About that honor killing video and those 'Kassam' rockets
On Saturday night, JPost Arab affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh posted a story about a video of the honor killing of a 16-year old girl that allegedly took place in Gaza. I jumped all over the story, because 'honor killing' is one of those magic phrases that drives traffic to blogs (yes, I watch how much traffic I get; I think all bloggers do). I forwarded it to several big blogs, hoping they would use the story, and I would get the 'linkies' that further expand the traffic that a blogger gets. (Hat Tip for screen shot of the JPost page: Gateway Pundit).
Within an hour or so, two of the blogs to whom I sent the story were reporting that it was a hoax and that it actually came from Iraq. I had three private emails - including one from Midwest Jim at Gateway Pundit telling me that it had come from Iraq. A commenter on the JPost's web site also identified the video as having come from Iraq. The article was pulled and everyone wondered how the Post could have been taken in.
On Wednesday, I reported that 'Kassam rockets' were found near Bethlehem. I also said immediately that I did not believe that they were really Kassam rockets and that the 'Palestinians' had 'found' them to try to give the impression that Fatah was fighting terrorism.
This morning, Khaled Abu Toameh explains what happened in both cases. I was right on Wednesday. And Khaled Abu Toameh was duped on Saturday. By those 'moderate' terrorists from Fatah....
As part of a campaign to discredit Hamas, Fatah has been using a video showing the killing of a girl in Iraq as "evidence" of Hamas's "atrocities" in the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, officials from the Fatah-controlled General Intelligence contacted The Jerusalem Post, offering the "exclusive" video and story for publication in Sunday's Post. They claimed that it provided fresh evidence of Hamas's "barbarity."
The officials even gave the Post the phone numbers of two men in the Gaza Strip who claimed that they had witnessed the "honor killing" of the 16-year-old girl. The two confirmed (by phone) that they had witnessed the lynching of the girl in the Gaza Strip.
Since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, the IDF has banned Israeli journalists from entering the area. Consequently, the Israeli media (and many foreign journalists) are forced to rely on local reporters and Fatah and Hamas officials as a main source of information.
...
The Fatah security officials behind the story claimed on Sunday that they, too, had been misled by some of their colleagues. An investigation revealed that the two "eyewitnesses" who talked to the Post were former Fatah security officers living in the Gaza Strip. The two have since disappeared. Those who answer their mobile phones claim the numbers are wrong.
Last week, Fatah claimed that its security forces in Bethlehem had thwarted an attempt by Hamas to launch rockets at Jerusalem. Fatah later admitted that the "rockets" were old pipes apparently used by Palestinian children during a game. IDF sources told the Post at the time that the pipes were not suitable for use as Kassam rockets, but nonetheless praised the conduct of PA security forces for handing them over to the Civil Administration.
Both Fatah and Hamas are engaged in a campaign of disinformation aimed at discrediting each other. But the timing of the latest Fatah hoax was clearly intended to coincide with PA President Mahmoud Abbas's visit to New York.
The goal: to show that Fatah is combating terrorism and that the Hamas followers are ruthless murderers who don't hesitate to brutally kill a 16-year-old girl.
The only question here is why the IDF is praising the 'Palestinian security forces' when the 'security forces' are still not fighting terror. But that's right in line with the Olmert-Barak-Livni government's pretense that there is a 'peace partner' so I guess we know the answer to that hoax too....
Underneath a couple of childish pranks lies a serious issue. The Olmert-Barak-Livni government has been trying to sell us Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen's 'moderate' Fatah terrorist group as a 'peace partner.' Is there really any expectation that a party that is willing to lie and cheat - as Fatah has done so blatantly twice in four days during Abu Mazen's trip to New York - is actually going to keep a signed agreement once they have received everything they are slated to get from it? With whom are we making 'peace'? This isn't a bunch of kids pulling a couple of practical jokes. Abu Toameh was contacted by "officials from the Fatah-controlled General Intelligence" on their own initiative. And Wednesday's story on the 'Kassams' included the following:
Palestinian intelligence head Tawfiq Tarawi said the so-called rockets were still in the early stage of production and had not yet been fitted with explosives.
Tarawi would not say whether any arrests had been made. He also declined to say who built them, but said the weapons resembled the rockets developed by Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.
This is the Fatah leadership that is trying to fool and deceive and lie and cheat. What makes anyone think that these people will keep an agreement?
A 29-year old Turkish man has invented a new excuse for an honor killing. He murdered his wife for... wait for it.... having a girl.
The 29-year-old from southeastern Diyarbakir province does not deny
murdering his wife by placing a live electric cable under her chin as
she slept, a day after their second baby girl was born in January, the
report said.
The Turkish Vatan newspaper published on its front page a
transcript of a telephone call the man placed to police in which he
announced his murderous intent, in real time.
“I killed someone,” the man told the police operator, according to the transcript.
“Who did you kill?” asked the officer on the other end.
“I am killing my wife right now,” said the man.
“Did you kill her or are you killing her?” the officer asked.
“Well, she isn't dead yet. But I am killing her if the murder is halal (permissible in Islam),” the man replied.
The officer then asked if the suspect had a problem with his wife.
“I am telling you that I killed my wife but you are asking what the problem was,” the man replied.
“I closed her mouth as she is in the throes of death,” he then said.
