Featured in MSNBC’s “The Week in Pictures” is a photograph of a Palestinian man screaming in agony as an Israeli soldier drives a tractor-hitched trailer over his legs.
It’s a heartbreaking photograph, and the stone cold and carefree attitudes of the soldiers surrounding the man literally adds insult to injury. But first, a backstory: In the West Bank village of Al-Dirat near Al-Khalil, a group of Palestinian construction workers prepared the equipment and materials necessary to begin the construction of a new home. Soon after, a half-dozen or so Israeli soldiers appeared at the scene and ordered the workers to cease construction.
Almost as suddenly as their arrival, the hostile soldiers commandeered the equipment and ordered the Palestinian workers to disperse. At least one soldier boarded a tractor and, although it is unclear what exactly he aimed at, drove the vehicle’s attached trailer over one of the workers. The worker had reportedly been protesting the unfair expulsion of him and his fellow construction workers. Hazem Bader with Agence France-Presse (AFP) captured the photograph above, as well as the first of the two photographs below.
I expect people to argue that the soldier didn’t deliberately run the man over. I was not at the scene but here’s a question for these people: Do you drive over speed humps without noticing? I find it hard to believe that the soldier didn’t feel or notice the resistance from the man’s body as the wheels lurched up and over him. It’s just not practical. [Read more...]
The only extremists who aren’t terrorists
Terrorism is anything that invokes Palestinian national identity or criticism towards the occupation. However, what can be seen as the opening stage of a Kristallnacht-esque repeat against Palestinians — Muslim and Arab, specifically — is nothing too worrisome.
Illegal Israeli settlers, particularly those who attack Palestinians, vandalize their property, and even sabotage Israeli military bases, aren’t terrorists. They aren’t even militants. They are, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just a small unrepresentative group of right-wing activists who happen to be a little overzealous in their convictions.
The last few days have seen a tremendous surge of violence in the West Bank. But it’s likely this information never received the attention it deserved since those committing the violence were, in fact, Israeli settlers. On Tuesday, dozens of settlers ambushed an Israeli military base and attacked military officials and their property as a sign of defiance against the measures taken to police them. The next day, settlers hurled rocks at Palestinians traveling through the Tapuach and Rechalim Junction. Another group of settlers torched three Palestinian-owned vehicles — two trucks and one car — just outside of Nablus. Meanwhile, arsonists set fire to a historical mosque in central Jerusalem after vandalizing it with anti-Islam graffiti. To top this off, settlers clashed with police after authorities attempted to arrest suspects in connection with the previous round of violence.
Israel was quick to identify these attacks as part of the growing “Price Tag” movement, but Netanyahu’s administration was split over how to label the settlers behind the destruction. Before anyone else could give it much thought, Netanyahu rejected the idea of labeling them terrorists and instead opted to refer to them as extremist right-wing activists. His logic: they are a small group of individuals whose actions aren’t necessarily mirrored by other settlers. [Read more...]