14 mar 2011
The victims of the Itamar massacre were buried today in Israel and most who eulogized the Fogel family shouted suitably racist slogans demanding vengeance and the like. They called them a korban, or blood sacrifice on the altar of Greater Israel. But there was a still small voice of sanity, and it was from the victim’s brother:
Motti Fogel, brother of Udi Fogel, eulogized his younger brother but warned that his death cannot be used as a tool in a national struggle.
“All of the slogans we hear are trying to efface the simple fact that you’re dead, and nothing can efface that. This funeral has to be a private affair,” Fogel said, adding: “A man dies to himself, to his children. Udi, you are no a national event. You’re horrible death mustn’t make your life into a tool.”
“Udi, my young brother, you made me wake up today at 6:15 in the morning, and you know how hard that is for me. Everything I could say would be a cliché. If I could, I’d chase out everyone who came here and whisper to you, ‘Udi, let’s go play soccer.’”
Is it possible amidst the anger and rage that Israelis might remember that these are individual human beings and not national symbols. They should be memorialized as human beings and not as representatives of the nation.
I read Dimi Reider’s J’Accuse against the Israeli left for not condemning the Itamar terror attack quickly or loudly enough:
The sheer viciousness of this cold-blooded butchery should have provoked furious condemnation from those unequivocally opposed to the targeting of civilians – Israel’s civil society,the Left and the activist (“radical”) Left. However, at the time of writing, only two organizations spoke out…
Why should anyone have expressed “furious condemnation?” What would such furiousness prove? That we are morally consistent? That we have passed some sort of litmus test that allows us to call ourselves balanced and fair?
He went further with the following nonsense:
The activist Left’s confused and muted response reveals a shameful double standard – one that is not necessarily thought-out and intentioned, but one that needs to be urgently confronted and weeded out. It demonstrates that despite political awareness and commitment to human rights and international law, our community has yielded to one of the most common afflictions of a conflict area, and dehumanized an entire community, consciously or subconsciously rendering it second-class, semi-legitimate target for brutal violence.
Dimi has spent too much time reading the blogs of his so-called friends on the left and not enough reading the settler blogs. What does “dehumanizing an entire community” mean anyway? I think the writer has things completely backwards. Dimi, these are settlements, not proper Israeli communities within the Green Line. They are not legitimate either in Israeli or international terms. I don’t wish to dehumanize Itamar, but frankly there is nothing justifiable about the place.
And talk about “dehumanizing.” Who dehumanizes whom, Dimi? Read any settler blog and recount the adjectives, the slur, the calumnies, the statements that are hillul Ha-Shem against us on the left. Don’t talk to me about turning anyone into “legitimate targets for violence.” I can’t begin to tell you how many Rotter members have urged the Mossad to kill me. Let’s get real. Anyone who reads, anyone with their heads screwed on knows the level of hate and violence is far, far greater on the radical right than on the left.
As for turning them into second class citizens, puh-leeze, these are first-class citizens who live better than a very large percentage of Israelis within the Green Line. They have chosen to live on Palestinian lands, stolen from their previous rightful owners. Should I defend them for their theft? Should I reach out my hand in brotherly love?
Do I wish Itamar’s residents to be “targets for brutal violence?” No. But the fact is that they make themselves a target not only by living there but by engaging in brutal acts of violence and murder against surrrounding Palestinian villages and international human rights workers who support them. Residents of the settlement have beaten up and robbed human rights activists and wounded and killed Palestinian from neighboring villages. Dimi concedes such violence from Itamar but while he enumerates the number of dead buried there, he doesn’t run through a litany of Palestinian dead and injured. If anything turns Itamar into a target for brutal retailiation it is these acts of homicidal rage.
Again, to be clear, I don’t support violence of any kind against civilians on either side. But as far as Itamar is concerned, you reap what you sow. Violence begets more violence. The only way to end the violence is by withdrawing from all the Itamars and negotiating a true peace settlement with a return to 1967 borders.
Returning to the 972 post, Dimi apparently was keeping score of which groups publicly criticized the massacre and whether they were sufficiently sincere in their denunciation. Frankly, I find the whole thing unseemly. With a tragedy such as this, every person and group will have a different reaction and seek to express it in their own way. To keep score as if this were a baseball game I find annoying and beside the point.
Just taking myself as an example, after I heard the news it took quite some time to digest it and figure out what, if anything, I could say that would add to the discussion, rather than repeat what others might be saying. An Israeli journalist with whom I’d been working on the Dirar Abu Seesi story challenged me to say something, which led to the post I wrote yesterday.
But I think Dimi’s 972 post demands a uniformity of response from the left that isn’t appropriate. This is a complicated issue, not one that is cut and dried.
Several readers have attempted to publish links to photographs of the victims as if this will somehow turn the world against the Palestinian cause and show the world the true evil nature of the Palestinians. I will not allow such links to be posted here just as I will not post similar pictures of Arab child victims (though I have posted pictures of the Fogels while they were alive as I do think we should see them as individual human beings). This is the visual pornography of hate. You can find it elsewhere, but not here.
Motti Fogel, brother of Udi Fogel, eulogized his younger brother but warned that his death cannot be used as a tool in a national struggle.
“All of the slogans we hear are trying to efface the simple fact that you’re dead, and nothing can efface that. This funeral has to be a private affair,” Fogel said, adding: “A man dies to himself, to his children. Udi, you are no a national event. You’re horrible death mustn’t make your life into a tool.”
“Udi, my young brother, you made me wake up today at 6:15 in the morning, and you know how hard that is for me. Everything I could say would be a cliché. If I could, I’d chase out everyone who came here and whisper to you, ‘Udi, let’s go play soccer.’”