At that point the police operator snapped into action, “OK, wait. I am sending a unit”.
A defense lawyer told the court at a hearing Wednesday that his
client killed his wife because she gave birth to “a girl once again”.
The suspect, a waiter at a local restaurant in the Kurdish-majority region, also has a four-year-old daughter.
And they call it the 'religion of peace'.... Think of that when you hear them wailing Allahu Akhbar at 3:30 am tomorrow.
But I'm sure that if we give them a 'state,' they'll stop behaving this way....
A 'Palestinian' woman from the village of Yata, near Hebron, has turned herself in to the 'Palestinian police' and admitted that she beat and hung her 21-year old mentally disabled daughter, who was pregnant. And you thought it was up to the 'courageous' 'men' to preserve family honor, didn't you?
It is alleged that the daughter was mentally challenged and was murdered after her mother found out that she was pregnant.
This family honour crime occurred in the town of Yata, near Hebron, and
the daughter has become the twentieth Palestinian woman murdered on the
grounds of family honour since the beginning of the year.
Sources in Hebron said the body of the 21-year-old woman was taken to
Abu Al Hassan Al Qassem Hospital in Yata. The woman’s remains were
referred to Abu Dees Forensic Centre for autopsy.
The Palestinian Police and Public Prosecution claim that an
investigation has been launched and that its outcome will be announced
shortly.
Sources in Yata and Hebron told Gulf News that the victim’s
father and brother have disappeared since the crime was committed and
that the Palestinian Police has been searching for them though the
mother has turned herself in.
You don't think she's covering for those 'courageous' 'men,' do you?
Meanwhile, groups that fight for women's rights in 'Palestinian' society (is there such a thing?) condemned the murder.
The groups denounced the crime as “a disgrace” for every
Palestinian who does not speak out or act to put an end to crimes against women
that normally go unpunished.
They said that even though dozens of cases of “honor killing”
have been reported in the Palestinian society, yet no attempt has been made to
change the laws in a way to make such crimes punishable to the maximum.
“How many more women have to be murdered before you act,”
said a group that fights violence against women addressing decision-makers. “Why
does our Palestinian society stands helpless and unable to stop crimes of
killing women.”
'Palestinian society' also stands helpless in the face of terrorism, selling land to Joooz... oh wait. Those aren't crimes. Those are good deeds in 'Palestinian society.' The people who do those things are heroes to the 'Palestinians.'
And the honor killers may as well be heroes too.
The current law treats honor killing with great leniency and
normally the murderer goes away with a maximum of six-month prison term.
Of course, they might actually have to serve that six months rather than being released in exchange for kidnapped Jooz.
This is what we can look forward to from Hamastan and other Islamic states.
A 16-year old girl was murdered for 'dishonoring' her family a few weeks ago. The murder was caught on videotape on the girl's cell phone.
The gruesome murder occurred a few weeks ago, when the girl - who looks much younger than her age - was dragged into the street and handed to an mob of angry young men.
Eyewitnesses told The Jerusalem Post that many of those who participated in the lynch were Hamas members and relatives of the girl.
A five-minute video obtained by the Post over the weekend reveals the savagery and mercilessness of the killers.
What's really disturbing is that none of those at the crime scene tried to intervene to save the girl's life.
More than 20 young men are seen beating, stabbing and kicking the little girl before smashing her head with large stones.
It's not easy to watch such a video. The scenes of the girl lying on the ground as frenzied men trample her are unimaginable.
At one point, the girl tries to cover her head with her hands to avoid the kicking. She then tries to rise to her feet, only to be stabbed repeatedly by one of the men.
As she collapses, one of the attackers pulls down her skirt so that the rest of his friends will not see her underwear. The girl is required to maintain her "modesty" even as she is being preyed upon.
And just when you think the lynch is about to end, someone emerges from the crowd carrying a large white stone.
He throws the stone at the girl's back as she lays face down, motionless.
Seconds later, another man throws a large stone at the back of her head. The video ends with the girl laying in a pool of blood.
Mission accomplished. Hours later, a few local reporters sent a terse statement to their news organizations informing them of another "honor killing" in the Gaza Strip. Not a word about the way the girl had been lynched. The story barely made it to the mainstream media.
I know. Let's give them a statereichlet.
If the video is online, I couldn't find it. They'd love to do the same thing to every Jew in this country.
Update 12:42 AM
Both Gateway Pundit and Little Green Footballs report that the video was actually of the honor killing of an Iraqi Kurdish girl and that it may have taken place some time ago.
... The Arab motivation for murdering their own daughters flows from the same cultural wellspring that produces suicide bombers. The defensive form of honor, called ird, is consumed with female sexual purity and manifests itself in the murder of its own to restore family honor, whereas the offensive manifestation, sharaf, requires positive actions implemented to heighten social status and increase family honor. As Palestinian society retreats from its failure to infiltrate the daily life of Israeli citizens with death and destruction, it compensates by killing its own and depositing ird in its honor bank.
... During a particularly brutal spate of honor killings in early 2005, five Palestinian women were murdered in four separate incidences over a short period of time. Faten Habash spent six weeks in hospital after she threw herself from her family’s fourth floor apartment window. Upon her return home, her father bludgeoned her to death with an iron bar.
