Tel Aviv Law Lecturer Rewrites Report on Police Incompetence

Eyal Gross rewrites Ha’aretz probe to suit him

Writing in Ha’aretz today, Eyal Gross, who is apparently the same Eyal Gross who is a lecturer on international and constitutional law at Tel Aviv University, seriously distorts a Ha’aretz article published last week about police incompetence in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). While the Dec. 9 report found that the police were equally incompetent whether investigating complaints lodged by Israeli settlers or Palestinians, Gross falsely writes today that only Palestinians suffer from police incompetence:

A Haaretz probe revealed the shortcomings of police conduct in the Judea and Samaria District, exposing the fact that there are no serious investigations taking place when violence is directed against Palestinians.

But here is what the Ha’aretz probe by Chaim Levinson actually said:

The police’s Shai District, which is responsible for the West Bank, consistently fails to conduct even the most basic investigatory actions, such as taking fingerprints, checking alibis, questioning witnesses and conducting identification line-ups. As a result, case after case – against settlers and Palestinians alike – is either closed without going to trial or thrown out of court, Haaretz has found. . .

Still, there’s one thing to be said in [the police district’s] favor: It doesn’t discriminate. Complaints from settlers and Palestinians alike are all handled with equal incompetence.

As Gross ably demonstrates, it’s not just the police who are plagued by incompetence.

Update/Clarification, 6:45 am EST: Presspectiva, CAMERA’s Israeli site, points out that in the original Hebrew version of his column, Eyal Gross did indeed make a (very minimalist) nod acknowledging the part of the Ha’aretz probe dealing with police incompetence investigating Palestinian violence against settlers. It is the Ha’aretz English edition which completely deletes Eyal’s (unclear) reference to police incompetence with respect to Palestinian-perpetrated crimes. And, so, once again, we have ourselves a case of Ha’aretz Lost in Translation. (Case 11, to be precise).

Thus, the original Hebrew reads:

The report published two days ago in Ha’aretz, concerning operations failures on the part of the Shai [Judea and Samaria] police district revealed, alongside the problems concerning the treatment of [complaints lodged by] settlers, that there is no serious police investigation when settlers engage in violence against Palestinians.

Eyal’s original Hebrew wording is convoluted, and he is not straightforward about the fact that the police incompetence equally applies whether the alleged perpetrator is Palestinian or Israeli, but at least he does make a meek reference to police shortcomings investigating Palestinian crimes. But Ha’aretz‘s English translators could not bring themselves to do even that much.