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Why Does the Media Keep Pushing Lies About Israeli Settler Violence?
People hold Fatah flags during a protest in support of the people of Gaza, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Hebron, in the West Bank, Oct. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
There is a certain kind of journalism that is born out of ignorance, with an unwillingness to be fair. It’s the worst kind of journalism, especially when the writer fills his or her article with deep inaccuracies along the way.
This is an ongoing trend when it comes to Israeli settler violence, and IDF activities in the West Bank. Let’s be clear: I am not here to defend any political stances or make excuses for violence.
However, it is necessary to point out when the media got their facts wrong. This is true for Christina Lamb’s “Gun in hand, the Israeli settler tells the Palestinian: I will kill you” that she wrote for The Sunday Times.
Implication that Israeli settler violence is common & accepted by all settlers
In her article, she writes that:
But many in both communities believe that Israel has opened a second front in the West Bank where Jewish settlers backed by the government have ramped up occupation and violence against Palestinians to unprecedented levels.
The media have a tendency to group a fringe minority of Israeli settlers with the settler population as a whole. This creates a picture that all settlers are violent and extreme, while the overwhelming majority of them do not engage in violence and are simply Israeli citizens who, for any number of different reasons, live over the so-called Green Line.
In fact, there are constant Palestinian terror attacks carried out on Israeli settlers as well, which are rarely documented in the media. And these attacks are not mentioned at all in Lamb’s article.
Just last week, a Jewish security guard in the Bar-On industrial zone in the West Bank was beaten with a hammer by a Palestinian terrorist who then stole his gun. The guard, Gideon Peri, succumbed to his wounds and died in the terrorist attack.
Ideally, Lamb should have mentioned that regardless of one’s personal beliefs on an Israeli presence in the West Bank, settlers don’t deserve to be attacked or murdered either.
Lamb also fails to differentiate Palestinian terrorists from civilians killed in IDF raids and clashes, nor does she distinguish between settler violence and IDF operations.
The majority of those Palestinians were killed while actively engaging in violence against the IDF. These casualty figures fail to differentiate between combatants & civilians.
And why no mention of Israeli victims of Palestinian terror in the West Bank during this period? pic.twitter.com/ZGJfEyogVY
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 25, 2024
This isn’t to say that Israeli settler violence isn’t a problem. It is real, unfortunately. As Lamb wrote, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar recently warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of the “indescribable damage” settler violence is having on Israel.
Activist Daniela Weiss, who is featured in the article, represents a fringe minority, and not the mainstream residents of Jewish settlements.
Hebron is not a “ghost town”
Another major problem is the way Lamb paints an image of West Bank cities like Hebron as a “ghost town,” when in fact, it is quite the opposite. Unfortunately, this is a common trope in the media, as there is a tendency to interview politicized organizations like B’Tselem or Breaking the Silence rather than more neutral experts.
The reality is that Israel, under the Hebron Protocol that then-Prime Minister Netanyahu signed in 1997, has control of only about 20 percent of the city. With that in mind, Palestinians, so-called human rights groups, and others paint a picture of Hebron and other cities as suffering from Israeli military oppression. The reality is that in Hebron, the genuine issues and friction between Palestinians and Israelis are confined to only a small part of the city, most of whose more than 200,000 residents live under the full control of the Palestinian Authority.
As for “Do Not Enter” signs, those are aimed not at Palestinians but Israelis, to prevent them from entering Palestinian towns and villages where they may be at risk of becoming victims of terror. And it is this terrorism that necessitates military checkpoints in place for security purposes.
In addition to the bias, there is also a fact-checking issue. It’s difficult to tell whether this is intentional ignorance, or lazy journalism. A faulty photo caption is not usually the journalist’s responsibility but is indicative of the manner in which the subject matter is being dealt with by editors.
Note to @thetimes: there are no “settlers” in Ashkelon, which is a major city on Israel’s coast.
But this is only one of the problems with @christinalamb‘s story on settler violence inside the West Bank. https://t.co/FpigNz8t9u pic.twitter.com/1T16CIRWmE
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 25, 2024
But a fact used to implicate someone in violence needs to be watertight, and in this case, it certainly isn’t:
The AK47 assault rifle is not issued to any Israelis, who are required to hold a gun license & to register any weapons. Odd that an Israeli settler would be armed with a weapon more commonly used by Islamist terrorists. Is @christinalamb sure about this? pic.twitter.com/MxgumPiAR9
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 25, 2024
The tensions and violence in the West Bank are fair game for the media, and it is incumbent upon decent journalists to expose genuine malfeasance, but it isn’t fair to distort facts or omit them. Lamb, seemingly driven by her own biases, fails to interview any mainstream Israelis from either the settler movement or security services — which seriously impacts the direction of her story.
