Today marks the 22nd anniversary of just one of the innumerable tragic events in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is worth revisiting because it typifies the racism, cruelty, injustice, even insanity of the Occupation. A succession of New York Times articles captures the chronology of events and just as importantly, how those events were revealed and discussed by the newspaper of record.
The incident occurred on April 6, 1988 in and around the West Bank village of Beita. The intifada had begun several months earlier, and the death toll stood at122 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military, which had lost a single soldier. In addition to the Palestinian fatalities, there had been untold numbers of arrests, routine torture of detainees, and broken bones deliberately inflicted by IDF troops pursuant to the openly-stated policy of the Defense Minister, the future Nobel peacemaker Yitzhak Rabin.
What landed this incident on front page of the Times was the fact that Israel had lost its first civilian, a teenage girl named Tirza Porat. In an article entitled “Israeli Girl Killed by Rocks in Melee,” John Kifner reported that Tirza had been “stoned to death by Palestinian villagers” while hiking with friends on a “holiday outing.” The body of the article revealed that two Palestinians also had been killed, but the headline left no doubt as to whose life was of more significance.
The Israeli hikers reported that their group of 18, two of whom were armed guards, had been confronted outside Beita by Palestinian youths throwing stones, and that “pandemonium broke out . . when a woman rushed out and slammed a big rock down on the head of one of the Israeli guards.” Military officials stated that Tirza’s “skull was crushed by repeated blows, apparently from stones.” According to Gen. Amram Mitzna, commander of the West Bank: ''Many stones were thrown at the children, who were also beaten. As a result, the girl was killed and two or three of the teen-age hikers were seriously injured.”
Israel, which had administered so much suffering to quell an uprising against a 21-year-old occupation, now found itself “victimized” by a tiny fraction of that suffering, and the reaction was immediate and extreme. Religious Affairs Minister Zevulun Hammer chimed in with the presumably religious viewpoint, calling on the army to ''cut off the arms of these wild men and smash the skull of the viper of death.''
The following day, Tirza’s funeral became a public spectacle. Her fellow settlers called for “revenge” and expulsion of the Arabs. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir brought lighter fluid, telling the mourners, “The heart of the entire nation is boiling” and “God will avenge her blood.” A “rabbi” added that the village of Beita ''should be wiped off the face of the earth.'' Minister of Justice Avraham Sharir recommended that dozens of houses be demolished and hundreds expelled upon mere suspicion of responsibility.
Israel began to dispense such justice immediately. A third Palestinian youth from Beita was killed, this time by the IDF, which explained that the boy was trying to flee, presumably from the armed soldiers who were pursuing and firing at him. The army also demolished several houses in the village.
However, the same day as the funeral, the hikers’ story began to unravel, when a bullet from an Israeli guard's rifle was recovered from Tirza’s body. More information was available from the young Israeli hikers, who said that Israeli guards had fired some shots outside the village, and repeated that the trouble began when a woman hit one Israeli guard, a Meir Kahane follower named Roman Aldubi, with a rock. Aldubi had such a history of violence against Arabs, including shooting at them, that he had become the first Jewish citizen subject to the “emergency powers that are commonly used to control Palestinians,” according to the Times. One of the Israeli hikers confided to ABC News that the outing had a political message to the indigenous population: ''We have to show them that we are the owners of the country.''
The next day’s Times article confirmed that Tirza had indeed been killed by a stray bullet fired by Aldubi, the Israeli guard. It also turned out that the woman who hit Aldubi with the rock was the sister of the unarmed young farmer Aldubi already had slain. It was revealed that Aldubi had also shot and wounded another farmer in the stomach. The army’s response to these revelations was to demolish eight more houses in the village, bringing the total to 14.
According to the Israeli army commander, Aldubi used the young Israeli hikers as human shields. He told the children ''to form a belt, a barrier around him so that no one will reach him'' and then he began shooting, killing one Palestinian and wounding another. In the melee that followed, some of the Palestinian villagers protected the Israeli youngsters from the angry mob. They disarmed the Israeli guards, but instead of using the weapons themselves, they tried to destroy them.