Two days later, Maher Shakirat attacked his three sisters. The eldest, Rudaina, was eight months pregnant and had been admonished by her husband after he claimed she’d had an affair. Maher forced his sisters to drink bleach before strangling them. The youngest, Leila, escaped but had serious internal injuries from the effect of the bleach.
Rafayda Qaoud shared a bedroom in her Ramallah home with her two brothers. After they raped and impregnated her, she gave birth to a baby boy who was adopted by another family. Her mother then gave Rafayda a razor blade and ordered her to slash her own wrists. When she refused to commit suicide, her mother pulled a plastic bag tightly over her head, sliced open her daughter’s wrists and beat her with a stick until she was dead.
Palestinian feminist Abu Dayyeh Shamas claims that: "Men feel they have lost their dignity and that they can somehow restore it by upholding the family's honour. We've noticed recent cases are much more violent in nature; attempts to kill, rape, incest. There is an incredible amount of incest." One women’s group reported over 400 cases of incest in the West Bank alone in 2002.
Anthropologist James Emery explained in 2003, how “among Palestinians, all sexual encounters, including rape and incest, are blamed on the woman.” Men are always presumed innocent and the responsibility falls on the woman or girl to protect her honor at all costs. When 17-year-old Afaf Younes ran away from her father after he allegedly sexually assaulted her, she was caught and sent home to him. He then shot and killed her to protect his honor.
And when a four-year-old toddler was raped by a 25 year-old man in 2002, her Palestinian family left her to bleed to death because her rape had dishonored the family.
Emery described a Palestinian merchant explaining this cultural view of femininity as "A woman shamed is like rotting flesh, if it is not cut away, it will consume the body. What I mean is the whole family will be tainted if she is not killed."
...Recently in Gaza and the West Bank, Hamas has defined a new role for itself in guarding the morality of young Muslim women. A group of men who identified itself as a Hamas “morality squad” attacked 19-year-old Yousra al-Azam after she had sat at the beach with her husband-to-be and another couple. She was shot in the head and died in the street as her murderers beat her with batons. The growing influence of Hamas with its fundamentalist interpretations of Islamic law is concerning women’s groups, which fear it will gain power and moral legitimacy in the coming elections.
A man convicted of killing his daughter or female relative can expect to serve a six-month sentence due to a 45 year-old Jordanian law still upheld in the West Bank and Gaza. More often than not, the woman’s murder is reported as suicide or accident or is simply not reported at all. Anthropologist Emery claimed that many murdered women are buried in the desert: “The secret of their fate... entombed with them in the sand.”
Human rights groups, amongst others, have claimed that the surge in serious crime, including honor killings, is the result of poverty and hardship created by Israel. [Why of course! /sarc CiJ] And, while the barrier must have made life more difficult for many Palestinians, Israel cannot be seen to be responsible for the burgeoning crime rate and developing lawlessness of the Palestinian population....
The article goes on to show the increase in 'honor killings' among British Muslims after July 7 as proof that Israel cannot be blamed. Read it all.
Arab 'justice': Jordanian man gets 6 months for 'honor killing' of 16-year old married daughter
That'll teach him to go killing his children.
A Jordanian man received a six-month jail sentence on Wednesday for the 'honor killing' of his 16-year old daughter.
The court ruled Wednesday that the man killed his married daughter because she had an affair out of the wedlock. The enraged father severely beat her with a baton and ultimately electrocuted her in November 2006. [Can someone explain to me why a 16-year old is married? I have a 16-year old daughter and I wouldn't dream of marrying her off right now even if she wanted to get married. Something tells me that this man's daughter did not want to get married. And at what age did he marry her off? 12? 14? CiJ]
Neither the father nor daughter were identified.
Like other tribal-oriented societies, many Jordanians consider sex out of the wedlock an indelible stain on the family's honor that can only be cleansed by blood.
Really? Can anyone name a non-Muslim 'tribal-oriented society' where families routinely murder their own daughters and sisters for having sex out of wedlock?
How to discuss an honor killing without mentioning the "M" word
In Canada last week, a father, his wife and their son were convicted of the 'honor killing' of three teenage sisters and a 'co-wife.' The killers are adherents of the religion that cannot be criticized. But I'm sure it's all just a coincidence.
First the AP report on the MSNBC site which does mention a religion but not the one you think:
KINGSTON, Ontario — A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor."
The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.
A religion is finally mentioned in the report but only the one in which is politically correct to do so:
The prosecution said her parents found condoms in Sahar's room as well as photos of her wearing short skirts and hugging her Christian boyfriend, a relationship she had kept secret....
NBC didn't do any better with it. Let's go to the videotape.
Gee - what religion are they? I know, I know, that religion doesn't teach those things. It's sheer coincidence that nearly every incident you hear like this one happens to involve its adherents.
And to my reader who always objects to posts like this one: Does your male guardian know that you read this blog and write comments on it?
And for the rest of you, please think about the implications of the fact that the media is so politically correct that they won't even name the religion that inspires this sort of thing. What do you think that says about how you get your news?
According to the indictment, the eldest of the brothers, Suleiman Abu-Raanam, a pediatrician in Assaf Harofeh Hospital, [Do you want this guy treating your children? For the record, the percentage of Arab doctors among all doctors in Israel is increasing because of an 'affirmative action' program that goes beyond admissions to actually raising grades. The result is that it's easier for Arabs to get into medical school than it is for Jews, and once they are in, it is easier for them to stay in and graduate. CiJ] planned the murder and gave his brothers a sedative with which they drugged their sister.
