By Fady Khoury
Ten Palestinians were killed today (Thursday) – nine of which were children – and dozens more injured when a bus crashed into a truck on the road between Qalandiya and the Adam settlement, near the northern border between Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The bus – which was carrying kids from the “Nour Al-Huda” kindergarten in the Shuafat refugee camp (East Jerusalem) on their way for a day of fun in Ramallah – collided with a truck, rolled over and burst into flames. The reasons for the collision have not been determined yet.
While no one can deny that this is truly a tragedy, some found their inner-racist and it guided them through this impossible task.
The tragic story was covered by a lot of Israeli news websites, which all have comment pages (called talkbacks in Hebrew) open for readers to comment on articles. Most of these websites also have a Facebook page where they share their news and readers – who are identified by their profiles – are able to openly comment on them.
One of these websites is “Walla News” which posted a report about the accident on its Facebook page. Most of the readers were shocked and horrified by the fact that children were killed, but a bunch of them were not as horrified when they found out who the victims were. Take a look:
It is important to point out that there were a lot of readers who condemned these and other racist comments.
I decided to bring these comments to the fore for one reason. Israelis tend to accuse Palestinians of being immoral because once and again the Israeli media shows Palestinians gloating and celebrating over the death of innocent Israelis. The reaction of these ordinary Israelis to the death of Palestinian children shows that the “moral” party in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not so moral after all.
This is not an attempt to bash any individual. My only intention is to show an example of the consequences of continuous occupation, which is affecting Israeli society as well as Palestinian society.
Moreover, there cannot be any doubt that these individuals feel comfortable openly expressing their hateful and racist opinions in a public domain mainly because discriminatory political discourse has legitimized this type of expression.
In my view, these comments should cause concern to Israelis more than Palestinians. Once hateful speech becomes legitimate, even if not explicitly, it tend to seep inwards, and in a divided and fragmented society – which is clearly the case in Israel – the risk is even greater.
Fady Khoury is a legal intern at Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not Adalah.
February 17, 2012
6:04 pm
“When Eden Abgeril posted her photos of abusing Palestinian prisoners, should she have been given a pass? No, she was demonized, she deserved it, and the incident opened some eyes.”
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There is a big difference between wanting someone to face justice and demonising them. Justice involves remembering who Eden Abergil was. As with all soldiers, she got her call-up notice at the age of seventeen. At eighteen, fresh out of high school, she was given a gun and the authority to push people around. Eighteen-year-olds in Israel are no different from eighteen-year-olds elsewhere. For many of them, army will be their first experience of living away from home for extended periods. The peer pressure in that situation can be pretty tough (especially if you’re a girl in a combat unit). It doesn’t surprise me when young people respond to that situation by going on a massive power trip. If Eden Abergil’s situation teaches us anything, it’s about the wickedness of conscription, not the wickedness of Eden Abergil. She said in her radio interview, with a defiant confusion that was heartbreaking to hear, “But I don’t understand what I did wrong.” How could she understand? She had only imbibed the surrounding attitudes, after all. She never did face any justice for what she’d done. She was scapegoated for making IDF look bad. I felt nothing but sorry for her.
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It’s the same with these comments. I agree that they needed to be published. I disagree with the way some people are using the information now that they have it. There is nothing to be gained from vilifying the commenters, certainly not justice. Did anything positive emerge from the demonisation of Eden Abergil? Soldiers still abuse detained Palestinians. The only thing that happened is that one young woman was turned into a symbol of abusive power at work, and she’s not a symbol, she’s a human being. Real justice remembers that.
February 17, 2012
7:20 pm
A symbol? A scapegoat? How about, a lesson? A cautionary tale? Unless someone is held up as an example, how can the enabling climate be changed?
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As long as “everyone does it” is accepted as an excuse, everyone will keep doing it.