On April 10, four days after the incident, and after the most critical facts already were known, a Times editorial expressed uncertainty over whether Tirza had been “killed by Palestinian-hurled stones or by a bullet from the gun of an Israeli protector.” Its own reporter already had confirmed the latter. The editorial knew where to lay the blame: “both sides are accountable,” although considerably more attention was devoted to attacking the Arab side.
The following day, when responsibility for the event was quite clear, Trade Minister Ariel Sharon proposed that the entire village of Beita be evacuated and “all its houses blown up, and that more settlements be built.” Israel then expelled 12 Palestinians, including six from Beita, to southern Lebanon, and uprooted hundreds of almond and olive trees as collective punishment, teaching the villagers of Beita not to become victims of settler violence.
About one week after the incident, Prime Minister Shamir gave a speech in which he refused to accept his own military’s admission that Tirza had been killed by an Israeli bullet rather than Palestinian stoning: ''Even today, when we dwell in our own land, 'evil-hearted and unfeeling people shoot poison arrows at our youngsters as they wander the countryside, turning it into a valley of death.''
When the dust settled, and the initial fevered emotions returned to normal, the Israeli authorities punished the guilty party. No, not Aldubi. The killer of three was judged to have suffered enough, and he was not prosecuted. But a prison sentence was handed down against the pregnant sister of the first Palestinian Aldubi killed, for hitting him in the head with a rock.
So let’s sum this all up. A group of illegal Israeli settlers take a deliberately provocative hike to an Arab village to show them who’s boss. They allow an Israeli racist hothead with a violent history to be an armed guard, and he predictably murders two Palestinians and shoots two others, and accidentally kills an Israeli girl. The Times blames both sides equally. The Israeli army kills a third Palestinian youth for “running away” and destroys 14 homes, most if not all of them after learning who was responsible for killing the Israeli. The killer of three is allowed to walk free, while the pregnant sister of one of the Palestinian victims goes to prison, and six men from the village are expelled from the country.
No less significant than these events was a follow-up article in the Times by Joel Brinkley appearing four months later about the seething villagers of Beita. In a bizarre effort to conform to the Times’ even-handed policy, Brinkley reduced the Palestinian death toll to a single fatality rather than three, neatly counterbalanced by the single Israeli death. For good measure, Brinkley added that by the time it became clear that Tirza had been shot by a fellow settler rather than stoned to death, “Israel had already taken vengeance,” blowing up 14 homes and deporting six residents to Lebanon.
Since his own paper’s articles had accurately reported both the death toll and the fact that Israel exacted this retribution even after learning the truth about Tirza’s death, it is hard to believe Brinkley’s errors were accidental. He simply rewrote history to make it more palatable to his own sensibilities. This is the type of reporting that landed Brinkley a professorship at Stanford after a 23-year career with the Times..
For more than two decades before this incident, and two more since, this is what the Occupation has meant to millions of Palestinians. They have had to endure the obscenity of a military dictatorship imposed by a foreign power with a flagrantly racist ideology that views them as sub-human for daring to be born on land coveted by another people. When they rebel, even when they’re victimized by Israeli hostility, they’re judged guilty of insubordination and subject to extreme collective punishment.
If anything, matters have gotten worse over the past 22 years. They will continue to get worse as long as one “people” insist on their right to absolute rule over another.
Upon the most recent April Fool’s Day:
April 1, 2010 Armed Israeli settlers. Armed Israel settlers have invaded Palestinian-owned buildings and lands designated by the Palestinian Authority for the construction of the first centrally-planned Palestinian town called Rawabi.
Around 60 settlers associated with the group “Youth for the Land of Israel” attempted to take over the area hanging Israeli flags on the buildings. They also conducted prayers there.
The incident occurred on Wednesday, near the central West Bank town of Bir Zeit.
Meir Bertler, one of the settlers involved in the invasion, told the Israeli paper Yedioth Ahranoth, “We want to create a Jewish territorial sequence from Ofra to Ateret, and we know that the Palestinians plan to create a similar building sequence.”
Although the Oslo Accord — signed on September 13, 1993 between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington— forbade expansion of illegal settlements, Israel has built hundreds of such settlements and is still building them on occupied Palestinian lands in the West Bank and Jerusalem al-Quds.