The brothers allegedly choked their sister, and after they suspected she was dead brought her to an empty orchard near Rehovot. She allegedly woke up and began to beg for her life, to no avail.
Her brothers continued choking her until she was dead, and threw her body into a ditch.
Two of the brothers confessed to the murder, and one of the brothers re-enacted the incident in front of police.
Here's the Syrian story:
The study, conducted by the quasi-governmental General Union of Women was published in the Syrian media in order to increase awareness of domestic abuse, the New York Times reported.
A random sample of 1,900 Syrian women from all income levels and regions participated in the research. The women's spouses also participated in the study, though they were questioned separately from their wives.
Prior to the study, domestic violence was not seen as a problem in Syria. Spokesperson for the General Union of Women Hana Qaddoura, said that many Syrians did not believe that violence in the home "counted" as violence. Many of these cases were only seen as signs of a bad relationship.
Local women's rights activists noted that the importance of the findings were important, not because of the data revealed - the frequency of the problem did not differ greatly from that in other countries[In what other countries? Is one in four American women abused? European women? Israeli women? Why do I suspect that what's missing here is Arab women? CiJ] - but rather in the fact that the taboo had been broken. They said they would try to develop programs to protect the victims of spousal abuse.
The Times story gives much more detail. The following is what it says about this paragraph: "In Syria there was simply no data on violence against women; formal studies hadn't ever been done before," said Shirin Shukri, a manager of the project at the United Nations regional office in Amman, Jordan. "The issue of violence against women was kept silent here for many years. But we're making people in Syria aware that this is something that happens everywhere in Europe, in Asia, in the United States, and this is opening up discussion." [Somehow I doubt it happens with the same frequency with which it happens in Syria in any of those other places. CiJ].
Back to the Post:
Bassam al-Kadi, a rights advocate, hoped that in response to the study, there may be more openness to discuss violence against women, particularly the phenomenon of honor killings, in which women are killed by their own families for improper sexual conduct.
Kadi noted that in the past the topic was banned by Syrian media. Even when discussed privately, incidents of honor killings were referred to as "accidents." He expressed the hope that public discourse might now become more open to discuss these matters.
There's no internet access where I am staying, so posting will be spotty today and tomorrow.
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler.
1) "political and cultural progressivism ... virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times"
Arthur Brisbane's term as public editor of the New York Times is ending. My view of the public editors and ombudsmen who have become ubiquitous as newspapers in recent years that they're useless ornaments. They accept all the premises of how the newsroom operates with the editors of the newspaper, so they rarely disagree with coverage of the news. They're job is less one of oversight but of describing to unsophisticated non-journalists the true wisdom of journalistic professionals. The dissents of public editors are so rare, that they make news. Brisbane, in his final column as public editor of the New York Times, Success and Risk as the Times transforms, therefore made news when he wrote (h/t Instapundit):
When The Times covers a national presidential campaign, I have found that the lead editors and reporters are disciplined about enforcing fairness and balance, and usually succeed in doing so. Across the paper’s many departments, though, so many share a kind of political and cultural progressivism — for lack of a better term — that this worldview virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times. As a result, developments like the Occupy movement and gay marriage seem almost to erupt in The Times, overloved and undermanaged, more like causes than news subjects.
I disagree strongly his assessment of the presidential campaign. However, the executive editor, Jill Abramson took exception to Brisbane's "progressivism ... bleeds" comment. She told Dylan Byers of Politico:
But Times executive editor Jill Abramson says she disagrees with Brisbane's "sweeping conclusions." "In our newsroom we are always conscious that the way we view an issue in New York is not necessarily the way it is viewed in the rest of the country or world. I disagree with Mr. Brisbane's sweeping conclusions," Abramson told POLITICO Saturday night. "I agree with another past public editor, Dan Okrent, and my predecessor as executive editor, Bill Keller, that in covering some social and cultural issues, the Times sometimes reflects its urban and cosmopolitan base," she continued. "But I also often quote, including in talks with Mr. Brisbane, another executive editor, Abe Rosenthal, who wanted to be remembered for keeping 'the paper straight.' That's essential."
"[S]ometimes?" For the record, here's what Okrent wrote:
I'll get to the politics-and-policy issues this fall (I want to watch the campaign coverage before I conclude anything), but for now my concern is the flammable stuff that ignites the right. These are the social issues: gay rights, gun control, abortion and environmental regulation, among others. And if you think The Times plays it down the middle on any of them, you've been reading the paper with your eyes closed. But if you're examining the paper's coverage of these subjects from a perspective that is neither urban nor Northeastern nor culturally seen-it-all; if you are among the groups The Times treats as strange objects to be examined on a laboratory slide (devout Catholics, gun owners, Orthodox Jews, Texans); if your value system wouldn't wear well on a composite New York Times journalist, then a walk through this paper can make you feel you're traveling in a strange and forbidding world. Start with the editorial page, so thoroughly saturated in liberal theology that when it occasionally strays from that point of view the shocked yelps from the left overwhelm even the ceaseless rumble of disapproval from the right.
That sounds like a confirmation, not a contradiction, of Brisbane's characterization. It's a shame that Byers didn't call Abramson on it.
