Settlers Try to Lynch Palestinian

Last Wednesday, several settler youth nearly stoned to death a 15 year old Palestinian in the Gaza Strip.  As Uri Avnery writes,

All the world saw the horror on TV: a Palestinian boy lying on the ground, unconscious. An Israeli soldier bending over him, not knowing what to do. A settler coming up from behind and throwing a stone at the head of the injured Palestinian. Another settler dropping a big stone on him at point-blank range. A bearded medic, also a settler, approaches the wounded boy, hesitates, and then goes away without treating him, pursued by the chants of a chorus of settler boys and girls: "Let him die! Let him die!"

Another article about it is here.  An absolutely horrible event that should be condemned.  But of course that's not the case.  Rumors are circulating that this was all a setup to attack the settlers.  Nonsense. 

Israel National News and our friend Israellycool are concocting an elaborate story based on a photograph and the words of an anonymous settler youth. 

Prior to the attempted lynching, there is a photograph of the victim throwing a stone.  Israellycool insinuates that because of this act alone the youth got what he deserved.  (Someone should point out to David that throwing rocks over a long distance and pelting someone in the face from a few feet away while the person is lying on the ground is not the same thing.)  Regardless, there is basically agreement all around that the Palestinians only started throwing stones after a) settler youth wrote "Muhammad Pig!" on a building or b) a settler youth started throwing stones first. 

The main crux of this attempted revision of recent history is the argument that the media told this kid who was getting stoned to lie down and feign unconsciousness.  Again, nonsense.  Though the settlers and their mouthpieces can attempt to spread their lies, there are some of us who watch the news.  The attack is on video, including the part where the youth clearly loses consciousness and falls over.  You can watch it on LinkTV here.  (You have to wait for it to load and then jump to the section, about halfway through.  Here are the July 1 contents, so you can see where it is in the program.)  Be warned, it is, of course, awfully graphic.

The video also proves a point I made in an earlier post about the army and settlers basically being in cahoots.  While the youth is being stoned, the soldier is just standing there, certainly not doing much to protect him.  (Imagine if it had been Palestinians stoning a settler, they would have all been dead.)  And later on, the victim recounts how it was the soldier who started beating on him first. 

So no, there's not a conspiracy to make the settlers look bad.  They just naturally do it themselves.

UPDATE:  After watching the video and taking a still of it, Dave at Israellycool has retracted his claim of a setup and admits it was not staged.  I thank him for making that correction. 

Comments

[Dave]

"Prior to the attempted lynching, there is a photograph of the victim throwing a stone. Israellycool insinuates that because of this act alone the youth got what he deserved"

More lies, Scott. I insinuate that the PLO Arab was not "innocent" and just minding his own business when attacked. How about quoting me in full. Like this:

"I have not been comfortable with the term "lynching", but in the absence of any evidence to suggest that it was not an attempt to kill an innocent person, I was not going to say as much. After all, I feel strongly about all deliberate attempts to kill an innocent human being. However, I couldn't help but feel that there was a chance that things were not as they seemed, and that this might have been a part of the systermatic effort to demonize residents of the disputed territories."

And this:

"Don't get me wrong. If it turns out that Israelis did try to kill the PLO Arab while he was lying down, I will still condemn this behavior."

So once again, you take words or pictures out of context.

[scott]

Dave, you also write,

"the "innocent" PLO Arab being protected was not as innocent as everyone would like to have you believe."

I feel that insinuates something beyond the stated text.

However, that is really beside the point as the fact of the matter is your whole argument is false. Why do you not address that?

[Dave]

How is my whole argument false? Read my update. I saw your video, and it seems consistent with what I said. I never claimed that the PLO Arab was not hit by stones; what I did claim, on the basis of the photos, is that the incident, or at least part of it, was staged. The video seems to be consistent with this.

[Womble]

The video doesn't seem to work for me. The website uploads, the video does not. Can it be viewed elsewhere?

[scott]

Dave, I didn't see your update before my last comment. I still don't understand your insistence that it's some conspiracy and not just a kid getting hit in the head with a rock and then passing out.

Womble, do you have Quicktime? It says you need the latest version. Then maybe the link will work. You can also try to load it from that webpage, click on "watch episode" or just on "July 1, 2005" on the left. I don't know if it is elsewhere. The specific clip is from IBA TV, so if they have a website or something, maybe it's on there.

[Dave]

I have viewed the footage again and taken stills. I now believe that it was not staged.

You see? I really have no problem examining facts and coming to my opinions based on these facts. If I am wrong, I readily admit it.

What I want to know is why you still insist on falsehoods which were proved false?

[scott]

Thanks for making the correction, Dave. I've noted it in my post.

As for this, "What I want to know is why you still insist on falsehoods which were proved false?"

I don't know to what you're referring to. When I've made mistakes, I've admitted them.