The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists is a UN-recognized pro-Israel advocacy group. It so happened that on June 24, 2014, 12 days after the abduction and murder of Gilad Sha’ar, 16, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19, and one week before their bodies were discovered, the UN Human Rights Commission was conducting a hearing focusing on human rights in the Occupied Territories.
The UN should not be looking at Israel’s Occupation at a time like this, argued AJLJ. They provided the following statement:
“Today’s general debate is dedicated to the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Golan Heights. However, it is impossible to focus on such issues in light of recent events. The kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers by Palestinian terrorists and the killing of a 13 year old Israeli boy by a guided missile fired by Syrian forces, fired across the border. Kidnapping and hostage taking, and the targeting of unarmed civilians are all international crimes. Apart from the legal aspects of these acts, the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists is disappointed by the inaction and apathy of the international community.”
In an apparent effort to shame the world community away from considering the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the AJLJ brought to Geneva the three mothers of the teens kidnapped on the West Bank to share their pain. It was not a friendly forum in Geneva. Rachel Fraenkel, who has become the spokesperson for the mothers, was less confident, less impressive here than in interviews we have seen with her since. The young lawyer representative of the Association was also ill at ease. She spoke too fast. She tripped over her scolding words. She projected anger at the world community: How dare they question Israel’s human rights record when it’s so clear that Israel is the victim here. The emotion was heartfelt.
There is, however, a gulf of difference between the emotion expressed by Rachel Fraenkel, and the emotion expressed by AJLJ in its role as defense lawyer for Israel’s occupation. The mothers’ loss is real, deep, universal and deserves our sympathy. Their sons, cruelly cut down, were bright young students, full of life and joy. It matters not that their Yeshiva is on occupied land. It matters not that we may disagree with the mothers’ world view. They deserve, and the world needs, that we offer them our immediate and unconditional comfort and love. But the occupation doesn’t get to ride the coattails of this sympathy.
As Amjad Iraqi points out in his article “Our Problem with Selective Sympathy for Young Victims”, apathy towards “the other” child’s suffering is painful to watch. It’s painful when we watch Netanyahu objectify Palestinians as “wild beasts;” it’s painful when we observe it in Palestinians; and it should be painful if we catch it within ourselves.
Here’s Amjad Iraqi:
“In the two to three weeks following the abduction of the three Israeli boys, at least eight Palestinians were killed during Israel’s military responses in both Gaza and the West Bank. Among them were 10-year-old Ali al-Awour, 15-year-old Mohammad Dudeen and 22-year-old Mustafa Hosni Aslan. Ali died of wounds from an Israeli missile strike in northern Gaza; Mohammad was killed by a single live bullet in the village of Dura; Mustafa was killed by live bullets in Qalandiya refugee camp during clashes with an Israeli military raid.
I write the names of those three Palestinian boys not to belittle the horrific deaths of the three Israeli boys. I write their names because, while everyone will remember Gilad, Naftali and Eyal, no one will remember Ali, Mohammad or Mustafa. In the coming days, Israeli and international media will be filled with stories of the Israeli boys’ upbringings, the cries of their loved ones, and the fiery promises of political leaders. The same will not be done for the latter; their existence will merely be recorded by a digit in a casualty data collection, nameless and faceless additions to a chart or a graph. Their killers will never be named or brought to trial.
Even if many of the thousands who attended the funeral may not return the favor, and the occupation continues its collective punishment, our sympathy for victims must cut across partisan lines.
The occupation and those who carry it out, by contrast, don’t deserve protection or sympathy any more than the kidnappers themselves. It’s not “impossible” to focus on human rights violations “because of recent events” as the ALJC spokeswoman argued. To the contrary, it’s more important than ever to do so. And yes, it is perfectly appropriate for AJLJ to bring the mothers of Gilad, Naftali, and Eyal to testify. It’s part of the story. But only a small part. UNHRC should likewise bring to Geneva the mothers of Ali, Mohammad, and Mustafa. Hearing testimony from the victims of Israel’s collective punishment is not unseemly at a time like this.
Targeting of unarmed civilians with guided missiles is an international crime whether it comes from Syrian forces, Hamas, or Israeli soldiers, tanks, and F-16’s. Killing of unarmed civilians is an international crime whether it is done by Amur Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme, or by an IDF sniper. AJLJ has it exactly backwards: by conducting hearings on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the world community is not engaged in “inaction and apathy:” it’s the only way the world can engage and show its concern.
The world’s sympathy cannot be limited to Israeli victims
I agree, but surfing in the internet you can realize that the world sympathy limited to Palestinian victims although the main victims of this conflict for more than a century are the Zionists (and sometime, Jews because they are Jews). Your web site is only one example, there are many more. It is about the time that you start realize and recognize that we are also victims.