What does this have to do with the Middle East. Let's go back to last year when Brisbane wrote, Where Words Can Never Do Justice:
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in short, is the third rail of New York Times journalism. Touch it and burn. Ms. Chira defends The Times’s journalism strenuously but is reconciled to the fact that the subject will be a constant source of protest from readers. “I have just come to the conclusion that we are always going to have really, really angry people,” she said. In her view, some readers who take sides in the conflict view the other side not just as wrong, but as monstrously wrong on a historical scale. The usual journalistic practice of assuming a neutral posture simply won’t suffice for these readers, she believes. “To not call Side A or Side B wrong is like not calling Hitler wrong,” she said, drawing a parallel that appears often in the reader e-mail I get on this topic.
The "third rail" claim is a cop out. It's a way of saying we'll never make everyone happy. But the paper's job isn't to make everyone happy, it's to be accurate. If Brisbane admits now to "progressivism" isn't it possible if not likely that "progressivism" also affect the New York Times's Middle East coverage? A fair reading of the opinion pages shows that the New York Times is rather adversarial towards Israel. Last year as the Palestinians attempted to get UN recognition for a state, the news reporting of the paper was undisguisedly supportive.
Brisbane's admission is welcome. Still it is late and insufficient.
Day in and day out, Israelis are bombarded by gossip in the guise of reporting. Today we’re being told that the decision has been made, tomorrow – that it will wait until September when Netanyahu might meet with Obama at the UN. Mysterious “sources” report that the security establishment is against the attack – a day later you’ll learn from the same “sources” that the generals – naturally – prefer an American-led operation. The febrile atmosphere caused the usual Left-wing nuts to erupt – while the increasingly unhinged Yoram Kaniuk called on the “true Beitarim” to rise on Netanyahu and “stop” him, the assorted “progressives” started a Web petition calling on the Israeli pilots to refuse an order to bomb Iran. One of those, law school professor Menahem Mautner, cheerfully proclaimed in a radio interview that a huge difference exists between the Left and the Right with regard to the (blatantly illegal) refusal to obey lawful military orders given by an elected government. Turns out, that the Right refuses, because it wishes to turn Israel into a racist theocracy, and therefore it must be crushed, while the Left wants to preserve Israeli democracy and therefore its refusal is legitimate and must be respected. There’s of course nothing “democratic” in the idea that in a crisis, an opinion of the military bureaucrats and “intelligence professionals” must prevail over this of the civilian leaders elected by a clear majority of the people. This, in fact, is what the Israeli hard Left has been dreaming about all along – since it can no longer persuade the people to follow its suicidal course, it must utilize tools outside of representative democracy to make the will of the people irrelevant. This anti-democratic mood is fully shared by the ideological elder twins of the Israeli “liberals” in America – that’s why the “progressive” Peter Beinart’s Open Zion is willing to entertain the possibility of a military coup “to save Israel from itself”.
3) We oppose honor killings ... nice scarf you have there!
I was rather appalled by the following exchange with Victoria Nuland at the State Department last week:
QUESTION: And finally – I know you guys issued a statement regarding the money on Friday; you responded to the question that was asked by Mr. Matt Lee the day before. I wanted to ask whether you also made conditional on the judicial process in the West Bank. Because as it seems, honor killing is on the rise, and there is a loophole in the law that basically allows the killers to go free. Do you ever make – like, reforming the law to tackle this issue that is becoming a real problem? MS. NULAND: You mean linking money to this particular -- QUESTION: Yeah. I mean, you linked it to other aspects, to other good behaviors by the Palestinians, but do you ever link it to such things? MS. NULAND: I don’t have anything particular on that. If we have something – I mean, in general, as you know, this money is designed to support strong institutions of the Palestinian Authority, democratic institutions increasing their services to the Palestinian people. So the degree to which we have issues there and the way governance is handled, we obviously are clear with the Palestinian Authority. QUESTION: Is this an issue that the State Department would raise – the rise of honor killing? MS. NULAND: Obviously, it sounds like the kind of issue we would generally raise in the context of our human rights discussion, yeah. Please, Jill. QUESTION: Iraq. MS. NULAND: Yeah. The scarf is the color of your eyes, my dear.
How did Nuland comfortably switch from honor killings to the scarf of the next questioner? It appears that honor killings remain a problem in the Palestinian Authority.
Last year Mahmoud Abbas passed a law to criminalize honor killings. However Phylis Chesler noted a loophole in the law:
In typical Arab style, President Abbas has said he has done something but he has really done nothing. He has not yet signed his vow into law or published it. Abbas has used the unexpected outcry against the (non-honor) murder of a young woman who is being called a "martyr," and whose reputation was above reproach, to stage a symbolic but actually toothless response to the very real epidemic of honor killings among Arabs. According to experts, judges do not rely upon the "mitigating factor" provision when they hand down lenient sentences for honor murderers. According to Haaretz, a newspaper with which I generally do not agree, here are the facts about what Abbas did (and didn't) do:
[A] review of the draft of the presidential decree indicates that judges in Palestinian courts, who showed leniency toward murderers – handing down sentences ranging from six months to three or four years in prison in such cases – did not necessarily rely on the two problematic clauses mentioned above, but rather, on other articles not even mentioned in the presidential decree.
