In a radio debate with Israeli journalist Ben Caspit, writer Shany Littman says his call for a price to be exacted from Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian girl, in the dark without witnesses was a suggestion of sexual assault. Caspit says he merely called for her arrest and denies the Israeli occupation exists.

Before Ahed Tamimi slapped an Israeli soldier on her family’s occupied property on December 15, the soldier slapped her hand away from him. But no one is talking about that violent moment; and Israeli media are showing video of the incident that begins right after that moment, in an effort to describe the incident as one of provocation and restraint, not the usual violence, which in fact preceded and followed the video.

Prominent Israeli journalist Ben Caspit caused international furor last week, when he wrote of Ahed Tamimi, “in the case of the girls, we should exact a price at some other opportunity, in the dark, without witnesses and cameras”. Caspit has felt the heat in response to his insidious suggestions and is now in crisis control mode. In a new article Caspit trys to “clarify” in English but Jonathan Ofir says the attempt at spin control is futile and disingenuous: “Caspit, in his desperate attempt to backpedal, is providing an even more pathetic article, which suggests that its just the ‘goyim’ who didn’t understand Israeli jargon.”

There is no stomach which does not turn when seeing video of 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi slapping an Israeli soldier, journalist Ben Caspit writes. And therefore he recommends: “we should exact a price at some other opportunity, in the dark, without witnesses and cameras.” This is an incitement to crime.

The viral video of Ahed Tamimi fighting an Israeli soldier who was brutalizing a boy in the occupied Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh has prompted a backlash from Israel’s propagandists: the incident was staged by villagers as a “Pallywood” production. The charge is a cruel smear of people who did not ask to have their lands confiscated by illegal colonists.