-Yiddish-English, so that the boy had to learn: “Breyshis, in onfang, in the beginning, boro eloykim, hot got geshafn, God created,” etc. In one lesson, we came to the verse “Vayaker Yehuda, un Yehuda hot derkent, and Judah recognized.” No matter how many times we went over it, the boy couldn’t remember the Yiddish word derkent. Finally, having met the boy’s father, I tried a mnemonic device and said: “Your father smokes cigarettes. What brand does he smoke?” A light went on in my pupil’s mind. “I get it” he exclaimed. “He smokes Kent!” And this time, asked by me to repeat the verse once again, he chanted: “Vayaker Yehuda, un Yehuda hot derkent, and Judah smoked.”

Got a question for Philologos? Ask him directly at philologos@mosaicmagazine.com.