In addition, there is this: Aya is being presented as a "chaste" and "noble" girl who did nothing wrong according to Arab standards. What about those Arab girls and women who refuse to veil or to accept arranged marriages? Or who are seen as too "Western?" Do Abbas and Arab society still believe that such women deserve to be honor murdered? In what way are their civil and personal rights protected under the rule of the Palestinian Authority or under Hamas's rule in Gaza?
Abbas has recently appointed a commission to amend laws to protect women. How much of an effect the commission will have is an open question.
However as Palestinian Media Watch documents, there is growing popular opposition to honor killings.
Palestinian press reports about murders of Palestinian women by male family members, in so-called family "honor" killings, have been increasing. According to an op-ed in the official Palestinian Authority daily:
"The frequency with which crimes against women are committed is rising constantly, and every day more than one crime is committed against more than one woman..." [Al-Ayyam, Aug. 7, 2012]
Palestinian Media Watch notes that the murders have been widely condemned by Palestinian officials and human rights activists, some of whom have called for new legislation and longer prison terms. Others have argued that the killings won't stop until there is a change in Arab - Muslim culture.
Interestingly even an official publication of the PA has taken this issue up. (Interesting, too, that honor killings are blamed on Arab - Muslim "culture," isn't it?) Unless the latest commission develops effective legislation, not much will come from this. (Is this incident, though in Gaza, a sign that public sentiment is changing?)
If the official Palestinian media has taken up the cause of preventing honor killings, though, what's to prevent it from stopping the incitement against Israel and Jews?
4) Live in Palestine - work and vacation in Israel!
According to the report, a Palestinian construction laborer will often earn more than a senior ministry official in the Palestinian Authority or the Hamas administration. (If only Abbas knew this, maybe he wouldn't be insisting on staying in power nearly 4 years after his term in office has ended!)
In related news NPR reports If Only Briefly, Palestinians Flood Into Israel. (The accompanying photograph is disgraceful. Why no photograph of Palestinians freely shopping in an Israeli store?):
Israel loosened entry restrictions for Ramadan and the three-day Eid el-Fitr holiday that followed. Israel gave permits to 100,000 Palestinians, double the number from last year. One morning this past week, hundreds of Palestinians lined up at the Qalandia checkpoint on the edge of Jerusalem, clutching their permission slips. ... One Israeli mall manager reported Palestinian shoppers this week gave his stores a 10 to 50 percent spike in sales. At an outdoor mall in Jerusalem, Israelis were browsing alongside Palestinians.
Naturally not everyone viewed the increase in permits to visit Israel as a good thing. Ma'an reports:
National Economy Ministry undersecretary Nasser Tahboub said the permits issue was being given more attention than it deserved. "I think we are mistakenly accusing Israel of being too genius." The permits issue, he said, is a purely a political move. According to Tahboub, Israel is trying to improve its image by showing the world that the Israeli authorities do allow the Palestinians to move freely and do not deny them their right to pray in al-Aqsa Mosque.
Khaled Abu Toameh, though, argues that the detractors have their own agenda:
For years, the Palestinian Authority has been demanding that Israel lift travel restrictions imposed on West Bank Palestinians. But now that Israel has permitted tens of thousands of Muslims to visit its beaches and malls, Israel is being denounced for trying to damage the Palestinian economy. What is clear is that neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas wants to see Palestinians living a good life. Improving the living standards of Palestinians is something that these two parties are not interested in. They would rather see Palestinians direct all their anger and frustration only toward Israel. Otherwise, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority fear, Palestinians may vent their anger against their own leaders.
Abu Bluff: Enforcing minimum sentences for honor killings would not benefit women
Of course. Enforcing minimum sentences for honor killings would not benefit 'Palestinian' women. No 'Palestinian' would be deterred from honor killings by a law that imposes minimum sentences. And death sentences are only for 'collaborators' with Israel (Hat Tip: Jack W via Blazing Cat Fur).
In May 2011, the president pledged to amend the law to guarantee maximum
penalties for "honor killing" in response to protests over the killing
of university student Aya Baradiya in Hebron.
The decision was announced in a phone call to a primetime show on state
TV, drawing tears among crowds of mourners shown in a live link-up from
the Ramallah studio to Baradiya’s hometown.
Abbas suspended
Article 340, which offers a pardon for murder if the perpetrator
committed the crime on finding his wife in bed with another man.
The reform was cosmetic: Article 340 had never been used in Palestinian courts since it was legislated in 1960.
"So why did we change the law? To garner public opinion," [Abu Mazen's legal adviser Hassan] al-Ouri said in an interview in the presidential compound in Ramallah.
"I,
personally, was against the amendment because the crimes that happen in
the street have no relevance to Article 340," the legal adviser added.
Al-Ouri
says the president will not change the go-to clauses for lawyers
seeking leniency for clients who claim they committed murder to defend
family "honor."
Articles 97 to 100 of the Jordanian Penal Code,
in force in the West Bank, still offer reduced sentences for any act of
battery or murder committed in a "state of rage."
"The (law) only addresses 1 percent of the problem. What we need is a new culture," al-Ouri said.
Sounds like the same new culture they need to get with respect to Jews. Maybe if they get a state.... Nah. Don't bet on it.
