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Michael Oren says Palestinian activists stage ‘kids in American clothes’ to provoke Israeli army

Last night, 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi, a well-known activist in occupied Nabi Saleh, was arrested by Israel in a night raid on her home. A short video of the long-haired young woman being taken away is being circulated around the ‘net today. Code Pink reports:

The whereabouts of where she is now being held are unknown. In the middle of the night, dozens of Israeli soldiers burst into the house in a night raid, taking Ahed into custody…

Her mother, Nariman Tamimi, was arrested the next day while trying to inquire at the Israeli police station about the whereabouts of her daughter.

Ahed is a high school student concentrating on general studies and preparing for college. She has received worldwide acclaim for her childhood activism

Last week, Mohammad Tamimi, 14, Ahed’s cousin, was shot in the face during a demonstration and left in a coma. Ahed is said to have responded to the shooting by slapping a soldier in this encounter with Israeli soldiers. The slapping incident was widely-circulated, and prompted calls in Israel for Ahed to be arrested, and evidently resulted in her arrest.

The case is sure to call more attention to Israel’s inhumane occupation and disgraceful and illegal treatment of children. Which is why–

Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador, tweeted today that the whole family is fake and the children are being dressed in American clothes, whatever that means, and paid to provoke the Israeli soldiers.

[The Tamimi family—which may not be a real family—dresses up kids in American clothes and pays them to provoke IDF troops on camera. This cynical and cruel use of children constitutes abuse. Human rights organizations must investigate!]

Nabi Saleh is a small village in occupied Palestine; the soldiers are there to keep the villagers from getting to their own lands, some of which have been given to a neighboring (Jews only) settlement/colony called Halamish. Halamish also has sole access to a spring the village called its own. This situation, and the courage of the Tamimi family, was the subject of a cover article in the New York Times Magazine by Ben Ehrenreich (and a book by him as well).

Michael Oren

Oren has a history of misrepresentation. Three years ago on CNN Michael Oren said that two teens Israeli snipers killed in the occupied West Bank during demonstrations weren’t really dead, though their killings were captured on video.

Oren: [Y]ou see two young people who were supposedly shot, one to the chest, one through the back but they both fall in the same way. They fall forward which is inconsistent with what we know about combat deaths….

Wolf Blitzer: But what I hear you suggesting, it’s possible you think that this whole thing was staged? Is that what you’re suggesting?

OREN: We don’t know. We don’t know.

Four years ago Oren published a memoir called Ally describing a synagogue bombing in West Orange, N.J., in 1971 when he was 15, as the work of anti-Semites that showed him America was unsafe for Jews. The story left out the key facts that the synagogue had backed out of hosting a speech by Meir Kahane, and news coverage at the time, as well as synagogue officials I later interviewed, tied the bombing to the appearance of the extremist.

It’s amazing that this guy still gets a platform.

H/t Sheren Khalel, James North and Jesse Rubin.

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“Palestinian activists stage Kids in American clothes to provoke the idf.”M Oren.

Gee , what if they dressed them in New York (America )Haredi Jewish clothes , complete with curls and unshaven gesichts , would the idf heroes be provoked.Or would the kids be shot for impersonating a Jewish person.

How dare these A-rabs dress like a non Arab.This is causing the idf to have to ponder for a few seconds before deciding to shoot to kill.

Your honour , the A-rab terrorist was dressed like an american and this is not allowed by Israeli law.

It’s nice to see Michael Oren whataboutistically concerned that a not-Israeli family may not be a family (“We don’t know. We don’t know.”) even as his “eternal homeland’s” Occupation and Oppression Forces continue to enforce the “Jewish State’s” military occupation and colonization of not-Israeli territory and multi-faceted brutalization of not-Israelis.

May not be a real family. Brown people don’t have relationshis or emotions.

WTF has become of Judaism?

Paying them to provoke Israeli soldiers implies that the victims are criminal. Oren reminds me of Theresienstadt, the Nazi PR effort

Oren needs to be more explicit and just say the Palestinians were disguised as humans. They have to resort to these extreme measures because they don’t actually have any arguments to make.