If an author is reporting on Israeli settler violence, he or she should also report Palestinian violence in the West Bank — to accurately report why the IDF carries out raids in the West Bank and who exactly was killed during those raids. There must be an accurate picture, and not the media’s favorite distortion of it.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Why Does the Media Keep Pushing Lies About Israeli Settler Violence? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jews Targeted in Majority of New York City Hate Crimes in 2023, New Data Shows
Pro-Hamas activists gather in Washington Square Park for a rally following a protest march held in response to an NYPD sweep of an anti-Israel encampment at New York University in Manhattan, May 3, 2024. Photo: Matthew Rodier/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Reported hate crimes in New York state spiked by a staggering 69 percent since 2019, largely fueled by sharp increases in antisemitic incidents, according to a new analysis released by New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on Wednesday.
The report from the Office of State Comptroller found that hate crimes against Jews increased across New York by 89 percent — from 253 incidents in 2018 to 477 outrages in 2023.
“In 2023, nearly 44 percent of all recorded hate crime incidents and 88 percent of religious-based hate crimes targeted Jewish victims, the largest share of all such crimes,” the report stated.
As for New York City specifically, antisemitic incidents accounted for a striking 65 percent of all felony hate crime incidents last year.
One such outrage that made headlines this week was a man in New York City allegedly spitting in a 65-year-old Jewish man’s face late last month after proclaiming “Hitler was right” in what is being investigated as an antisemitic hate crime.
On Tuesday, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) released a video of the alleged perpetrator of the crime, who has still not been found or arrested.
The NYPD said its Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the incident.
The perpetrator also allegedly said “Should I slap you or punch you,” prior to pulling down his mask and spitting on the man in broad daylight.
New York defines a hate crime as “an offense that is motivated by a perception or belief about the victim’s race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or expression, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, or another protected characteristic. Hate crimes can be committed against a person or property.”
New York state’s total of 1,089 reported hate crimes last year marked the highest number “since data collection and annual reporting were mandated by New York’s Hates Crimes Act of 2000,” according to a press release accompanying the report.
“Fighting hatred and bigotry demands that we communicate with, respect, and accept our neighbors,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “It requires our spiritual, political, community, and business leaders to take active roles in denouncing hate, investing in prevention and protection efforts, and increasing education that celebrates the value of New York’s diversity.”
The surge in antisemitism in New York was also seen nationwide across the US. Earlier this year, the Anti-Defamation League released a report showing antisemitic incidents in the US rose 140 percent last year, reaching a record high. Most of the outrages occurred after the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 across southern Israel, during the ensuing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
In December, the FBI said there had been a 60 percent spike in antisemitic hate crime investigations since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. Then, in April, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the probes into antisemitic crimes tripled in the months following Oct. 7.
“Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 30 of this year, we opened over three times more anti-Jewish hate crime investigations than in the four months before Oct. 7,” he explained.
In 2023, the FBI found that 63 percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes in the US were directed against Jews.
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We Defeated Pro-Hamas Protestors By Proving They Support Rape and Terror
Hamas terrorists kidnapping Israeli women at the Nahal Oz base near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: Screenshot
I recently witnessed something I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, August 16, 2024, a group of pro-Hamas activists packed up their signs and went home in the face of spirited and non-violent opposition from a coalition of pro-American Iranians and American Jews.
The last time I saw anything like that happen was in 2006 or 2007, when I led a crowd of Israel supporters in chants in order to silence a heckler standing on the sidewalk near the town common in Amherst, Massachusetts. The ridicule was enough to prompt he and his fellow anti-Israel activists to walk away, as we cheered their departure. It was glorious.
On August 16, 2024, the pro-Hamas activists conducted their retreat from Lexington in two stages.
First, they walked away from the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Pleasant Street, where they have been protesting on an intermittent basis since October 7. Then, after they retreated a couple of hundred feet down Mass. Ave. (while tenacious, but peaceful, pro-Israel protesters followed them), the Hamas supporters packed up their signs and withdrew altogether, leaving an Iranian-born American citizen to conduct a solitary rear-guard action. Once the pro-Israel protesters took pity on the police officers charged with keeping the peace and got ready to leave, the pro-Hamas supporter also left — clearly a little bit worse for wear.
The pro-Hamas folks did not abandon the site of their weekly standout because they were outnumbered. The two groups were evenly matched. In fact, the pro-Hamasniks may have even enjoyed a slight numerical advantage over the pro-Israel folks who challenged them. Nevertheless, it was the anti-Israel folks who retreated.
The pro-Israel activists, who had coalesced around a core of Iranian human rights activists associated with From Boston to Iran, used a very simple message to break the resolve of the pro-Hamas activists: “You are on the side of rapists and murderers.”
The pro-Hamas protesters tried countering with the lie that Israel is committing a “genocide” in Gaza, but it didn’t work on the pro-Israel folks who just kept repeating their message: If you’re pro-Hamas, you’re siding with rapists and murderers. They offered this message in chants and individual conversations.
The pro-Israel folks didn’t bother reminding their opponents that Hamas attacks civilians while hiding behind civilians, thereby making civilian casualties inevitable. They didn’t waste their breath reminding the pro-Hamas folks that Arab and Muslim leaders have killed millions of Arab and Muslim civilians without much comment from the progressive left in the United States. The pro-Israel folks knew these facts– but didn’t waste their time repeating them on the streets of Lexington. They just kept repeating the central truth of the conflict in Gaza: Hamas is a bunch of rapists and murderers, and many leftists and anti-democratic radicals in the US have taken their side.
