Israel Matzav

Shooting back ourselves

Yisrael in Shilo sent me a link to a story about how B'Tselem, a Jewish, anti-Semitic 'human rights' NGO, has been giving video cameras to 'Palestinians' in Judea and Samaria so that they can 'document' their abuse by Jews. It's an appallingly biased story. Here's part of it with my comments interspersed:

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has given Palestinian families across the West Bank video cameras to document how they’re treated by Israeli soldiers and settlers. The project is called “Shooting Back.” Some of the videos depicting abuse by settlers sparked a national debate in Israel earlier this year after they were broadcast on Israeli television.

Oren Yakobovich coordinates B’Tselem’s video department. He recently traveled to the United States, joined me here in the firehouse studio. I began by asking him to explain the project, “Shooting Back.”

OREN YAKOBOVICH: “Shooting Back,” it’s basically giving a Palestinian that’s living in high-risk areas that’s probably going to suffer from human rights violation by the Israeli army and by settlers—we give them cameras, so they can film their life, and basically we can see the violation when it’s occurred.

AMY GOODMAN: How did you come to do this?

OREN YAKOBOVICH: Right. B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights, is documenting violation since ’89 [except that they only document 'violations' of 'Palestinian' rights and not of Jewish rights. You can bet that they did not and will not document the murder of Ahikam Amichai and Yehuda Levy HY"D on Friday. CiJ], and the aim is to bring to the Israeli public and to the public in the world and decision makers violation. And the aim is, of course, to advocate for the end of violation. I wish I would not be here speaking about violation, but it’s happening all the time.

So, for many years, what we did, we did reports. We’re still doing them. And it’s a long-term report. We’re investigating the situation in the field. We had field researchers in every big city in the West Bank that—taking testimonies, written testimonies [which are for the most part unverified. CiJ]. And we did some films about the reports that we were taking out, but there was kind of frustration that I felt all the time, or we felt in B’Tselem, because we know from written testimony that a lot of things are happening, and we don’t really manage to see them. It was becoming hard, harder, more and more during the years, to bring new information or new visuals to the media and to grab public attention. And we looked for a different point of view, a new point of view, and this is how we decided to start giving cameras to these people that live in these places.

AMY GOODMAN: Where do you get the cameras?

OREN YAKOBOVICH: Where we get them from?

AMY GOODMAN: You just—you buy them and then give them to—?

OREN YAKOBOVICH: Yeah, we buy them.

AMY GOODMAN: And so, do you have support of people in Israel?

OREN YAKOBOVICH: We have support of people in Israel, also in the world. [The EU funds them to an extent that you and I can only dream about. . CiJ] B’Tselem is an NGO, and we—fund by contributions. So we take—we raise money, and we buy the cameras and give them.

AMY GOODMAN: What does “B’Tselem” actually mean, the Hebrew word?

OREN YAKOBOVICH: The word itself, OK, “B’Tselem” is come from the Bible, and the first sentence in Genesis is God created man in His shape [No, it's not the first sentence. It's the 27th sentence. But then, you wouldn't expect a moonbat like this one to know something as basic to Judaism as the first chapter of Genesis, would you? CiJ]. In His shape—

AMY GOODMAN: In His image.

OREN YAKOBOVICH: In image, yes. So, in His image, the Hebrew word for it would be “B’Tselem.” So that’s where it’s coming from. Even though we are not with this organization at all, but the aim is, of course, to point that everyone has been created in the shape of God, and everybody is equal.

AMY GOODMAN: Oren, describe this first video we’re about to watch and listen to.

OREN YAKOBOVICH: Alright. OK, well, this is basically the first video that we took out for the media. It’s happening in Hebron. Just to understand, Hebron is the only Palestinian city [Hebron has been a Jewish city for some 3000 years except between 1929 and 1967 when the Jews were expelled from it. CiJ] where Jewish settlers living in the heart of the city. Usually the settlements will be outside of the major city, around or close by, but not inside. In Hebron, basically because Abraham, the father of our religion, is buried there, it’s a very holy place to the Jews also, and there’s settlements in the heart of the city.

The result of the settlements is a lot of restriction of movements on—that are being held on Palestinians. [No, that's not the result of the 'settlements.' It's the result of tens of 'Palestinian' terror attacks in and around Hebron. The most recent one was this past Friday. It showed yet again what happens when 'Palestinians' are allowed to roam free. CiJ] There are many streets that they cannot really walk. A Palestinian cannot drive cars in these areas. And there is a lot of violation that’s happening there from the settlers that are living there. There are very radical settlers, more radical even than the rest of the West Bank. And we know from a lot of years of watching the place or getting testimonies that a lot of violations is happening there.

What you’re going to see is a clip from a settlement called Tel Rumeida in Hebron. What we will see is a settler from this settlement, from Tel Rumeida, pushing Palestinians that basically are living across the street, on the other side of the road, pushing her back to her home, calling her “whore,” cursing her very viciously. And all this time, you see the soldier standing next to the woman doing nothing, not interfering.

AMY GOODMAN: Tell us about the Palestinian family, in particular the woman, both the Palestinian woman and the Jewish settler woman.

OREN YAKOBOVICH: Yeah, OK. So the Palestinian is part of part of Abu Eisha family that’s living in the heart of Tel Rumeida. They’ve been there for years, a lot of lot of years. In ’84, if I’m not mistaken, or ’83—I don’t remember—the settlement started, the Jewish settlement started in Hebron. The street that was open all the time to the family and to the people to come to visit her was closed. And now, this is the only Palestinian family that can walk in the street, the people living in this house. And they have nowhere to—the only way out from this house is through this road. So basically every time they’re going out from the door, they’re confronting the settlement—the settlers. And you will see this clip, and after, you see more clips, because we get a lot of material from this family. They are being attacked on a regular basis. Every time they go out of the house, there’s a good chance they’re going to get stones from the children or from the people that are living across the street, from the settlers.

AMY GOODMAN: And tell me about this particular settler woman.

OREN YAKOBOVICH: Don’t say her name, but she is a radical settler [Note that the 'Palestinian' is a human being with a name while the Israeli is a 'radical settler' without one. Holy dehumanization Batman! You can't even tell she's a woman until Goodman refers to her as "this particular settler woman." CiJ], and she’s living on the other side of the street. And she’s kind of representing the settlers population living in Hebron. And I have to say that even for the Israeli audience, she seems extreme, like she’s very extreme. But what we know about her, this is not the first time she’s attacking, not her, not her friends. There’s attacks happening there regularly on a regular basis. And what we see, that the army and the police are not enforcing the law, or there is lack of enforcement there. [Who was injured in this 'attack'? No one. Jews 'attack' with words. 'Palestinians' attack with high-powered rifles and explosives. CiJ]

'Nuff said.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:51 AM