Sympathy and compassion should not be forced out of the world, it should be a natural reaction to murders, kidnappings, over excessive violence, and collective punishment against all, instead of finding the killers and bringing them to justice in a civilized way. The world is wary, and sick of Israel’s devious ways. It knows it’s brutality, and most international and humanitarian agencies, have recorded facts, data, and even video, of Israel’s brutal troops committing war crimes. All the oye veys, and woe is us, whining cannot erase that. Israel is known to provoke, use deadly weapons, and when they get rockets in response, they are notorious for acting the victims, while showing convenient amnesia for their crimes.
These unfortunate kidnappings are a perfect example. Do they admit, or talk about the Nakba killings, when 2 unarmed kids were brutally gunned down by IDF thugs? No.
But oy vey, how they go on about their loss. If Israel is expecting sympathy, and disappointed by the lack of it by the rest of the world (not Obama, his administration, David Cameron, and the other “Israel does no wrong” crowd” of course) it should take that as a strong message.
Despite being able to control the narrative, and make the Palestinians always look like the aggressors, the world sees through Israel’s devious games, and is sick of it.
It is almost comical that Israel has to twist arms to elicit any sympathy!
Here is a cartoon in the Guardian UK by Steve Bell, showing exactly how the world now sees Israel, and it’s attitude towards Palestinian deaths versus Israeli deaths.:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cartoon/2014/jul/02/israel-three-teenagers-found-dead
I just want to say that this piece and the one by Amjad Iraqi are exactly on target. In a way, I don’t want to overpraise them, because it’s just common decency. But one never reads anything this sensible in the US press, because common decency is several standard deviations to the right of what’s normal there.
People at MW, asst. anti-Zionists and so on are the ones that have been screeching about Israel ‘trumping up’ circumstances and supposedly ‘aggravating the ‘situation’ by living in the WB in the first place and now-that the 3 boys turned up dead-its the same folks who are screaming about “not treating this as a special case”.
What folks here are saying is that these three kids, by virtue of living where they live and by virtue of the fact they are Jewish incited Palestinian rage and indifference becuase after all:
its morally equivalent that other Palestinian teens choose to ‘resist’ the occupation by slinging shot, stones boulders and grenades at Israeli soldiers (many nt much older then them) and draw fire with rubber bullets tear gas and supposedly ‘live fire’ which is not by any means conclusive yet until there is a report from ballistic forensics on how a rubber bullet penetrated so deeply and/or a live bullet survived multiple impact unscathed in the bottom of backpack. Also-while many here claim that is some kind of national ‘sport’ for IDF to kill Palestinians no motive can be established other then circumstantial for why any IDF would disobey and/or even worse scheme to shoot some kid who was not affiliated in any special way and was basically an ordinary kid.
So-while the IDK will continue to investigate the 2 deaths a few weeks back and will mete out punishment if/when a perp is found I really don;t expect even the collaborationist PA to help the IDF bring the kidnap/murderers to any type of trial. While many here think Israel will simply hunt these guys down and kill them here is the scenario I predict:
They are likely well hidden by their family/clan and will either be smuggled out which would open the door to the Mossad. Or, more likely one (or both) will cut a deal (meaning- Their family will demand huge -secret- payout from PA along with more visible stipends and such in exchange for the guys turnng themselves in and serving time in israeli jail with guarantees they move to front of line in prisoner exchange negotiations . So-what they couldn’t pull off with the actual crime they will get a 2nd chance to be exchanged for a future Israeli hostage. Either way-they come out as highly regarded by Palestinian society and as much as folks like to lie-Israeli prison is not as horrendous as all that. There is sat TV, college, prayer, sports and vo-tech. Plus-Israeli prisons are highly scrutinized by the vaunted Red Cross. Its only dumb gullible and naive American/Euro activists that believe Israeli prisons are like the ‘black hole’ off-grid CIA cells used for their fight with AQ.
This is somewhat random, and perhaps I’m being too sensitive:
Does anyone else find it biasing when reporters and commentators insist on using exaggerated pronunciations when saying Arab names for people and organizations. Andrea Mitchell goes so far as to say Abu Mazen instead of Mahmoud Abbas. Others reach into guttural vocal depths or tongue-flicking linguistic acrobatics to pronounce something as simple as ‘Fatah.’ They also rarely use English translations for the names of Arab organizations.
I suppose this is technically correct, but I rarely see the same journalist doing this with Israeli names or organizations. No one refers to the IDF as ‘Tzva Hahagana LeYisra’el.’ Most say Benjamin – not Binyamin – Netanyahu. Many use the even more informal ‘BiBi.’
Intentional or not, it makes Israeli culture seem more Western and familiar, and presents the Palestinians as the other.