HBO has a series based on a real-life crime in Israel—a 2014 case involving (in the New York Times‘ words) “a Palestinian teenager snatched off a Jerusalem street by Orthodox Jews, choked, bludgeoned and burned to death in a forest at dawn.”
And how does the Times headline its report (8/27/19) on this series?
HBO Drama Revives a National Trauma for Israel
For Israel? Yes, and by “Israel,” Times Jerusalem correspondent Isabel Kershner means Jewish Israelis; in her eyes, they are the ones for whom the murder of 16-year-old Palestinian Muhammad Abu Khdeir was a “national trauma”:
It was the extraordinary coldbloodedness of the murder that made it true-crime movie material in the first place…. But Our Boys, a 10-part series that started this month on HBO, is under attack in Israel largely because of that singularity.
Some critics have accused the creators of skewing reality and ignoring what they say is the more common scourge of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis, creating a false equivalency between the two and tarnishing Israel’s image.
Let’s stop here for a reality check: There are, in fact, statistics on who’s killing whom in Israel/Palestine. The Israeli human rights group group B’Tselem reports that since January 2009, there have been 95 Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians—and at least 1,771 “Palestinians who did not take part in hostilities…killed by Israeli security forces.” (This latter number does not include Israeli assassinations—labeled as “targeted killings”—or Palestinians killed by Israeli civilians.) There have been 13 Israeli minors killed by Palestinians since 2009, and 785 Palestinian minors killed by Israeli security forces; in other words, a child killed in the conflict is 60 times more likely to be a Palestinian child than a Jewish child.
Kershner might have pointed out that the accusation that Palestinians murdering Jewish Israelis is a “more common scourge” is an absolute inversion of reality. Instead, to cite an example of “some critics” who think it’s “skewing reality” to focus on a single Palestinian death, she turns to Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said on Twitter (8/21/19):
The series tells the whole world how the Israelis and Jews are cruel and bloodthirsty murderers, and how the Palestinians are badly done by and oppressed.
The tweeter’s father, as prime minister since March 2009, is responsible for nearly every one of those 785 Palestinian children killed by his security services.
After quoting the younger Netanyahu, Kershner acknowledges that Palestinians watching the series “also had painful memories.” As an example, she offers the parents of the murdered boy, who no doubt felt at least as bad watching a TV show about their dead child as the prime minister’s son did.
Did somebody say “false equivalency”?
ACTION:
Please tell the New York Times not to treat the murder of a Palestinian child as chiefly a “national trauma” for Jewish Israelis.
CONTACT:
Email: letters@nytimes.com
Twitter: @NYTimes
Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your message in the comments thread of this post.
Featured image: A recreation of a crime scene on HBO‘s Our Boys.
So “traumatized” the vast majority back “mowing the lawn” on a more frequent basis.
“Mowing the lawn” – to cut down the number of Palestinians Israel needs to “put on a diet.”
https://imeu.org/article/putting-palestinians-on-a-diet-israels-siege-blockade-of-gaza
Obesity is a problem in Gaza … diabetes is a plague …
Israel ships / delivers an adequate food supply daily …
YOU are mistaken to spread disinformation if YOU believe Gazans are NOT getting enough food supplies …
Like when Israel mandates only allowing imports of food into Gaza that would allow for 2,000 calories a day.
By what RIGHT does Israel have to mandate, dictate, control, allow, influence or even propose how much FOOD anyone gets anywhere???? Who in the hell do these parasites think they are? Parasites, because they get $10 million a day from US taxpayers!!! Try pulling this crap once we cut off the stream of BILLIONS that they suck up, giving US taxpayers absolutely nothing in return. It’s coming.
Remember Israel owns the USA! We will never give Israel less $; only more . Don’t delude yourself, cut backs to Israel have never happened. We’re Israel’s bitch and we love it.
Hamas is a recognized terror organization by the USA. Those that perpetrate rocket attacks / dig tunnels under the ‘Gaza/Israeli border’ in order to stealthily enter into Israel to victimize Israeli civilians … should not / will not be granted immunity. Every provocation must be answered with a ‘strong response’ … mowing the grass is the phrase used by the Israelis to describe what they intend to do. It’s a limited reprisal but just enough to show the vile Hamas Terrorists that their ‘attacks’ will not come cheap! They will pay a price!
