Gideon Levy : Heinous Killing on Both Sides of the Israeli-Palestinian Divide
Tears have poured in Kiryat Arba, Sa’ir and elsewhere. The motives are different, but the results are identical and horrendous.
haaretz.com
Hubb, they called him, love, and took
him with them everywhere. He was their son and brother and they showered
him with affection. He was helpless. He was born with Down syndrome.
The soldier shot him in the stomach at close range.
The soldier then took off with his buddies without checking Hubb’s
condition or calling for help. They left him to bleed on the stony
ground. A few weeks later he died of his wounds. Arif Jaradat from the
West Bank village of Sa’ir died at the age of 23.
The
IDF spokesman said "the force spotted a Palestinian who was about to
throw a Molotov cocktail" and the soldiers fired “to remove the threat.”
This statement is embarrassingly fallacious.
First
of all, the eyewitnesses said Arif only shouted at the soldiers out of
fear, as he always did when he encountered the military. And whether or
not the soldiers could see they were facing a young man with Down
syndrome, it was clear that if it had been a firebomb, the soldiers
would have arrested Arif after wounding him. But they shot him and got
out of there.
A few kilometers from Sa’ir, in Kiryat Arba, the shocking murder of Hallel Yaffa Ariel in her sleep was committed over the weekend.
She too was helpless, she too was young and innocent. “How do you mourn
a 13-year-old?” her mother shouted out. She’s right. And how do you
mourn a young man with Down syndrome? The hearts quivered, the tears
poured and the throats choked, both in Kiryat Arba and Sa’ir.
Mahmoud Rafat Badran, a youth of 15, was on his way home with friends a few days ago after a visit to a water park. Israeli soldiers riddled their car with 15 bullets,
thinking its passengers had thrown stones on Route 443. Rafat was
killed and four of his friends were seriously wounded from the
indiscriminate shooting. The army said the firing was “mistaken.”
The Mark family was driving south of Mount Hebron in the West Bank on Friday. Palestinians sprayed their car with 19 bullets,
killing the father, Michael, and seriously wounding his wife and two of
his children. The first to rush to their aid were Palestinian
passersby, one of them a doctor who resuscitated the mother, and a Red
Crescent ambulance. Again life was cut short, again tears poured.
All
these killings are different, yet similar. To most Israelis, these
cases can’t be compared. The very mention of similarity moves them to
holy fury. But the truth is, a helpless person is a helpless person,
whether it’s a girl sleeping in her bed or a young man with Down
syndrome. Killing them is heinous.
Riddling
a car with bullets is also heinous. True, the Palestinians who fired at
the car from Otniel intended to kill its passengers, while the soldiers
who fired at the car from Beit Ur al-Tahta said they killed by mistake,
but their mistake appears unacceptable.
Fifteen
bullets by mistake? They fired indiscriminately at a car without
intending to kill the passengers? The Palestinians shoot as part of
their resistance to the occupation. The Israelis shoot as part of their
resistance to the resistance. The motives are different, the results
identical and horrendous, even if many more Palestinians are killed.
Most
Israelis live in denial as a result of the brainwashing they’re
subjected to. Terror exists only on the Palestinian side, only they act
with brutality and inhumanity. The parallel reality is hidden from the
eye – whoever heard about the killing of the helpless young man from
Sa’ir? What’s worse, there’s no willingness to consider the incident
from the Palestinian point of view.
Behind
all this hides the most deeply rooted assumption in Israel – that the
Palestinians aren’t human beings like us. Their blood isn’t our blood,
spilling their blood isn’t as bad as our blood being spilled.
The
day more Israelis are willing to compare the killing of Arif Jaradat to
the killing of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, the day more Israelis recognize the
injustice and crimes their country is committing, the first step will be
taken to reduce the bloodshed. Until then, it will go on. Nothing will
stop it.
Commenti
Posta un commento