Today in one of my classes, we watched a video on Youtube titled, "Cool Facts about Israel." We were supposed to watch the video and dissect what was being said and how it was being said. The video talked about how Israel's technological advances, their advances in medicine, and the general intelligence of their population. They have the most scientists and engineers per capita in the world, they have the most patents per capita, they have the most museums per capita. The video mentioned Israel helping the environment as well as giving humanitarian aid. It didn't mention anything about Israel's foreign policy, of course. We saw that there were related videos, including "Not so cool facts about Israel" and "Not so cool facts about Palestine." Our teacher didn't let us watch those in class but I was curious so I watched them when I got home this afternoon. I was appalled at these videos for several reasons.
The "Not so cool facts about Israel" video talked about Israel's occupation of the lands of Palestine and then injustices against Palestinian citizens. They said that Israel is the only country in the world that punishes the murder of a child with community service. Shocked by this statement, I decided to look up the story and found it to be true. Hilmi Shousheh, an eleven year old Palestinian boy, was beaten to death by an Israeli security officer after he thought the boy was throwing rocks at Israeli cars. Palestinians and human rights groups worldwide were outraged when he was tried in an Israeli court and given only six months of community service and a fine.
The video "Not so cool facts about Palestine" told the story of Vadim Novesche and Yosef Avrahami, Israeli reservists murdered at a Palestinian police station in 2001 after they became lost when on their tour of duty and entered the Palestinian city of Ramallah.
These deaths are horrible and abhorrent. I was shocked to read, however, Israelis defaming Palestinians and staunchly defending their own killings, and vice versa. The "comments" sections of these Youtube videos are disturbing to read, with some people saying everyone should be Muslim and they just can't get rid of the Jews no matter what they do and others saying that they can't wait to enter the Israeli army so they can kill all of the Palestinians. But none of this is surprising. You know what was shocking to me?
I could barely find these stories in the Western press. Hilmi Shousheh isn't even searchable on Wikipedia and he had very little Western coverage. I could only find one story in the Western press that mentioned Novesche and Avrahami, a story printed in a few different media about Sharm Al-Sheik that devotes one sentence to these men. All other information came from purely Israeli websites. Where is the Western media attention? And why don't Israelis and Palestinians see that in so many ways.... they're the same.
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is only focused on Middle Eastern atrocities that prove to be of a potential value.
its sad, but true.
thats why i dont always trust the government....they only give half the story.
The 'occupation' has greatly benefitted its' 'victim's. For instance the average life expectancy in the area has gone up 20 years during the 'occupation'.
You have to look at the stuff in context. The soldier shooting the boy - do you know the entire story? What the exact circumstances were?
Believe me, I really looked into those stories before I wrote about them here. I only used sources that were non-Israeli and non-Palestinian and only printed what is the general consensus about what happened. These events are not disputed, they've gone to court and the general public agrees on what happened in both situations. The only part disputed about these stories is people aren't sure in Ramallah to what extent the police played a role in the mob murder of the two Israelis. So yes, I do know the entire story and what the circumstances were, and they're exactly as I've written.
--Erika
A boy throwing rocks - that's not an accurate description of the situation. Where was he throwing rocks? Did the soldiers have any reason to believe he was armed? Was he around people who WERE armed? Was he alone? etc, etc.
And, you didn't respond to my bit about the so-called 'occupation'.
what could a 11 year old boy cold be throwing when he's going home from school and the settler who killed by kicking his head with army boot on his head wasnt even asoldar he was asecurity officer for petar illite and thats the name of asettelment was built on our land aland that was confescated from my family and my towns people and that was only asmall incedent happened that the news put on but the otehr trouble happenes everyday and no one care about because we get treated like shpps but we stay strong with god help
The boy was with two other kids the same age, not around armed people. If it's so important to you, go do your own research -- I looked at different sources for about an hour and a half. And why didn't I respond to what you said about the occupation? Because I didn't feel like it. I wrote an entire post about this kind of thing -- people pushing their views on my blog. I can tell what your views are, thank you very much, and you have every right to them. I think you know that the Palestinians are not exactly excited about these "benefits."
I am not a big fan of duking it out in the comments section. I respond to clarify things and so on but I have no interest in having a debate with you.
--Erika
the little kid you talked about is my cousin ,,just imagin your self going home from school and some graps the ones you love and just with areally cold blooded smash thies head with army boot ,,you should've seen the craziness around twon when it happened , the whole area there was not allowed to kleave the houses for weeks aftre alot of trouble on the streets of Husan bethlehem, and what the settler get in jail is 6 monthes thats all it took the court 5 years to give him that sentence,,,fun isnt it
I'm just glad that you got this information indirectly from a school assignment, I wish more teachers would inadvertently introduce their students to the true events occurring in the region. It's not the worst thing I've heard that has happened between Israelis and Palestinians, but it's definitely heart wrenching and I'm glad you're not ignoring such a difficult subject to tackle.