Robert Spencer : The first thing to consider is the context for this shooting. Four
separate terrorist attacks in rapid succession, in Beersheva, Hadera,
Bnei Brak, and Tel Aviv, resulted recently in the deaths of 14 Israelis.
Members of ISIS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and even Fatah, have taken
part in one or more of these attacks; the terror groups have proudly
claimed responsibility, and vowed to continue. There is heightened
tension at Israeli checkpoints, as searches go on throughout the West
Bank by the IDF, rounding up suspects who may have been involved as
accomplices in the most recent attacks, or been planning other attacks
still to come. At the same time, the IDF and Shin Bet are well aware of
the increased use of female terrorists, who are able to more easily hide
their weapons under their Islamic dress.
In this tense atmosphere, a Palestinian woman walked directly toward
an Israeli soldier standing at a checkpoint at the village of Husan. She
held one hand up above her head, in a menacing matter, as if clutching
something. She was ordered to halt. She kept walking. Warning shots were
fired in the air. At that point, she began to run straight at the
soldier, still with her hand in the air, seeming to hold onto something.
As she ran at him, with what seemed might be a knife gripped in her
raised hand, he fired another warning shot, and as she kept going, fired
at her legs, to stop her in her tracks. She then fell down, and the
Israeli soldiers, including the shooter, immediately rushed to treat
her, and one of them called for an ambulance.
You can see the video of the incident on YouTube.
But none of this is conveyed in the AP headline that reads:
Israelis shoot, kill 2 Palestinians; one was unarmed.
And at US News the headline reads: āIsraeli soldiers shoot and kill unarmed Palestinian woman in West Bank.āā¦
What
the Associated Press and United Press International overlook is that
Israeli security forces have on numerous occasions in the past been
targeted by Palestinian women, as well as those eyeing āsuicide by policeā; namely, intentionally drawing fire from security services by acting in a suspicious or threatening mannerā¦.
The IDF has been more suspicious of Palestinian men at checkpoints,
for historically they have been responsible for most of the terrorist
attacks at such places. Until recently, the IDF and Israeli police have
been less attentive to women. As a result, Palestinian women have been
increasingly used as suicide bombers; some have also been engaged in
āsuicide by police,ā despairing of the misery of their own lives, they
act in such a āsuspicious or threatening mannerā toward Israeli security
operatives, as to ensure that they will be fired upon. The āunarmed
Palestinian womanā who pretended to be holding a knife as she ignored
orders to stop and ran directly at an Israeli soldier may have been
doing just that ā āsuicide by police.ā
As a result, female
suicide bombers hiding explosives under their clothing, not to mention
the use of ambulances to smuggle weapons to terrorists, have become
increasingly used to attack Israelis.
Yet, when all readers see is āunarmedā in a headline, they are highly unlikely to internalize any of this relevant information.
Meanwhile, another possible attack has received virtually no international media coverage.
A
man was shot dead on April 10, close to Israelās southern city of
Ashkelon, after attempting to steal a weapon from a female soldier at a
bus stop.
According to local media, the suspect was
identified as a Jewish Israeli man in his 20s who had escaped from a
mental health facility.ā¦
Yet if a
story canāt be framed to fit into the Palestinian victimhood narrative,
then thereās evidently no compelling reason to report on it.ā¦
Since the person shot was a mentally unbalanced Jewish Israeli, and
not a Palestinian, no one outside Israel deemed the story worth
carrying. UP and AP only want stories about unfeeling Israeli soldiers
who shoot to kill, for no reason at all, unarmed Palestinians.
The IDF soldier, observing another ā female ā soldier being attacked
by a man who was trying to wrest away her weapon, did the right thing in
shooting him. This Jewish Israeli was obviously a clear and present
danger ā what would he want with that weapon except to use it on others?
No one present at the incident knew that he was mentally imbalanced,
but even if they had, it should not have made any difference in how the
soldiers quite correctly decided to āneutralizeā ā i.e., kill ā him. The
incident does show that the IDF does not distinguish in its response to
people posing a mortal danger; Jews are treated exactly as are Arabs.
Israel is not engaged in wanton killings of the innocent. It is
trying only to protect its own citizens, and soldiers, from terrorists.
The IDF does everything it can to limit the harm to Palestinians whose
threatening behavior could make them targets. Soldiers first warn them
verbally to halt, then ā in crowd situations ā use tear gas and rubber
bullets, then fire warning shots in the air. If the Palestinian, or
Palestinians, are still pushing forward and throwing rocks, Molotov
cocktails, and other potentially lethal items, the soldiers have been
trained to fire at their legs to immobilize them. If the Palestinians
nonetheless push forward, and continue, in the judgment of the soldiers,
to still pose a threat, only then are the soldiers authorized to shoot
above the waist.
How could those headlines have been rewritten to give a more accurate account?
What about:
āIsraelis Shoot Palestinian Woman Who Stabbed Soldier, Another Who Ignored Calls To Haltā
Or
āPalestinian Woman Ignores Calls To Halt, Is Shot After Running At Israeli Soldierā
These give a clearer picture of what actually happened. In neither
case was the Palestinian woman simply an innocent. The first was shot
after stabbing a soldier. The second was shot only after ignoring calls
to halt, followed by warning shots that were also ignored, while running
directly towards a soldier, seeming to clutch in her fist held high an
object that could easily have been mistaken for a knife. It turned out
that here was no knife; she was unarmed; but in the split-second
decision-making by the soldier, he can hardly be faulted for thinking
that in repeatedly refusing warnings to stop, this woman was hellbent on
stabbing him.