Life-Threatening Stone-Throwing Dangerously Played Down
In coverage of new policies in response an upsurge in Palestinian violence, Reuters quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “The Security Cabinet unanimously adopted a series of measures within the framework of our fight against stone throwers, petrol bombs and flares.”
The article goes on to say:
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem lists 12 Palestinian minors who were shot and killed by Israeli forces during protests and clashes in the West Bank in 2014. In at least four of those incidents, Israel said the youngsters had been throwing rocks or petrol bombs, according to B’Tselem.
Beyond the well-documented mischaracterization of B’Tselem as a “human rights group,” media coverage of this particular issue positions the violence as little more than children acting out, grossly underestimating the danger inherent in these violent attacks, which often include Molotov cocktails and explosive devices. While sometimes the perpetrators are the “youngsters” Reuters considers them, they are regularly teenagers and adults who are the same age, if not older, than the IDF forces attempting to stop them.
On numerous occasions, CAMERA has documented the true life-threatening nature of these attacks. Recently, one man died after he crashed his car in a desperate attempt to escape a rock-flinging crowd, a couple described the terror of being encircled by Palestinians wielding stones with the intention to kill them and their five-month old daughter, and a recently posted video reveals just one instance of Palestinian “youngsters” converging on a car and pummeling it with rocks.
צול? ?תמול בירושלי? , ל? נגעתי
Posted by Gilad Hadari on Friday, November 7, 2014
One can imagine oneself in that car, watching as people approach and attack, knowing their goal is stoning those inside to death. Yet, the media seems to simply accept these acts as an element of Palestinian “resistance” culture.
–Rachel Frommer, CAMERA Intern
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