The Israeli army, the New York Times and Ynet all said or suggested yesterday that the Israeli army was teargassing demonstrators, including Jawaher Abu Rahmah, 36, who was killed, because of demonstrator violence; and the outlets were all quickly discredited by people on the scene on twitter--and in this wrapup by Alex Kane. What follows are a series of tweets from yesterday's Bil'in demonstration from Israeli-Canadian journalist Lisa Goldman. Mixed in are some tweets from Alex Kane, Joseph Dana (ibnezra), Noam Sheizaf and Aarondover. (Go to Goldman's twitter feed to get a real feel for what the teargas experience was like.)
Bulleted tweets are Goldman's:
- First round of tear gas
- I fucking hate tear gas.
- @AmiKaufman I'm staying pretty far back today. Army's actng like a bunch of behemot.
- 8 year old kids gagging on year gas. What a disgrace.
- am 200 meters from the fence and still can't get away from the gas.
- Re @idfspokesperson 's tweets. Guys, don't you feel like shit when you lie like that? Seriously! Get someone to report from the scene.
Aarondover: I do admire your bravery Lisa. Jews gassing jews gives me the horn. Is that wrong? (@lisang)link to yfrog.com
Lisa Goldman: @aarondover I guess just gassing civilians - kids, old people - who are demonstrating for their civil rights, is wrong.
Wow, I hope you read that one. Here's Goldman again: Ynet reporter slurs non-violent movement. link to bit.ly
nsheizaf IFD spokesperson lies: tear gas was fired in Bil'in yesterday before protest came even close to the fence. I have seen it myself
Alex Kane: Disingenuous for @nytimes 2 report on stone throwing at Bil'in when @ibnezra reports that no such thing hppened ystrdy link to nyti.ms
[Here's an excerpt of the Times account by Isabel Kershner: "The Palestinians say the protests are meant to be nonviolent, but they inevitably end in clashes, with young Palestinians hurling stones and the Israeli security forces firing tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets."]
Goldman again: @alexbkane That's because NYT did not have a reporter on the scene.
ibnezra We must call this what it is: murder. The israeli army has murdered a nonviolent demonstrator in bilin
murder
I’d never actually seen the idfspokesperson twitter account. Sad. The account just posted some “photo evidence” of the violence at the “Bil’in Riot”
I’ve just checked for the EXIF data in those photos here …and there is none, it’s been stripped out. I guess the IDF Spokesperson learned their lesson after the Free Gaza Flotilla executions when they uploaded photos from 2008 claiming they were weapons found on the Mavi Marmara. It’s not conclusive proof the photos are from another demonstration but the IDF Spokesperson has a track record of lying, regularly. Note the IDF Spokesperson’s cynical equation: gassing arabs is OK because some allegedly threw stones. As has been linked to on other threads, especially around Hebron there are numerous images of graffiti by the settlers saying thing like “arabs to the gas chambers” and “gas the arabs”.
We know why the US MSM isn’t covering these protests live, but what about the international media (e.g., Reuters)?
NYT report is here
Wish the principal article had all the links talked about.
As to the facts: it is clearly a “he said she said” type of story, maybe stones were thrown, maybe they were thrown before the tear gassing.
HOWEVER: Why were the IOF there in the first place? No-one could throw stones at the IOF if they were not there. I suppose that merely throwing stones (at no-one) is not illegal, but who knows, Israel being Israel after all. Perhaps there were movies made?