Recognized by the USA? Takes one to know one. Not to speak of its 51st state: Israel.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, the EU and the U K have designated the military wing of Hamas as a terrorist organization. Several countries have declared all of the Hamas organization to be terrorist. These include the US, Canada, Israel and Jordan.
Why not take a step back and think.
1.” Mowing the lawn” refers to periodic attacks against Hamas in Gaza, in order to stop their unprovoked aggression against Israel, as well as to degrade their capabilities for future attacks.
2. The HBO story is about a murder by Jew,s which was widely condemned by the vast majority of Jews in Israel.
3. Most Palestinian terrorist murders and attempted murders of Jews are unprovoked, are not in a military context, AND are praised by Palestinian leaders and ordinary Palestinians.
No matter how many Palestinian children the Zionists torture to death, the children never will get any sympathy from the racist New York Times. No matter how many unarmed Palestinian medics, journalists, and children Israeli Death Force sharpshooters murder in cold blood, the racist New York Times will never lack rationalizations, or will simply ignore the murders altogether.
YOU suggested: “… Palestinian children the Zionists torture to death,”
Zionists torture children to death? Any proof?
Or is YOUR hyperbolic remark supposed to inflame those reading your post?
Furthermore you stated: “No matter how many unarmed Palestinian medics, journalists, and children Israeli Death Force sharpshooters murder …”
Unarmed Palestinians?
The pictures from the ‘Protest’ at the Gaza Fence are NOT depicting a non-violent protest … even TODAY … Israeli IDF troops were injured by shrapnel from a grenade or mortar round … eh? The leadership under Hamas’ Sinwar promised that the Gazans would March into Israel in order to KILL Jews and retake the Land from the River to the Sea. This is an ongoing struggle by the Arab/Muslims who have been attacking for 80 Years …
The IDF issued warnings NOT to approach the Fence … remember?
tzatz, you are obviously just stirring up crap with your troll postings here. You ignore facts that most people in the world acknowledge as self evident and keep citing Israel as the victim. Sorry, that song and dance is so stale and ridiculous that it is in the dustbin of history. Lie all you want. Makes no difference. Everyone knows who is building settlements on other people’s land and using the American taxpayer’s $10 million a day to do so. Everyone knows who are using snipers to shoot and murder unarmed civilians from over a wall. Everyone knows who using rock throwing as an excuse to brutalize kids. Jews across the USA & Canada are now also calling these right-wing Zionists out on their genocide. So keep babbling your propaganda if you want. No one is listening any more. The jig is up.
Well-said, R.D.B. The Zionist trolls just ignore the statistics that JN quotes in his above article from the ISRAELI group B’Tselem, which can’t be explained/rationalized-away…
https://www.theonion.com/idf-soldier-recounts-harrowing-heroic-war-story-of-kil-1826048745
The thrust of the series to this point is that the Police and Security Services are ‘shocked’ that the vile act of terrorism perpetrated on the kidnapped youth was even possible. They are shocked that the perpetrators are Mizrachi who are NOT affiliated with other Jewish youth who are keen on perpetrating acts against Palestinians. What I find totally absurd is that in Israel … BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING !!! It’s clear that all communications are / can be listened in on by these services. NO ONE is exempt from the prying ears of the ‘security services’ … it’s clear that Israelis are accepting of this compromise in order to prevent and/or apprehend terrorists! The action to this point seems VERY REAL and each party … the Israelis and the Palestinians are drawn from ‘REAL LIFE’ … these are NOT cartoon characters. Much effort has been expended to show what life is like in the Mizrachi and the Arab/Muslim quarters! I commend the directors and writers …
Up to this point … both sides are being depicted sympathetically … not with ‘rose coloured glasses’ but with what appears to be real empathy.
How many of the “civilian” Palestinians killed by Israelis were involved in the “peaceful” demonstrations along the border between Gaza and Israel? Many children were encouraged or forced by Palestinian adults to stay close to the Palestinian rioters who we’re sending balloons carrying fire bombs into Israel to burn crops and trees, in an attempt to shield the adults from Israeli sharp-shooters who were trying to neutralise the bomb throwers in Gaza.