February 17, 2012
8:29 pm
Vicky–thank you, as always. That’s a beautiful response. I think, also as always, that if you want to lead people to make certain connections, from many point A’s to point B’s (per our previous dialogue), then you need to connect the dots for them. I guess, then, that if you were the person posting this link, I’d ask that you do so with a personal header that did just that. I still hold the same concerns about reposting the extreme hate on either side, and at the same time, I really apprecaite your response. I’m also so sorry about your friend’s baby; I’ve heard many similar, horrifying stories–it’s awful. The bottom line is 972′s bottom line: the occupation simply must end. Does this post get us closer, or further? that’s what I wonder. Take care, and thank you for your being.
February 17, 2012
10:55 pm
Just a personal disclosure here: I’m that “person A” or “Likud voter” who, according to Vicky, is sincerely disgusted by those comments but is also responsible for the abusive climate where those commenters felt “comfortable” posting what they did. What’s never been shown, though, is exactly how I’ve created this climate by supporting the occupation or whatever – a climate which exists practically everywhere on the Internet, occupation or no occupation. One can always tell a good story about how X is the cause of Y (X being something you don’t like), but is there any *evidence* of causation, beyond the good story? I’m skeptical but open to evidence.
February 18, 2012
4:37 am
Wow, the Israel-bashers really work hard at this stuff. So you found some disgusting idiots on some message board, and this is worthy of an entire feature? Anything to froth up the Israel-bashers, I guess.
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Do you also write full features discussing what is said negatively on Middle East message boards about Jews/Israel?
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Anyway, of course I agree with the premise of the article, that such comments celebrating Palestinian kids being in a bus accident are disgusting.
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Of course, the internet’s Israel-haters all love this article and have retweeted it about a billion times, exaggerating the importance of a handful of facebook comments
February 18, 2012
8:02 am
Aaron, causation is one of those things that’s only provable by inference. We see correlation, we infer causation.
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What I know is, I’ve seen racist social climate change. Being old, I remember the Eenie Meenie Minie Mo game that went “catch a nigger by the toe.” Nowadays, most people won’t even spell out the N-word. It’s a taboo. How did it get that way? Because kids using that rhyme were called out in public for it and told the language was unacceptable. Because public figures were fired for using it in public. So it’s certainly possible. But it takes the willingness to confront the racism when it appears, and to shame the people exhibiting it. It takes not keeping silent. Not acting is passive causation, just as much as actions are causative.
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So – have you been silent or have you spoken out?
February 18, 2012
9:22 am
Passerby, I don’t know where you are taking these stats from. The average Palestinian life expectancy is about four years lower than that of the average American (and nearly ten years lower than that of the average Israeli, which is a more instructive comparison to make, considering they are inhabiting the same space and living under the same regime). As for Palestinians being ‘healthier’ than Americans, I presume you’re referring to the OECD survey that ranked the USA twenty-eighth in the world for the provision of primary care. That’s not an indication of overall population health, that is an indicator of service provision, and countries such as Chile ranked higher than the USA on that scoring measure. Do you want to dispute the healthcare crises that exist in Chilean slums and to present the occupants as healthier than Americans? It should be noted that Palestine receives about 86% of its gross national income in the form of aid, including healthcare. This is a fragile society, not a flourishing one.
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If you would like to put the stories I tell in context, you could look at the Lancet medical journal’s recently published study on checkpoints, childbirth, and maternal health; and the vast amount of data gathered by the various humanitarian welfare organisations that operate in the OPT, from Medical Aid to Palestinians to UNICEF, from Oxfam to the International Red Cross. There are reports from Machsom Watch observers (some of which are now available in a published book), reports from Yesh Din, from Physicians for Human Rights. The data is there if you want to look at it.
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Or you can take comfort from the fact that you don’t have to look at it, because it’s quite possible to live in Israel without encountering Palestinians from the OPT. Anyone can go on sitting behind a computer screen and reassuring himself, “It’s all unverifiable, what she’s saying. In any case, these Arabs would have it much worse if they lived in Somalia.”
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I would say that this is what’s shameful, but actually I don’t blame you for it. In your position it might well be the option that I would choose. Most of us duck away from things that we’d rather not look at. I was raised in a very military family, and it was painful on a personal level to let go of the fiction of a principled military and an ethical arms trade. In the end I had to. My feelings are not more worthy of protection than human lives, even when those feelings involve my family.