Over 500,000 Israelis are currently living in settlements labeled illegal by the United Nations and the Fourth Geneva Convention of August 12, 1949.
(From PressTV)
PressTV, the Iranian equivalent of Fox News. Well not really, Fox isn’t run by the Revolutionary Guard.
You being the expert on Fox News. How’s that search for WMDs coming along, yonira?
thank you David Samel…..
Nice capture of typical media “balance” in this subject area, worthy of repeating:
“A group of illegal Israeli settlers take a deliberately provocative hike to an Arab village to show them who’s boss. They allow an Israeli racist hothead with a violent history to be an armed guard, and he predictably murders two Palestinians and shoots two others, and accidentally kills an Israeli girl. The Times blames both sides equally. The Israeli army kills a third Palestinian youth for “running away” and destroys 14 homes, most if not all of them after learning who was responsible for killing the Israeli. The killer of three is allowed to walk free, while the pregnant sister of one of the Palestinian victims goes to prison, and six men from the village are expelled from the country.
No less significant than these events was a follow-up article in the Times by Joel Brinkley appearing four months later about the seething villagers of Beita. In a bizarre effort to conform to the Times’ even-handed policy, Brinkley reduced the Palestinian death toll to a single fatality rather than three, neatly counterbalanced by the single Israeli death. For good measure, Brinkley added that by the time it became clear that Tirza had been shot by a fellow settler rather than stoned to death, “Israel had already taken vengeance,” blowing up 14 homes and deporting six residents to Lebanon.”
Always the same thing – Baruch Goldstein lets loose with an Uzi in Hebron, the Israelis give Hebron to the settlers who set up a Goldstein shrine there.
I hope Michael Chabon can write another piece about the Holocaust never occurring and what would present day scenario look like. Kind of like the Yiddish Policemen’s Union. Where would all of the Diaspora be today? Integrated into Europe?
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Thanks, David Samel, for a powerful article. This is exactly the kind of presentation that will show open-minded people how we have been misled over the years.
absolutely. Room full of mirrors: “the Arab” we are supposed to accept is Israel’s evil self. Projection.
“the Arabs want to push us into the sea”, “Arabs always lie”, …
dito Annie, wonderful David, strictly nothing to add.
This was a horrible story at the time and remains horrible as (very well) retold here. “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Immunity and impunity corrupt absolutely. and there’s nothing like “giving yourself permission” to do ill. We’ll show them who owns this country, indeed! Whoever told those kids that should be taken out and shot. Stuff reminiscent of this story happened in Israel-proper in its early days when the Israeli Arabs lived under military supervision. Israelis seem to need to prove to themselves that they can mistreat someone else. Where were/are the voices of restraint? There? Here?
The USA has shown itself no slouch in this sort of thing. We must be perpetually on guard against human nature.
Clearly, the Palestinians “hate Israel’s freedoms”. If only they would pause and think of “the other” before acting upon their hatred… :-\
I feel sick after reading this story.
Dismantlement of Israel is the only just solution.
is it a just solution for the 4th and 5th generation Israelis who are native born and know nothing else?
that is some warped justice taxi
yonira yearns for justice for the 4th and 5th generations of Israelis but rejects justice for the 4th and 5th generations of Palestinians still stateless in refugee camps.
yonira is irony-blind
potsherd, the only just solution for both sides is a two state solution.
the only just solution for both sides is a two state solution.
————————
I wouldn’t call it just. Giving me back a quarter of my robbed wallet contents is not just. Better than nothing maybe but not just..
Because you don’t think Jews can live among the “common people” yonira?
What’s just is not feasible and what’s feasible is not just..
I agree atheist,
To your credit yoni..
I’ve brought her up before, but my native girlfriend has brought a whole different perspective to things. I understand there can never be complete justice for the Palestinians, just like there can never be complete justice for her people. But giving the Palestinians their own state would at least bring some dignity back to their people. Once a real peace can be realized then I’d be down for a bi-national state. But its not something that is feasible right out of the blocks, there would need to be an integration process over the course of a few generations.
your comment did nail it right on the head though atheist, to your credit also :)
One bi national state (which ever way it comes to being, gradually or in one go ) would be great of course ! Peace, if not justice, at last but the idea that those ” fresh off the boat” settlers still making it in overwhelming numbers, radically and irreversibly transforming the landscape and tightening, legally this time, the noose ever more, is still a cause of concern. Living together, wonderful, but why with those of all people? It really feels like the land is used as a dump by the Israelis who wouldn’t want to live with them. Something here doesn’t feel right but..what the heck!