Most importantly, our strategy worked.
By repeating the simple truth of what’s happening in the Middle East, a gathering of pro-Israel Jews and Iranians stripped a gathering of pro-Hamas protesters of the moral superiority in which they have wrapped themselves since October 7. By sticking to the “Hamas is a bunch of rapists and murderers” message, pro-Israel activists reminded any self-proclaimed progressives who joined the Hamas supporters, that the October 7 massacre was not performed to “liberate” the Palestinians — but to build a social order in the Middle East in which terror and violence is the dominant culture, as opposed to peace, tolerance, and full rights for all religions, genders, and minorities.
It is no accident that Iranians who oppose the theocratic leadership in Tehran have become a powerful force of anti-Hamas activism in the United States. Having to deal with the rapists and murderers who oppress their friends and relatives, Iranian human rights activists understand that the violence against moderate Muslims, non-Muslims, and women in Iran has a common root with the violence of October 7 massacre. They know that the violence perpetrated against Iranian and Israeli women is justified by radical Islamism, a supremacist ideology that privileges the rights of Muslim men over non-Muslims and women.
Although leftists should know this as well — many don’t, and they need to be reminded repeatedly, and publicly, of the true nature of the radical Islamist movement they help support. One day, they will be the target of the Islamist oppression endured by Iranians and Israelis and when it happens, they won’t be allowed to say no one told them.
Dexter Van Zile, the Middle East Forum’s Violin Family Research Fellow, serves as managing editor of Focus on Western Islamism.
The post We Defeated Pro-Hamas Protestors By Proving They Support Rape and Terror first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Over 300 Filmmakers Condemn Inclusion of Israeli Films in Venice Festival, ‘Artwashing of Gaza Genocide’
Actor Sveva Alviti, who hosted the opening ceremony of the 81st Venice Film Festival, and director Alberto Barbera react, in Venice, Italy, on August 27, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Yara Nardi
Nearly 350 filmmakers, actors, and other members of the film industry signed an open letter on Wednesday, the same day as the opening of the Venice Film Festival, criticizing the prestigious festival for featuring two Israeli films.
At the center of the controversy is Dani Rosenberg’s Hebrew-language film “Al Klavim Veanashim” (“Of Dogs and Men”), which is about the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, and “Why War” by director and screenwriter Amos Gitai, which will be making its world premiere on Aug. 31 out of competition. The latter film was inspired by a correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud about avoiding war and “embarks on a search for an explanation of the savagery of wars that inhabit our world,” according to a synopsis provided by the Venice Film Festival.
In the open letter, published by Artists for Palestine Italia, members of the film industry claim “Of Dogs and Men” and “Why War” were “created by Israeli production companies that are complicit in whitewashing Israel’s oppression against Palestinians.” They claimed it was “unacceptable” for the Venice Film Festival to showcase both films and said they “reject complicity with the Israeli regime of apartheid and oppose the artwashing of its Gaza genocide against Palestinians at the 81st Film Festival in Venice.”
“‘Of Dogs and Men,’ shot in the midst of Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza, whitewashes the genocide,” the letter continued. “Like ‘Of Dogs and Men,’ ‘Why War’ was created by complicit Israeli production companies that contribute to apartheid, occupation, and now genocide through their silence or active participation in artwashing. Palestinian society, including the absolute majority of filmmakers, has called for refusing to screen such productions.”
Among the signatories were a number of Palestinian filmmakers and actors — including two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad, Rosalind Nashashibi, Raed Andoni, and Saleh Bakri — as well as more than 80 Italian film industry figures such as screenwriter and David di Donatello nominee Davide Serino; filmmakers Enrico Parenti and Alessandra Ferrini; and actors Niccolò Senni, Simona Cavallari, Chiara Baschetti, and Paola Michelini. Others who signed the open letter included Tony Award nominee Kathleen Chalfant, César-winning actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, composer Nitin Sawhney, and Israeli filmmakers Oreet Ashery and Eyal Sivan.
The film industry figures also took issue with the Venice Film Festival for staying silent “about Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinian people.”
“This silence outrages us deeply,” they explained, before urging film festival organizers to take “effective and ethical measures to hold apartheid Israel to account for its crimes and system of colonial oppression against Palestinians.”
“The film festival should not program productions complicit in apartheid crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, regardless who perpetrates them, and should refrain from doing so in the future,” the open letter stated in conclusion. “Artwashing Israel’s genocide in Gaza on the international cultural stage, including film festivals, is profoundly immoral.”
The Venice Film Festival last year hosted the world premiere of “Tatami,” the first feature film co-directed by an Israeli and an Iranian filmmaker, as well as the world premiere of “Letters from Drancy,” a virtual reality film about the life of a Holocaust survivor.
The post Over 300 Filmmakers Condemn Inclusion of Israeli Films in Venice Festival, ‘Artwashing of Gaza Genocide’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.