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If you read about the movement restrictions in detail, you will see that they predate suicide bombings and other attacks by far; that closures are imposed completely arbitrarily (today a street is open, tomorrow it’s not); and that people are routinely held up at roadblocks and checkpoints for hours, with no reason being given, even when those people are very sick. The restrictions on movement have nothing to do with security, as you can tell by one quick glance at the permit system itself, which is illogical in its bureaucracy. It’s getting harsher and more draconian all the time.
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I don’t expect you to understand why or how these living conditions led to the Second Intifada, because you honestly believe that the occupation is a benign thing and that Palestinians have never had it so good. When you believe this, what possible reason could anybody have for a violent uprising other than simple anti-Semitism? But it’s not like that. Recently I was at a conference that had a lot of speakers from African countries. One Rwandan speaker told us that the last words of his Tutsi neighbour before she was hacked to death by a Hutu militiaman had been, “If you really knew me, you wouldn’t kill me.” The occupation has imposed a system of separation on people that makes it very easy to kill one another, and to justify killing. The results are terrible. I am sorry for the bereavements endured by your friends. I will never put their stories aside, because every life matters. I ask you to try not to sideline the life of Sylvana’s son and those like him either.
February 18, 2012
9:27 am
P.S. Aaron, this fits in with what you are saying about the Internet. I agree that people say things online that they would never say in real life. The Internet affords a separation that enables them to do that. They don’t have to look at the faces of these people when they wish them dead. They don’t even have to know their names. In this climate, people become concepts. Occupation imposes separation with exactly the same results. You have Israelis talking about Palestinians (when they’ve never talked to any Palestinian in their lives). You have the little girl in Hebron whose story I’ve mentioned elsewhere, who responded to a school visit from an Israeli Jewish couple with, “But you aren’t real Israelis! Where are your Israeli clothes?” Army uniform was her concept of an Israeli. This is why so much peace work centres on promoting contact, so that concepts are replaced by real people.
February 18, 2012
11:31 am
These reprehensible anti-Palestinian comments are disgusting, but not racist. Palestinian is not a race. These are the kind of demonizing, dehumanizing comments that are inexcusable, but very common in time of war. The Palestinian people are at war with Israel. After over sixty years, it is time to end the war on Israel.
It is not armed struggle nor non-violent resistance that will bring down the wall, end the occupation and establish a free and independent Palestinian State. Rather it is mutual acceptance and respect. This begins with the recognition of Israel as the Jewish State and the legitimate authority on its territory, deserving of peace and security.
February 18, 2012
12:15 pm
- This article is picking at straws:
“Most of the readers were shocked and horrified by the fact that children were killed, but a bunch of them were not…”
- Taking a handful of Israelis to represent an entire society?
“The reaction of these ordinary Israelis to the death of Palestinian children shows that the “moral” party in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not so moral after all.”
- The bias in this article is explained:
“My only intention is to show an example of the consequences of continuous occupation”.
Why pin it to the effect of occupation?
Why not simply conclude that due to Arab aggression against Israelis, some Israelis tend to care less for Arabs?
Your bias not only forces you to hang on to straws, it also distorts your logic.
February 18, 2012
12:52 pm
so this is interesting: I found these comments, and the number of “likes” they got, so hard to believe (under these circumstances) that I looked up each commenter on FB. None of them exist. I know the names have been blacked out here, but two of my fb friends posted it without blacking the names out. A year ago, I wouldn’t have thought to wonder if this was made up, but I’ve become privy to all kinds of crazy online comment warfare. Israeli Hasbarists go online sometimes under false profiles pretending to be Palestinians who hate Israelis. Sometimes, one person makes up many different profiles and assumes many identities. I would really not be surprised if this is fiction. Fiction that is getting a LOT of attention, all over the internet, doing a lot of damage. I wouldn’t even speculate re: who would be making these comments up. Could be anyone, from any background, who doesn’t want us to see each other humanly. If in fact this is made up, that just takes my initial response to another level regarding the fire we are feeding. We, who so badly want the opposite.