“I’ve brought her up before, but my native girlfriend has brought a whole different perspective to things. I understand there can never be complete justice for the Palestinians, just like there can never be complete justice for her people.”
That’s the saddest ans sickest thing I ever heard, Yoni. And of course, you insisting she convert to Judaism and have your Jewish children will just about make up for the crimes against Native Americans, huh.
Man, you are a real piece of work.
“is it a just solution for the 4th and 5th generation Israelis who are native born and know nothing else?”
My God, what a crime we committed by de-Nazifying Germany after WW2! After all, some of the kids knew nothing else.
And if they ran out of Jews to kill, because they “knew nothing else” maybe we should have supplied them.
Of course, does it even compare with dismantling white South Africa? They had four or five generations who knew nothing else, right down to the books of skin-color swatches.
Oh gee, this changes things! Now I see it really was the War of Northern Agression! I mean, it was four or five generations, and those native white Southroners “knew nothing else”.
And I can really see the injustice of those awful laws in America which incarcerate habitual or repeat criminal for long periods. I mean, they know nothing else, and some criminals are simply passing down family traditions.
I wonder if that’s in the Talmud, the principle that the longer an evil system prevails, the more right it becomes.
“I understand there can never be complete justice for the Palestinians, just like there can never be complete justice for her people.”
So since the Native Americans can’t get, at this late date, the Palestinians shouldn’t get it either?
I got a little secret for you Yoni, this isn’t the 19th Century, this isn’t people with repeating arms against spears and bows and arrows. People here are just as interested in trying to save the Israelis, who you admit “know nothing else” from their own leaders and themselves as they are in justice for the Palestinians.
Or are you gonna be happy to see all those settlers, and their children who “know nothing else” be hung out to dry. Oh, it would probably delite you, cause even if you lose No.1 “Israel Rocks” I think No.2 “Arabs Suck” is even more important to you.
After all, you aren’t there.
Arabs have no right to defend themselves against Jews. It is a crime.
An “armed gaurd” who doesn’t wear a helmet? In a situation where rocks are thrown?
Even my most Orthodox relatives never made human sacrifices. I hope the girl’s parents are comforted by the propaganda value of their daughter’s death.
Sorry, I assumed the article was accurate, in describing the manner of her death. My fault.
My heart goes out to the all the Jews sacrificed in the cause of Middle Eastern real estate.
Israel needs to cut a peace deal tout suite because stories like this have extraordinary resonance and completely shift the perceived equities in the Middle East. As with the Iraq war, I am beyond angry that I was lied to for so long. It won’t be long before the entire country feels as I do and there will be hell to pay for those who continue to lie.
But telling these stories serves to “delegitimatize” Israel! It’s antisemitic!
dalybean, why has the War on Iraq gone on for oh, what is it, seven years now?
The more confident a bully is of his victory, the more dangerous and powerful he portrays his opponent as. Now look what you’ve done! You got me so famischt I broke my syntax!
Unfortunately, expulsion was used extensively during the 1980s. In incident after incident, I vividly remember news coverage scenes of hundreds of Palestinians being transported on trucks to southern Lebanon – then under Israeli occupation – and dumped across the border. One such incident remains etched in my memory when on a foggy, gray, wet and cold winter morning, hundreds of Palestinians found themselves on a rocky mountain side, in the wilderness, with nothing but a shirt and a light jacket on their back. They walked around the mountainside not knowing what to do or where to go.
Hours later the Red Cross showed up, set up tents and provided some blankets. The foreign news media spent a few hours there, but the number of reporters soon dwindled and the Palestinians turned refugees overnight faded away from the public eye.
Yeah, but wondering jew doesn’t believe that ever happened, so I guess that makes you rabid, Avi.
Seriously, why do people give that guy even a shred of respect? He’s no different than yonira, Witty or Julian.
your obsession w/ the ‘opposition’ on mondolies isn’t healthy Chaos. Isn’t it sad there are only 4 of us, you guys have driven away everyone else…..
