Where’s the Coverage? Victims of Stone-Throwing Terrorists

CAMERA recently reported:

Stones kill, maim, wound and change people’s lives forever. Israeli infants have been slain, toddlers critically wounded and adults too have been killed, sustained severe head injuries or were hospitalized with lighter injuries, all due to Palestinian stone throwers.

But the story of Israeli victims is not the one the New York Times prefers to tell and is certainly not the one Middle East correspondent Jodi Rudoren chose to recount in her latest front page, above-fold article about Palestinian stone throwers, entitled “‘My Hobby Is Throwing Stones’: In a West Bank Culture of Conflict, Boys Wield the Weapon at Hand.”

And since the media does not tell the story of the victims, we must.

According to the Israel Defense Forces blog post, “Rocks Can Kill”:

Rock throwing is common in Judea and Samaria, and along with Molotov Cocktail and booby-trapped tire throwing, is a terror act that comes under the definition of ‘popular terror’. These incidents happen daily, and are easily ignored by the mainstream media, because they don’t seem that serious. But did you know that a simple rock can kill?

January 29, 1983: Esther Ohana (21)
Killed by a rock thrown at her car while driving near the Palestinian village Dahariya, on her way from Be’er Sheva to Jerusalem. The rock hit her head and put her in a coma. On February 12, after two weeks in a vegetative state, she passed away.

February 24, 1989: Stf. Sgt. Benny Meisner (25)
Killed when he was struck in the head by a concrete block in Nablus.

October 6, 2000: Bachor Jean (54)
Killed during the second Intifada by rocks thrown at his vehicle while he was travelling from Haifa to Rishon Lezion. The rocks shattered the windshield and struck his chest. His brother, who was driving the car, sped to the hospital but was too late. The perpetrators were found to be from the nearby Arab village Jisar a-Zarka.

May 7, 2001: Koby Mandell (13) and Yosef Ishran (14)
Were beaten to death with rocks when they were hiking in the outskirts of their village, Tekoa, in Judea and Samaria. Their bodies were found in a cave, covered with stones. The perpetrators have still not been found.

June 2, 2001: Yehuda Haim Shoham (5-month old baby)
Died of his wounds after rocks were thrown at his parents’ car while driving near the Palestinian village of Isawiya. The family was returning from relatives at Ra’anana to their house in Shiloh, when a Palestinian threw a rock at the front windshield, went through, and hit the baby in the back seat.

September 23, 2011: Asher Palmer (25) and his infant son Jonathan (12-month old baby)
Killed when their car veered and crashed into a tunnel after rocks were thrown at their front windshield while driving near Kiryat Arba. Later on, two Palestinians from the nearby village of Halhul admitted to instigating the attack.

[…]

Rock throwing may seem harmless, but rocks can kill. If we ignore rock throwing, we potentially encourage even more severe hate crimes and higher-scale terror attacks.

Speaking of higher-scale terror attacks, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terror Information Center documents that, in addition to the “dozens of stone throwing events”:

During July 2013 there was a slight decrease in the number of terrorist attacks in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. There were 76 attacks in July (as compared with 99 in June). Of them 50 were carried out in Judea and Samaria and 26 in Jerusalem. Most of the attacks (about 60) involved Molotov cocktails. Eleven involved IEDs, four involved shots fired from light arms and there was one stabbing attack (at the Nablus Gate in Jerusalem, July 16, 2013), which resulted in injury to an Israeli civilian (Israel Security Agency website, August 6, 2013).

To repeat, sixty firebombs, eleven IEDs, four shootings and a stabbing in a single month represent a decrease in terrorist attacks from the previous month, when there were more than three terrorist attacks per day – again, not including stone throwing. These, just in the area of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem – the same region covered by the Times article. Imagine stones, firebombs, IEDs and shootings on your morning commute. How long would Americans tolerate such violence?

And these attacks were not without effect. According to another report, in July alone:

In just one month, no fewer than 38 Israeli Jews were injured in acts of Palestinian terrorism.

Among the victims is a small child who suffered a head injury when Arab stone throwers operating in Jerusalem’s Old City attacked a Jewish family. Another eight-year-old Jewish boy was similarly wounded by stone throwers, and yet another baby was hurt when Palestinians hurled rocks at an Israeli passenger bus.

Three Israeli Border Police officers were wounded when a bomb exploded in the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis, and an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man suffered serious injuries when an Arab stabbed him in the capital.

The Times article does not mention Asher and Yonatan Palmer by name, but does refer to them obliquely. Is it possible that author Jodi Rudoren and New York Times editors were not aware of their story? They should be, since Asher Palmer’s father is suing the murderer of his son and grandson in a highly publicized case covered by the Jerusalem Post, repeatedly.

Below are the real, human faces of men, a woman and children murdered by stone-throwing terrorists. Where are their stories? Where are their names? Where are the heart-rending tales of their families’ suffering? Where’s the coverage?

Top Left to Right: Koby Mandell, Yehuda Haim Shoham, Esther Ohana
Center: Yosef Ishran
Bottom Left to Right: Bachor Jean, Asher Palmer and his infant son Jonathan, Stf. Sgt. Benny Meisner