Also, the harassment regarding “incidents of conflict” when Palestinians kill Jews. The dreadful way in which settlers are blamed for events in which they are the victims. And why the IDF refuses to publish details of the events and allow us to judge for ourselves.
By Kalman Liebeskind, SOVEREIGN MOVEMENT December 29, 2023
Fake. Incitement. Disinformation. Each of these options is suitable to describe the sensational story “exposed” last week on Efi Triger’s show on Galei Zahal (official radio station of IDF).
“Judea and Samaria are in flames” Triger updated, and described that “in an internal IDF document it has been revealed that in the two months since the war broke out, there has been a more than 54% increase in nationalist crimes by settlers in Judea and Samaria relative to the previous two months.”
Hod Barel, the correspondent who reported the story, it quickly became apparent, made a jumble of the data leaked to him from someone in the IDF, on the way to the bottom line.
“According to official internal data of the defense establishment that reached Galei Zahal,” he said, “in the first two months of the war, 201 nationalist crimes were perpetrated by Jews against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. By comparison, in the two months before the war, 130 nationalist crimes were recorded by the IDF. We see a 54% increase in incidents.”
After dropping the bombshell, details began to emerge, taking the hot air out of the balloon inflated at the military broadcasting station. “136 of them, that is, the majority, are incidents characterized as violent clashes or stone throwing incidents. The reference is to incidents where, typically, both parties, Palestinians and Jews, are involved. For the army arriving on the scene, it is not usually clear who initiated and instigated the confrontation.”
“A senior security official who confirmed the data,” the journalist reported, “informs us that most of the severe criminal incidents occurred during the first month after the war broke out, and now there is a certain decrease on the ground in the number of incidents in the area.”
A few days passed, and the IDF itself had to retract this false report, which someone had an interest in promoting. This happened after Ariel Kahana exposed in “Yisrael Hayom” that the data actually indicates a significant decrease in incidents of that kind.
I prefer not to begin breaking down the numbers one by one because there is a much broader conceptual problem here. This is because the question is not whether there is an increase or decrease in incidents, but whether this story is supposed to interest us any more than the data on the rise or fall of crime in Hadera or Arad.
But just because this cannot be completely ignored, let us say that since history teaches that clashes between Arabs and Jews in Judea and Samaria depend on many seasonal variables, such as the olive harvest, comparing the situation this month to the situation in the previous month is like saying that there was a significant increase in rainfall in winter relative to the preceding summer.
What does a comparison of the real annual data say? In November this year, there was a decrease of 55% in incidents relative to the previous year, and in October, there was a 31% decrease in incidents relative to the previous year.
But put this distortion aside. Galei Zahal and that same IDF official who provided the data, relate that 136 of the 201 incidents that occurred during the period of the war, are, as the correspondent explained, “incidents characterized as violent clashes or stone throwing incidents. The reference is to incidents where, typically, both parties, Palestinians and Jews, are involved. These are cases in which both sides are usually involved, both Palestinians and Jews. For the army arriving on the scene, it is not usually clear who initiated and instigated the confrontation.” I emphasize again: 136 out of 201, meaning that the IDF cannot determine “the exact instigator” in 67% of the incidents. But that was sufficient for him to categorize them as the criminal acts of Jews.
What kind of twisted Jewish mind decides that in any event where it is not clear who was at fault, the Arabs or the Jews, the default assumption is that the Jews are guilty?
As mentioned, these numbers are not really important. Addressing them is nothing other than a deliberate diversion from the truly important facts. These facts indicate that while Galei Zahal sends their reporters to find out what the settlers are doing to the Palestinians and in how many incidents of conflict where it is unclear who initiated them they were involved, Palestinians continue to relentlessly try to murder Jews in staggering numbers.
This data from the General Security Service report for the months of October and November in Judea and Samaria, and Jerusalem, the same months covered by the Galei Tzahal report. In these two months alone, Palestinians perpetrated 458 Molotov cocktail attacks, 259 pipe bomb attacks, 103 attacks with guns or rifles, 23 arson attacks, 4 car-ramming attacks, and 7 stabbing attacks against Jews.
These numbers do not include incidents of stone throwing at private vehicles, which, according to official data, include only incidents in which the Jewish victims took the trouble of reporting to the authorities, there are ten incidents on average every day.
Oh, and one more thing. In the month of November alone, while Galei Zahal was busy counting “incidents of conflict” or scuffles between Jewish and Arab shepherds, seven Jews were murdered in Palestinian terrorist attacks.
So that you will understand the value of the statistics that they are feeding us, take, for example, one of the stories of that “nationalist crime” of Jews, regarding which the Galei Zahal correspondent reported that “the IDF cannot determine the exact instigator” and therefore it was counted to the detriment of the Jews. This example, cited by the reporter from the IDF document, relates that “several Palestinians who threw stones at an Israeli vehicle in which there were two settlers and a reserve soldier near Kisan (southeast of Bethlehem, KL). In response, the occupants left the car and the reserve soldier fired into the air (no damage and no injured, KL). Then, the Palestinians struck the civilians, threw stones at them, and tried unsuccessfully to snatch the gun from the soldier.
“As a result of the clash, a settler was injured in a non-critical manner, and was evacuated by Magen David Adom to Shaare Zedek Hospital. Subsequently, stones were thrown at a patrol vehicle of an IDF force in the region… The force disembarked from the patrol vehicle and fired toward the suspects. As a result, three Palestinians were wounded, one critically, one lightly, and a third whose condition was unknown, who were evacuated by the Red Crescent to the medical center in Tekoa.
Later, an additional nationalist crime occurred following a violent confrontation due to a physical clash between 20 settlers and 20 Palestinians in the area. No damage and no injured.” This is the complete quote from the IDF document.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.