An Israeli Arab doctor and his four brothers have been arrested and charged with murdering their 19-year old sister in an 'honor killing.' The sister was romantically involved with a 'Palestinian' man.
A gag order was lifted on Thursday on the arrests of five brothers from Lod who are suspected of murdering their 19-year-old sister in the name of family honor.
The young girl, Rim Abu Ganem, was killed after her brother Suliman, a 33-year-old pediatrician at Assaf Harofeh Hospital, allegedly gave his brothers an anesthetic with which to drug her. According to the suspicions against them, her brothers, whose ages range from 20 to 33, choked her to death after she fell asleep.
Rim's body was found two weeks ago in a well near Rehovot.
Rim had fallen in love a few months earlier with a Palestinian man, despite attempts by her family to betroth her to a resident of Lod. She insisted on maintaining her relationship with the Palestinian man, and ran away from home for a few days.
Police sources say that after Rim returned to Lod, police officers warned her that her life was in danger, and referred her to a women's shelter. She refused, however, and was killed shortly thereafter.
Progress: Honor killingnow punishable by two years in prison in Syria
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has signed legislation making honor killing punishable by two years in prison. Previously, those who murdered women to defend family honor were pardoned.
President Bashar al-Assad issued today Legislative Decree No. 37 on abolishing Article No. 548 of the Penal Law and substituting it for another that states:
''He who catches his wife, sister, daughter or mother by surprise in the act of committing adultery or having unlawful sex with another and then unintentionally kills or hurts either of them can benefit from the attenuating circumstances, provided that he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing" .
Justice Minister, Ahmad Hamoud Younes, said in a statement to SANA, "The number of wife killing has increased recently on the pretext of adultery, and the cancelled article number 548 of the penal law pardoned those crimes".
'Honor killing': Arab teen in Jerusalem murdered by family because he was gay?
I can't confirm this yet, but we've already seen stories in the mainstream media that claim that the Arab teen who was killed in the Jerusalem Forest overnight may have been murdered by family members. What the mainstream media is not telling you (as those who read Hebrew can see from the story above), is that the teen may have been the victim of an honor killing because he was gay.
There's also another version of the story, which is only slightly different.
In any event, this murder was not carried out by a Jew. But why let that ruin a good excuse for a riot?
Phyllis Chesler writes an open letter to Hina Jilani, one of the three non-recanting members of the Goldstone Commission.
Hina, please understand: The lies and slander that have been generated against Israel are every bit as false and unjust as the lies told to justify the honor killing of girls and women.
I once worked at the United Nations. In my opinion, it is completely ineffective save in two areas:
It has legalized Jew-hatred with a vengeance and it has provided a High Life for many Third World/developing world professionals who wish to be well paid to live in the West and yet also wish to retain or achieve reputations as champions of justice. Therefore, I understand the price you would have to pay if you broke with UN-Think or with Third World Think which is so intensely anti-American, anti-Western, and anti-Israel—the convenient scapegoats for all the crimes and ills of the Arab and Muslim world.
Nevertheless, please think about the implications of my analogy.
Like an honor killing victim, Israel is being slandered so that the terrorist violence against it will be seen as justified and legitimate. When Israel exposes the Big Lies or tries to defend its civilian citizens against such pitiless violence, like the raped girls and women in Pakistan and other Muslim-majority countries, Israel is blamed. She provoked it. She knew the rules. She knew she was meant to die if she stepped out of line by a millimeter; surely she knew that being born female was a capital crime, a death sentence.
Israel dares to live. It exists surrounded by Arab and Muslim countries that believe she has no right to exist and who have sworn to kill her.
There's a new kind of 'honorkilling' in Gaza and it's as bad or worse than the kind that we are used to hearing about. Two Gaza mothers have been arrested by the 'Palestinian Authority' and charged with making the 'Palestinian Authority' look badinfanticide for murdering their illegitimate children. In one case, the woman's father has also been arrested for trying to bury the babyhide the evidence. In the other case, the baby was found in the streets of Rafah.
The women have what to fear. An 'unknown group' variously calling itself the 'Swords of Truth,' the 'Just Swords of Islam' and the 'Righteousness of the Swords' - which has previously taken responsibility for destroying internet cafes and an al-Arabiya satellite station - claims to have a list of 'immoral women' in the Gaza Strip, whom it has threatened to murder if they do not 'change their ways.'
But give them a statereichlet and all of the world's problems will be solved.
Senior security source raises questions about the death of Jawaher Abu Rahma
In a call this evening, a senior security source told me that Jawaher Abu Rahma did not die from inhaling teargas as the 'Palestinians' have claimed.
The source raised several questions regarding Abu Rahma's death. First, the lab test report, which the IDF has obtained, is dated 35 minutes before Abu Rahma arrived at the hospital. The lab test is dated 2:45 pm, whereas Abu Rahma did not arrive at the hospital until 3:20 pm.
There is no emergency room report.
The cause of death in the certificate of death is listed as "inhaling gas of Israeli soldier according to the family."
The 'Palestinians' also claim that there was no prior medical history, but the IDF has discovered that Abu Rahma visited the same hospital ten days ago.
On Friday, Abu Rahma was prescribed medications that had nothing to do with mitigating the effects of teargas, but which were medications that are used in the treatment of chronic illnesses such as blood cancer (Leukemia).
