The Times has a good piece on the killing of a 17-year-old last month by Indian security forces in Kashmir. The young man opposed Indian governance of the area and was shot with a tear-gas canister at close range. Many other demonstrators have been killed. Note the fairness shown to the Kashmiris’ point of view here. They are democratically-included in India, but many regard the security forces as an occupation.
The NYT never would have written this story in this way if it had happened in the West Bank rather than Kashmir. Where are the Indian government spokespeople to rebut the story or put it in question?
Palestinian Bassem Abu Rahme, killed by the Israelis in similar fashion last year, was not clearly described as a nonviolent protester by the Times, here, but linked with stone-throwing, per the Israeli narrative. He was shouting, not throwing stones, as was clear to anyone who watched the video. Now the AP reports that Israel will investigate Rahme’s death, at the insistence of B’Tselem.
And of course two Americans have been grievously injured by tear-gas canisters, Tristan Anderson and Emily Henochowicz, but the Times seems incapable of extending the same fairness to them that it does to the Kashmiris.
