By Rachel Avraham
Yesterday it was reported that two Palestinian terrorists were arrested after the terror attack last Thursday in Homesh which slaughtered 25-year-old Yehuda Dimentman and injured two other yeshiva students. Normally, if terrorists attack young people as they leave a holy place, the international media condemns it.
For example, when the Los Angeles Times covered the Charleston Church shooting, which killed 26 people including children, nobody posted any justification for the shooting. The same was true when USA Today, CBS News and other mainstream media outlets covered the Charleston Church shooting. However, the yeshiva students who were attacked on their way out of Homesh did not receive the same treatment, as the international media coverage of this terror attack was more sympathetic towards the terrorists.
France 24
In their article, France 24 did note that “an Israeli religious student was killed and two others were injured when their car came under fire” with “more than 10 rounds” of bullets. They also quoted condemnations by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz. However, they did also stress that the yeshiva was located “in the occupied West Bank” on an “illegal outpost,” as if it somehow justified what happened.
They also added: “Israel seized the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. Since then, nearly 700,000 Israelis have moved into settlements that most of the international community regard as illegal. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said soldiers blocked entrances to Nablus following the attack, leaving hundreds of Palestinian drivers stuck on the roads.”
To add insult to injury, France 24 published a justification for the attack put out by Hamas, while claiming they were a militant group and not a terror organization: “Multiple Palestinian organizations including Hamas, the militant Islamist group which controls the Gaza Strip, praised the shooting. ‘This operation proves once again that our heroic Palestinian people in the West Bank will continue their legitimate struggle until the occupier is expelled from all of our Palestinian land and its settlers are swept away,’ the group said in a statement.”
In their follow up article, France 24 refers to the victim as a settler when they note that the killers were nabbed. While they acknowledge in that piece that the victim was sprayed with 10 bullets and do quote Israeli officials as saying it was a terror attack, they still emphasize that he was studying in a yeshiva in an “illegal outpost,” as if that justifies what happened to him. They also added: “The arrests follow a tense weekend. On Saturday, Israeli border police said they arrested a 65-year-old Palestinian woman in Hebron after she allegedly stabbed an Israeli settler, injuring him.” In other words, the terror attack was only “alleged,” and the victim was nothing but a “settler.” However, the Palestinian man who was “assaulted by settlers” and “hospitalized” was the true victim in their eyes.
Reuters
Reuters was not much better than France 24. According to them, “An Israeli man was killed, and two others were wounded in a Palestinian shooting attack near a Jewish settler outpost in the occupied West Bank.” While they did quote Prime Minister Bennett’s condemnation of the terror attack and were willing to say that these people were terrorists in quotation marks, they did stress that in their eyes that both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are militant groups, not terrorists, when they noted that they both praised the attack.
Reuters also justified the terror attack: “Palestinians frequently complain of intimidation by Israeli troops and attacks by settlers, whose residence in the West Bank the international community considers illegal. Last week, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian during clashes at an anti-settlement protest. Israel disputes that the settlements are illegal, citing historical, biblical and political links to the West Bank, as well as its security needs.”
In other words, Reuters claims that international law is not on the side of the victims of this terror attack. Reuters claims that while it is wrong to kill, it was also wrong that a yeshiva was there in the first place and thus, this was an attack, not a terror attack. By emphasizing this, they are justifying the Palestinian terror attack.
BBC
In the eyes of the BBC, the killing of the Israeli man and the maiming of two others also took place in the “occupied West Bank” in a “so-called outpost settlement.” The BBC does quote Bennett as saying that he sought to catch those responsible and that what happened was “horrific.” Yet according to them, “Israeli settlements on territory occupied since the 1967 Middle East war are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. Palestinians claim the land for a hoped-for independent state.”
They also tried to paint the Homesh settlers as not pure victims: “Following the shooting, homes in two Palestinian villages were attacked with stones, one was set on fire and two residents were beaten in what locals say were revenge attacks by Israeli settlers.” They also added that Hamas, which they consider to be a militant group rather than a terror group, called what happened part of their “legitimate struggle.”
However, unlike Reuters and France 24, the BBC did also add: “The shooting follows a spate of attacks on Israeli Jews in recent weeks. Last week in Jerusalem, a 14-year-old Palestinian girl was arrested on suspicion of stabbing her Jewish neighbor. Days earlier, a Palestinian stabbed a Jewish man in the street before being shot dead by Border Police. Last month, a Hamas gunman killed an Israeli and wounded three others in Jerusalem’s Old City before being shot dead.”
After the terrorists were apprehended, the BBC did a follow-up article, which utilized similar language, emphasizing that the attack took place in a “settlement” in the “occupied West Bank.” According to the BBC, “Israeli media reports six Palestinian men were detained in total, including two thought to have carried out the shooting and four who allegedly helped them. The IDF meanwhile said on Twitter that four suspects were being held. The Israeli security service Shin Bet believes that at least two of the arrested men are members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.”
Al Jazeera
In the Al Jazeera article “Settlers attack Palestinian villages after West Bank killing,” the emphasis was put on the revenge attack by settlers and not on the original terror attack which sparked the settler violence. In their eyes what mattered is that “Jewish settlers have burst into several villages,” as the killing of the yeshiva student was justified for it was in the “occupied West Bank” in an “illegal outpost.” In the article, Al Jazeera calls the victim Yehuda Dimentman a “settler.”
While Al Jazeera does document both instances of violence against Jews and Palestinians, they concluded: “Israel captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. The territories are now home to more than 700,000 Jewish settlers living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts, which Palestinians seek as parts of their future independent state. Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal. Palestinians, along with most of the international community, consider settlements to be a major obstacle to peace.”
Conclusion
In all the media coverage listed, killing and maiming yeshiva students is not cited as a violation of international humanitarian law and Palestinian violence against Israelis is not listed as an obstacle to peace. However, the fact that a yeshiva exists in Homesh was considered a violation of international law and an obstacle to peace in the eyes of mainstream media.
In this way, foreign media outlets have justified the horrendous murder and maiming’s perpetrated by the Homesh terrorists who attacked innocent yeshiva students who just wanted to learn more about their faith in peace and tranquility. By appeasing these terrorists, they only encourage more Palestinian terrorist attacks.
As British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once stated, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” By feeding the crocodile known as Palestinian terrorism, one day, utilizing such rhetoric will come back to haunt these media outlets.
