One of the things you notice living here is the vast
difference in reporting. For the most part, the States has pretty
homogeneous reporting when it comes to foreign events. Even for
domestic issues, coverage is generally on the fair and even side.
It reminds me of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, a movie
where some men stuck in a rain storm gossip about the trial of a
brigand charged with raping a woman and killing her samurai husband.
All three testify (including the husband, through a medium), and all
have different stories, stories with big holes. Then, one of the men
stuck in the rain admits he witnessed the crime. His story is the most
reasonable, the one we all piece together from the stories of the first
three. Except there’s an even bigger hole in his story, too. In the
end, you have no idea where the truth is.
Anyway, here in the West Bank, the political statement is more important than the
events, and if the events don’t quite match your agenda… well, just read for yourself.
A quick note. The Al-Ayyam story may seem
more sensationalist than the Arutz story when the
two are compared with the Associated Press story.
Don’t forget that my Arabic isn’t that good.
On the other hand, I wonder whether some of the rhetoric might be toned
down if the publisher knew that lots of people in the West could read
Arabic.
Still, I didn’t use the reference to Rashomon casually–maybe the AP story
is the one that’s furthest away from the truth. Let’s get real: most foreign
reporters don’t speak Arabic. Moreover, from what I gather, most are reluctant to
spend time in
Palestinian towns to talk to Palestinian eyewitnesses (can you blame them? What if you find the "wrong" witness). I would bet that a few
foreign reporters come to the West Bank with the story already written
in their heads, looking only for the precise quotes to flesh them out.
That’s not to say the AP story is wrong and the Al-Ayyam
story is correct. Remember, this is Rashomon: everyone sees the story
in a different light, everyone has different facts (some wrong, some
right, some other). Everyone has their own reality and biases.
The Jerusalem Post story uses the AP wire
story extensively, but I decided to include it partly as an example of
the myriad of names used for identical places here (note: Machpela Cave
and Ibrahimi Mosque, Hebron and Al-Khalil).
Some things to notice:
- The role of the Palestinian Police
- What were the two Israeli youths were identified as
- Were the two Israeli youths attacked first, or not
- Who shot the Palestinian youth
Report from Arutz-7
Arutz-7 is a settler aligned radio station. I
obtained this article from their website.
Tension and riots today in Hevron. The violence began at
approximately 10:30 AM when Arabs
assaulted two Yeshiva students and sprayed them with an as yet
unidentified chemical substance.
Conflicting reports have been heard as to what transpired next. Initial
accounts were that the two
youths opened fire at the Arab attackers – one of whom later died of
his wounds – and within
minutes, a crowd of Arabs surrounded the boys, throwing stones and
other objects at them. Israeli
security personnel then rushed to the scene to disperse the mob. An
eyewitness later claimed,
however, that the boys merely shot in the air, and that the fatal
bullets came from Border Guard
soldiers’ fire. Hundreds more Arabs gathered and began to batter Beit
Hadassah with rocks and
metal objects. The troops then shot rubber bullets into the crowds in
an effort to disperse the rioters;
one was killed, and some 30 others were injured, including one in
critical condition. Four IDF
soldiers were injured, as were nine of Jibril Rajub’s armed policemen
who, instead of helping to
control the violence, participated in the riots. A third Arab was
killed when IDF troops attempted to
contain a violent outbreak in the village of Bani Naim, near Hevron.
The two Jewish students were arrested and questioned by the
police. A doctor later examined the
students, and treated one of them for wounds to the face, after
ascertaining that they were in fact
sprayed with a chemical substance. The Jewish Community of Hevron has
demanded that the bullet
that killed the Arab in the original incident be examined, in order to
ascertain who shot him.
Report from Al-Ayyam
Al-Ayyam is a daily Palestinian newspaper. I
translated the following few passages from the two articles which dealt
with the story. My translation may not be perfect, and I might have
translated some of the words into stronger language than intended, but
my Arabic ain’t that good, so… generally speaking, this is it.