February 18, 2012
1:00 pm
I’m arguing, then, that WE are the ones, right here, creating a culture where these comments are possible, because every Palestinian who reads these comments is being very good reason to hate Israelis or to see Israelis as people who hate them, and this is the same when Israel supporters spread the most extremely hateful response from Palestinians in response to something heartbreaking for them, and it snowballs into the culture Vicky is so beautifully, and knowledgably, discussing. We are creating it, too, friends. Energy flows where attention flows. I wouldn’t be an avid 972 reader if I didn’t support reporting on injustice or systematic racism, so please, don’t comment back saying I want us to put our heads in the sand. I’m speaking about giving airtime to the basest hatred on any side, whether it is true or not. In this case, I doubt it is true. But again, even if it is. A lot of different, true things, if given our attention, could tilt the scales toward compassion and awareness and, thus, ending the occupation.
February 18, 2012
3:37 pm
I think most Palestinians can find plenty and sufficient reason to hate Israelis without reading comments from American expats on blogs.
February 18, 2012
3:59 pm
Aristeides–obviously. That does not counter any of my points.
February 18, 2012
4:51 pm
Ayla, Facebook users can set their profiles so that they don’t show up in a search for their name. That you couldn’t find them isn’t proof that this is just a hoax or some Palestinian propaganda effort. Unless you can demonstrate that it was indeed some Palestinians behind this, I suggest it’s inappropriate to insinuate that they are responsible for this vile language.
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As for what it takes to end the conflict, your analysis completely ignores the institutionalization of anti-Palestinian racism (and dehumanization). This is a self-perpetuating dynamic that is independent of how most Israelis feel or don’t feel about Palestinians. In the US, the vast majority of white people are against racial discrimination, yet doesn’t change the fact that in the year 2012 our justice system puts 1 out of every 9 black men between the ages of 20 and 39 behind bars, for example. Nor does it change the fact that large swathes of American Indians live in unconscionable squalor (google “Pine Ridge Reservation winter” for a taste of this).
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The same is true in Israel. I’m sure the vast majority of you all would never say what was said in this Facebook comments. That means diddly squat in terms of Palestinian wellbeing and rights.
February 18, 2012
5:54 pm
Compassion and awareness aren’t going to end the occupation. Not in the face of racism and greed.
February 19, 2012
7:20 am
Sinjim–I am not ignoring anything that you say I’m ignoring; I’m simply not taking on every single aspect of this conflict in response to this one post. I personally think that this kind of post, on either side, hurts the conflict. I’ve made my case for why.
February 19, 2012
10:33 am
Of course you can test claims of causation. Do the putative cause and effect co-vary over time and space? A negative answer, which I think we have here, casts strong doubt on causation. Is the putative cause more strongly associated with the effect than other possible causes? Is there evidence of an actual mechanism by which the effect is caused? (A positive answer supports causation, a negative answer doesn’t necessarily cast doubt on it.) Are there more parsimonious models that explain the observations at least as well? These are just some of the ways to test claims of causation. Anybody can make up a good story.
February 19, 2012
11:57 am
You guys are missing the main point: unfortunently there are racists and idiots in Israel’s, just like any society, but comparing them to the Palestinians’ celebrations of the death of Jews is wrong and here’s why- Israeli media condemns these comments and Walla deleted them quickly. On the other hand, the Palestinian media supports these sort of views and not only does it not censor them, it chooses to show such celebrations of deaths.
February 19, 2012
12:21 pm
Aaron – of course you can test claims of causation – I never claimed otherwise. But in the end, it’s still an inference. The evidence is indirect.
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At any rate, the question you posed was HOW the climate of intolerance is created and sustained. I reject the explanation that racism is intrinsic to Jews. I believe it arises and is sustained in Jewish communities, and especially in Israel, by the same means this occurs in any other community.