Why should you be tolerated here, yonira, when you so blatantly disrespect the site? Why should Phil pay money to give you a platform to call him a liar?
“mondolies”
Yoni
—————-
Just as a concealed truth is revealed ! The irony!
What’s sad is that you guys don’t have a genius level IQ between the four of you. Cumulatively, even.
“Isn’t it sad there are only 4 of us, you guys have driven away everyone else…..”
Nobody owes you jack shit, asshole. Can I make it any plainer? You don’t like it, complain to Foxman.
Yeah, yeah, I know, nobody lets you zionuts get a word in edgewise. Everyone is suppressing your side of the story.
One thing about being married to you, Yoni, your little helpmeet will never lack for fine whines.
Even if she will find pretty much everything else wanting, I expect.
same type of thing when the idf had created a weapon at the time that shot around the cornner, which was used on the mohammed boy whom was trying to be sheilded by his dad./ The report stated it had to be the palestinins who shot him how could a bullet travel around a cornner?
Just last year the cable tv military channel had the episode which put the cat out of the bag showing the inventor and doing a piece on that weapon. The ICC should prosecute unless there is a law against time period to, which just as all the thousands of crimes against humanity with u.s. taxes and money & help from the whole of the political scheme, there should be equal blame to the u.s. administration to have charges brought up, not to mention sanctions,. And if it does not work, we can take a play out the idf book and start targeted assasinations of political officials just as the idf does. While we are doing that the media can be jailed for spreading false propaganda for the bunches of political people tied in the media. ………..which are dumbing down the common sense of everyone whom get fed the lies by the media. There is not anything that surprises me anymore, and obviously the world will have to wait for the nuclear holocaust till we are through with the scurges which walk the earth and praise a non exsistant creatot because of some mumbo jumbo which has been used to control the masses etc. So where is the real proof that god gave it to them, let him come down and state his claim..and if not ,… GTF out of Palesxtine and the usa and GTF back to eastern europe…”this is not a potty contest” and the idf and suporters have no idea what they do to themselves….and for what, a lie in a book of fables no truer than mother goose.
We may forgive the slaughter of our people …We will NEVER forgive the lies.
The Beita “incident” is just a drop in the ocean of cover-ups, concealed truths and lies. The state of Israel is based, founded and erected on a mountain of shameful lies. This state IS a masterpiece of engineered LIES…
Don’t despair , yonira! I have been cheering you on from the sidelines! Hang in there, you are doing just fine. Keep swatting those pesky babies away ( Chaos, Cliff, Avi, Parisian). I am rooting for Witty too!What a trooper!
I have finally beem compelled to register after reading Taxi ‘s hateful rants on the FP site. Just wanted to tell him the following : what a bunch of crap, you post, Taxi !
You have no fucking clue! You know nothing besides hating which you excel at. Get some help and take along Citizen, Radii, Shingo, and Chu. Don’t forget Psychopathic. The less said about him, the better.
Ah, now, I feel better. Back to reading Mondolies as you put it. The Infotainment value of this site is priceless.
That said I do appreciate certains posters, even though I don’t agree with their politics. Too bad I have to hold my nose and wade through all that caca to read their posts.
Lehitraot!
Ruth: What an entry. Nice intro… too much red wine and you just couldn’t take it any more? -nice way to show you plumage, dear.
But I am so glad you’re compelled to register. Another closet zionist came out of the shadows to represent the cause.
Witty must be down in the dumps lately since project Israel is losing its luster. But after you’re small hate-binge intro, we’ll see what you have in store for this site…
And, best of luck convincing the readers of this site, to the benefits of zionism.
I am all ears for you, sweety-pie.
Ruth
The last thing this site needs is the usual basic, crude and rude zionist commentators a la YNet, Sheva Arutz and most of Haaretz’ trail of trash.. If you’re going to stick to the same mantras of despicable forgeries and misrepresentations of the truth which seems to be the bread and butter of this overwhelming majority than I’ll predict for you a hell of a time over here and that would be only justice. But if you feel you can contribute and push for your cause, preferably in a factual, substantiated and civil way then I personally have no reason to think you should be treated differently from any body else..
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