by Judith Bergman
In his book "Catch the Jew!" Tuvia Tenenbom becomes a witness to how these staged "protests" -- meant for the consumption of an international Western TV audience -- are produced.
Images of an Israeli
soldier reacting to a violent attack on himself by women and children
while trying to detain a boy in the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh
went viral and made it into the international mainstream news on
Saturday. Unsurprisingly, the general drift of the reporting was one of
"shock" and firmly blaming the entire incident on the Israel Defense
Forces and the soldier.
Then, however,
something unusual happened. One British media outlet placed a big
question mark over the authenticity of the entire incident.
"Questions have been
raised over the authenticity of shocking images of a boy with a broken
arm being held at gunpoint by an Israeli soldier after a 13-year-old
girl seen biting his attacker is said to be a prolific 'Pallywood
star,'" wrote the British newspaper Daily Mail Online. "The remarkable
images which surfaced online on Friday appeared to show an IDF soldier
armed with a machine gun grappling with the little boy as two women make
desperate attempts to pull him off following protests in the West Bank.
A young girl is seen ambushing the balaclava-clad soldier by forcing
the weapon from his hands and biting him before he flees the scene."
Then comes this highly extraordinary piece of reporting:
"But it is thought the
young girl in the photographs is Ahed Tamimi, whose parents Bassem and
Nariman -- also pictured -- are well-known Palestinian activists in
their village of Nabi Saleh. The teenager has appeared in a string of
similar videos where she challenges Israeli security forces and rose to
prominence after she was filmed confronting one who arrested her
brother, which resulted in her being presented with a bravery award. ...
Online blogs have dubbed her 'Shirley Temper' and accused her of being a
'Pallywood' star -- a term coined by author Richard Landes, describing
the alleged media manipulation by Palestinians to win public relations
war against Israel. ... Her father, Bassem al-Tamimi, was convicted by
an Israeli military court in 2011 for 'sending people to throw stones,
and holding a march without a permit' -- a charge his lawyers deny. He
has been jailed eight times, while his wife has been detained five
times. Other family members, including their son Waed, has also been
arrested. Bassem organizes weekly protests and it was reportedly at one
of these demonstrations that the shocking images are said to have been
taken."
Sadly, it is only
extraordinary because it happens to do the most basic thing in
journalism, namely question the alleged "facts" that one is presented
with, something that rarely happens, when it comes to mainstream media
reporting about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The false accusation
of the infamous "Jenin massacre" in April 2002 would never have caught
on in the way that it did, had the international media lived up to the
ethical standards of journalism that they supposedly set for themselves.
The BBC, in fact, played a substantial role in spreading this falsehood
by claiming repeatedly that it was a massacre. When this turned out to
be a falsehood, the BBC did nothing to acknowledge this fact. Falsehoods
once uttered and repeated ad nauseam tend to stick, whereas the truth
rarely does.
Even more sadly, this
kind of reporting only happened because readers, who saw the images as
they went viral on Daily Mail Online and elsewhere on the web,
accompanied by the usual anti-Israel "narrative" about Israeli soldiers,
inundated the Daily Mail with emails, as is clear from this post at the website Israellycool.
It is, however,
wonderful that activism for Israel worked and it should prove to
everyone -- once again -- that every single action, however small, has
the potential of making a great difference.
The fact remains that
the kind of images that went viral on Saturday are not unique and that
these staged "protests" with the aim of provoking the IDF into reacting
happen frequently.
In his book "Catch the
Jew!" Tuvia Tenenbom becomes a witness to how these staged "protests" --
meant for the consumption of an international Western TV audience --
are produced. He goes to Bil'in where protests have been organized since
2005 against Israel's security fence. An audience has already arrived
and NGO members from the U.S., France, Ireland, Norway and Germany are
present. Tenenbom describes the setup as a regular show.
"The various actors
take up their positions. First are the news people, journalists of
European and Arab media. ... One of the news media I recognize easily is
the British Sky News. I used to think news follows events, but I guess
it's the other way around. As I can see here, journalists are actually
the main players."
He also learns that the
protest is a business in Bi'lin. Next to him, kids are selling nose
covers -- from the tear gas that the IDF is expected to throw in their
direction -- and keffiyehs, flags, onions (against the tear gas), etc.
"And these are the
locations: Journalists are positioned in front with big 'Press' costumes
on their bodies, next to them are the 'shabab,' Arab youth, and behind
them are the tourists. ... Lefty whites on the right hold big banners
against Jewish racism, at the same exact moment that the imam shouts
juicy racist treasures in Arabic."
There are 10 Israeli soldiers down one of the hills nearby.
"The youngsters,
shabab, start their sling shot show, throwing as many stones as they can
at the soldiers. Nothing happens. Heavier stones are then hurled at the
soldiers. ... No response yet from the Jews. ... The shabab throw
firebombs at the soldiers. A soldier responds with a tear gas canister
into the air. I guess this is a warning shot. ... TV cameras shoot
pictures. Shabab continue with more shots and IDF soldiers respond with a
barrage of tear gas canisters."
Tenenbom is not only a
witness to the shameless provocation, the show that is staged for the
benefit of the international audience, but also to the extremely patient
and restrained Israeli response.
In the latest incident
in Nabi Saleh, this patient and restrained response was likely the
reason why the Israeli soldier was unable to deal with his attackers and
was consequently beaten and bitten by them. The incident has already
prompted calls by Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman for an
emergency meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee
to discuss the IDF's rules of engagement.
"We are talking about
an incident which severely harms the deterrent capacity of the IDF,"
Lieberman said. "The pictures -- which show an IDF soldier being hit by
Palestinian women and children, and in the end giving up on [arresting]
the rock-thrower who started the whole incident -- broadcasts weakness
and helplessness on the part of the IDF and Israel."
One thing that would
contribute toward the ending of such incidents would be the emergence of
some semblance of ethics on the part of the international media, which
help manufacture these scenes, as is abundantly clear from Tenenbom's
description of events at Bi'lin. It is an outrage that the media, which
are supposed to be independent and critical, are such an active player
in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, literally creating the news. And it
is a disgrace that the general public continues to devour,
uncritically, the skewed and shameful outpourings in newspapers and on
TV as a result of this scandalous kind of "reporting."
Judith Bergman is a writer and political analyst living in Israel.
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=13625
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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