AL-KHALIL (9/4/97)–Criminal settlers and their
protecters–the soldiers of the Israeli occupation–committed a
massacre in cold blood yesterday in the city of Al-Khalil where three
martyrs fell and approximately 120 were injured by live fire and rubber
bullets.
A terrorist from the gang of settlers killed the Palestinian
youth ‘Asim Rashad ‘Urfe (24-years-old) close to the Ibrahimi Mosque
without any prior instigation…
One witness said that the clashes died down after Palestinian
Police and Special Forces formed a blockade that separated the angry
crowd and the soldiers of the occupation.
And in the second article…
One eye-witness to the crime of the settlers said that ‘Asim was
walking in the street peacefully, when the two armed settlers
confronted him and opened fire [with] automatic [weapons] from a
distance of only one meter.
Report from The
Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is a an English language newspaper
published in Israel. The following are excerpts of the article obtained
from their website.
HEBRON (April 9) – Three Palestinians were killed, and over
100
Palestinians and five IDF soldiers and border policemen were wounded,
when fierce rioting broke out in Hebron yesterday after a yeshiva
student
shot two alleged attackers.
The violence began at around 10 a.m., when two Shavei Hebron
Yeshiva
students, in their 20s, left the yeshiva at Beit Romano and walked
through
Gross Square on their way to the Machpela Cave. As they left the
square,
they said, they were attacked by Arabs who threw tear gas or acid at
them, as well as stones.
One of the students opened fire with his M-16, wounding two
Palestinians;
one of them fatally.
Troops and border policemen quickly surrounded the students
and
extricated them from a growing mob. The students were taken to the
local
police station, where they were held for questioning.
Others joined in. Palestinian photographer Husam Abu Ala said
he saw a
settler "fire about 30 bullets from near Beit Hadassah toward Shallala
Street [H-1] before a soldier overpowered him."
In a positive sign, OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Uzi Dayan
praised the
Palestinian Police for working with Israeli troops to control the
situation.
However, Palestinian policemen lost control over the rioters in
Shallala
Street, where five soldiers and border policemen were wounded.
A spokesman for the Hebron Jewish community said it is
outraged at the
arrest of the two yeshiva students and demanded a stop to the
deteriorating
security situation in the city. Spokesman Noam Arnon also demanded that
a ballistic examination be carried out on the bullet that killed Arafi,
to
determine whether it matched the student’s weapon.
"According to information we received, the Palestinian died
from someone
else’s weapon," Arnon said.
Yeshiva head Moshe Bleicher said the two students should be
awarded a
medal for their action, saying that when lives are in danger, the enemy
should be killed.
Report from The
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is, obviously, the Trib.
The following are excerpts from an Associated Press
story obtained from the Trib website.
HEBRON, West Bank (AP) — Jewish seminary students shot and
killed a Palestinian on Tuesday, sparking fierce riots in which
Israeli troops killed two Palestinians and injured dozens. It was the
West Bank’s worst violence in months.
The rioting in Hebron raged for more than five hours, with
hundreds of protesters hurling stones and firebombs at the Israelis,
who fired back tear gas and rubber bullets.
Palestinian police tried to prevent the protests from spilling
over
from the Palestinian-controlled part of the city into the enclave still
held by Israel, where the shooting occurred — only to be pelted
with stones by their own people.
There were conflicting reports about the shooting in Hebron.
Palestinians said the attack was unprovoked, while Israelis
insisted
it was brought on by Palestinians who sprayed two Jewish
seminary students with tear gas as they walked to the Tomb of the
Patriarchs. Both students had tear gas burns, police spokeswoman
Linda Menuchin said.
The students opened fire with Uzi submachine guns, Hebron
police
commander Benny Baharon said. One shot hit Assam Rashid
Arafeh, 23, in the chest, killing him, Palestinian police and hospital
workers said.