Good that SOMEBODY is calling out the wildly dishonest/propagandist coverage of the Israel/Palestine conflict.
The fact that the state founded by/for possibly the most persecuted group in human history has grown up to be an aggressive apartheid state is a world-historic tragic irony, the cycle of abuse (abused -> abuser, rinse/repeat) writ large. We cannot hope to mitigate much less solve this ongoing conflict if we can’t even get honest reporting of the facts on the ground.
TO: “Enai
August 30, 2019 at 11:50 pm
Good that SOMEBODY is calling out the wildly dishonest/propagandist coverage of the Israel/Palestine conflict.”
Funny you should say that. What I, and millions of others believe is that ” the wildly dishonest/propagandist coverage of the Israel/Palestine conflict.” is SKEWED AGAINST ISRAEL. The NYT , in fact, is frequently criticized for just that distortion. Occasionally, they have even gone so far as to acknowledge their “unfortunate errors”
So you admit to holding a patently false and wildly delusional belief: the suggestion that mainstream media coverage is biased AGAINST Israel on this topic is on par with asserting that 2+2=5 or that London is the capital of France. Its so far from anything resembling a rational proposition, that merely referencing it destroys your credibility.
But, the fact that you are open and honest about this unsupported delusion is probably a meaningful first step towards remedying it. Consuming non-propagandist coverage/research on this topic- such as from Fair- will help you progress towards an ability to discuss and think about this topic with something approaching mental clarity and objectivity.
Neutralone, you are absolutely right, of course. But FAIR suffers from a pathological anti-Zionist obsession, and so I wouldn’t expect its coverage of this story to be any different. Interestingly, FAIR has refused to cover the scandal of Tom Wright-Piersanti, whose open anti-Semitism undoubtedly affects the Times’ political reporting, including its coverage of Israel. For another example, FAIR has failed to indict the mainstream media for failing to adequately cover the sponsorship of Tlaib’s aborted trip to Israel by Miftah, which published the blood libel, glorified terrorism and disseminated the writing of neo-Nazis.
Reporting facts= anti-Zionist obsession?
I guess that’s sort of like how any criticism of Netanyahu, Israel’s military, or Israel’s government is magically anti-Semitic, regardless of whether its actually anti-Semitic or not? I can’t even imagine being so blindly partisan and dogmatic in apologizing for a particular state actor, come what may, that someone simply stating facts strikes you as somehow biased or prejudiced. I’d feel sorry for you, but for the fact that your flavor of fanaticism leads to tangible suffering and death.
I sent the following comment to the appended Times email address:
The above referenced column is a complete inversion of the terrorism dynamic in Israel/Palestine. Please do not to treat the murder of a Palestinian child as chiefly a “national trauma” for Jewish Israelis.
So distressing. Israelis acting like Nazis!
NY Times, your portrayal of HBO’s “Our Boys” series is a 100% false equivalency!
It is clearly biased bigotry to treat the murder of a Palestinian child as chiefly a “national trauma” for Jewish Israelis. Another huge fabrication pushing pro-Israeli propaganda.
An outrage and an insult to Palestinians as well as to the intelligence of your readers.
An apology is in order.
The NYT also reported, on 29 August, on the death of Jim Leavelle who was the detective who escorted Lee Harvey Oswald when he was shot dead. He was 99.
The man who shot him was Jack Ruby whom the NYT merely describes as a ‘nightclub owner’.
But there is rather more to Jack Ruby than that. In 1947, he was introduced to Congressman Richard Nixon by Murray Chotiner as, as Nixon later stated, ‘one of Lyndon Johnson’s boys’. Ruby then worked as an informant for the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
It is interesting to speculate on why Oswald was not guarded better and how Ruby got to be there at the crucial time. Is it purely coincidence that Ruby was someone who had longstanding ties to Lyndon Johnson, the most obvious person to benefit from the Kennedy assassination?
Nixon did not think so. He believed that LBJ had ordered the assassination and that the killing of Oswald was designed to silence him.
The CIA repeatedly tried to frustrate President Nixon’s access to its JFK assassination files and it was a constant source of tension between him and the agency.
I strongly believe that Johnson killed President Kennedy.