The IDF has never heard of anyone in the five years of riots at Bil'in who died of inhaling teargas.
Abu Rahma had been participating in the riots at Bil'in weekly for five years, and did not have any respiratory problems before.
Ordinarily, the 'Palestinians' share all of their information and reports on civilian deaths with the IDF; this time they refused to share that information.
The IDF purchases its teargas abroad and uses the same teargas as other Western countries. The teargas was not remixed or altered.
Jawaher Abu Rachma's brother Rachman is the leader of the demonstrations at Bil'in, but there is no documentation that he was near her during the demonstration. If there had been such documentation, it would have been prominently displayed at the funeral.
Therefore, the IDF believes that Jawaher Abu Rahma may not have been at the demonstration on Friday at Bil'in to begin with.
I asked about the identity of the woman who was in the ambulance at the end of this video. The senior security source did not know who she was. The IDF was told on Friday that two lightly wounded people reached the hospital in Ramallah, and that they were treated and released on Friday. They did not hear about Abu Rahma until Saturday.
I also asked about the rumor that Abu Rahma had been killed in an honor killing. The senior security source was not aware of any evidence to that effect. The IDF believes that Abu Rahma had a chronic illness - we know that she has been in and out of the hospital for the past month - and they believe that Abu Rahma's death is connected to that illness and not to an honor killing. The 'Palestinians' are attempting to take advantage of the coincidence of the time of her death to turn her into a 'martyr.'
The IDF is not aware of any other deaths of 'Palestinians' in riots as a result of inhaling teargas. This riot took place in a large open area. The IDF is not aware of any deaths of rioters from inhaling teargas in an open area. Ever.
The IDF does not use water cannons (The Independent's Donald McIntyre referred to the IDF adding "skunk" to water used from water cannons - the senior security source denied that the IDF uses water cannons).
The IDF has started to move the fence route in accordance with the high court order that it do so, and yet the residents of Bil'in continue to protest. Given that the Bil'in protesters have already 'won' the fence's removal, the IDF wonders why they continue to protest.
An 18-year old girl was stabbed to death by her father in Tulkarem in what smells like an honor killing, even though Maan would never call it that.
An 18-year-old girl was stabbed to death by her father in Tulkarem on Sunday evening, a Ma'an correspondent said.
The girl was pronounced dead at Tulkarem hospital, with multiple stab wounds all over her body, police said.
Witnesses told Ma'an that the attack took place after a heated argument.
The girl had just successfully passed her Tawjihi exams.
Tawjihi exams - for those who are wondering - are matriculation exams when one finishes high school, or what the Israelis call bagruyot. The 'Palestinians' in Judea and Samaria take the Jordanian exams.
Now he doesn't have to find the 'real killers,' he can call it an honor killing
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
O.J. Simpson can stop looking for the 'real killers' of his wife. He's converting to Islam and that means that all his sins are forgiven (Hat Tip: Jack W).
The disgraced 67-year-old star has become interested in the religion
through his friendship with former world heavyweight boxing champion
Mike Tyson, who was imprisoned in the early 1990s and is a devout
Muslim.
Simpson has been studying the Koran but failed to successfully fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
An inside said: ”O.J. didn’t quite make it through the entire fasting process.
”He cheated during the day, and bought snacks from the prison
canteen. But he’s really serious about converting to Islam. O.J. even
made himself a prayer rug for his prison cell. He really likes the idea
that upon converting to Islam, all of his previous sins are forgiven.
O.J. has a lot to be forgiven for.”
Hamas police spokesman Ayyub Abu Shaar confirmed that body of
23-year-old Ghazi Jamal Abu Nasser was received at Al-Aqsa Martyrs
Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
Police are investigating the incident, he added.
Relatives
told Ma'an Abu Nasser recently moved from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza
following a dispute with his family and another in the town.
'Palestinian' demonstrator's death an 'honor killing'?
A 'Palestinian' demonstrator died in a hospital on Saturday, allegedly as a result of being teargassed at a demonstration on Friday at Bil'in against Israel's 'security fence' (the one that keeps the suicide bombers out). Now, there's a rumor going around that she was actually stabbed in the back in an 'honor killing.'
Israel Radio just reported (midnight news) that the demonstrator, 36-year old Jawaher Abu Rahma, was reported to have been released from the hospital by the 'Palestinians' on Friday night. The 'Palestinians' are refusing to let the IDF see the medical report.
Israel Radio also reports that one of Abu Rahma's brothers was killed in an earlier demonstration at Bil'in when he was hit by a teargas canister, and another was allegedly shot by an IDF soldier while bound.
I went through three videos of Friday's events. The one below is the only one with even a hint that someone was injured - there's a small clip of a woman in an ambulance at the end. I can't say for sure whether that was Abu Rahma, but she's clearly breathing on her own (it actually looks like a leg injury), which has to make you wonder what really happened.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
On Saturday night, JPost Arab affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh posted a story about a video of the honor killing of a 16-year old girl that allegedly took place in Gaza. I jumped all over the story, because 'honor killing' is one of those magic phrases that drives traffic to blogs (yes, I watch how much traffic I get; I think all bloggers do). I forwarded it to several big blogs, hoping they would use the story, and I would get the 'linkies' that further expand the traffic that a blogger gets. (Hat Tip for screen shot of the JPost page: Gateway Pundit).