Is it possible amidst the anger and rage that Israelis might remember that these are individual human beings and not national symbols. They should be memorialized as human beings and not as representatives of the nation.
I read Dimi Reider’s J’Accuse against the Israeli left for not condemning the Itamar terror attack quickly or loudly enough:
The sheer viciousness of this cold-blooded butchery should have provoked furious condemnation from those unequivocally opposed to the targeting of civilians – Israel’s civil society,the Left and the activist (“radical”) Left. However, at the time of writing, only two organizations spoke out…
Why should anyone have expressed “furious condemnation?” What would such furiousness prove? That we are morally consistent? That we have passed some sort of litmus test that allows us to call ourselves balanced and fair?
He went further with the following nonsense:
The activist Left’s confused and muted response reveals a shameful double standard – one that is not necessarily thought-out and intentioned, but one that needs to be urgently confronted and weeded out. It demonstrates that despite political awareness and commitment to human rights and international law, our community has yielded to one of the most common afflictions of a conflict area, and dehumanized an entire community, consciously or subconsciously rendering it second-class, semi-legitimate target for brutal violence.
Dimi has spent too much time reading the blogs of his so-called friends on the left and not enough reading the settler blogs. What does “dehumanizing an entire community” mean anyway? I think the writer has things completely backwards. Dimi, these are settlements, not proper Israeli communities within the Green Line. They are not legitimate either in Israeli or international terms. I don’t wish to dehumanize Itamar, but frankly there is nothing justifiable about the place.
And talk about “dehumanizing.” Who dehumanizes whom, Dimi? Read any settler blog and recount the adjectives, the slur, the calumnies, the statements that are hillul Ha-Shem against us on the left. Don’t talk to me about turning anyone into “legitimate targets for violence.” I can’t begin to tell you how many Rotter members have urged the Mossad to kill me. Let’s get real. Anyone who reads, anyone with their heads screwed on knows the level of hate and violence is far, far greater on the radical right than on the left.
As for turning them into second class citizens, puh-leeze, these are first-class citizens who live better than a very large percentage of Israelis within the Green Line. They have chosen to live on Palestinian lands, stolen from their previous rightful owners. Should I defend them for their theft? Should I reach out my hand in brotherly love?
Do I wish Itamar’s residents to be “targets for brutal violence?” No. But the fact is that they make themselves a target not only by living there but by engaging in brutal acts of violence and murder against surrrounding Palestinian villages and international human rights workers who support them. Residents of the settlement have beaten up and robbed human rights activists and wounded and killed Palestinian from neighboring villages. Dimi concedes such violence from Itamar but while he enumerates the number of dead buried there, he doesn’t run through a litany of Palestinian dead and injured. If anything turns Itamar into a target for brutal retailiation it is these acts of homicidal rage.
Again, to be clear, I don’t support violence of any kind against civilians on either side. But as far as Itamar is concerned, you reap what you sow. Violence begets more violence. The only way to end the violence is by withdrawing from all the Itamars and negotiating a true peace settlement with a return to 1967 borders.
Returning to the 972 post, Dimi apparently was keeping score of which groups publicly criticized the massacre and whether they were sufficiently sincere in their denunciation. Frankly, I find the whole thing unseemly. With a tragedy such as this, every person and group will have a different reaction and seek to express it in their own way. To keep score as if this were a baseball game I find annoying and beside the point.
Just taking myself as an example, after I heard the news it took quite some time to digest it and figure out what, if anything, I could say that would add to the discussion, rather than repeat what others might be saying. An Israeli journalist with whom I’d been working on the Dirar Abu Seesi story challenged me to say something, which led to the post I wrote yesterday.
But I think Dimi’s 972 post demands a uniformity of response from the left that isn’t appropriate. This is a complicated issue, not one that is cut and dried.
Several readers have attempted to publish links to photographs of the victims as if this will somehow turn the world against the Palestinian cause and show the world the true evil nature of the Palestinians. I will not allow such links to be posted here just as I will not post similar pictures of Arab child victims (though I have posted pictures of the Fogels while they were alive as I do think we should see them as individual human beings). This is the visual pornography of hate. You can find it elsewhere, but not here.
Propaganda minister, Yuli Edelstein, exploits the dead in national interest
It’s hard to believe that any minister of any government, even Israel’s, would’ve given an interview so patently disgusting and self-serving as Yuli Edelstein did with Haaretz’s Nir Hasson. Edelstein is the aptly named ‘minister of hasbara’ (in Hebrew–in English he’s the ‘minister for public diplomacy’). And what he’s done is disseminate terror porn.
To get the full flavor of just how odious the interview is I’ll quote extensively from it and let Edelstein hang himself with his own words:
Two days ago, the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs released horrific photographs from the scene of Friday night’s terrorist attack in Itamar. The photos show the stabbed and bleeding bodies of the members of the Fogel family, with only the faces blurred, as per their relatives’ request. Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein is the one who made the unprecedented decision to release them.
Do you think this sort of publicity can change Israel’s image?
People who deal more with information sent quite a few supportive messages. I know that on the Internet the images are really catching on and circulating. It’s hard to talk about in terms of success, because we all understand that this is an unbelievably heinous crime. But it does have an important impact.
What astonishes is an Israeli minister publicly admitting that he’s exploiting the dead for the propaganda value of their images. This is one of the worst sins Judaism can imagine: exploitation of the dead. It’s a hillul ha-Shem, a desecration of the divine name. Edelstein, who is a settler himself and Orthodox Jew, has allowed Israel to become his religion, while abandoning his actual religion.
The Ashrey prayer says: “the dead will not praise God…but we [the living] will bless Him from now and forever.” Not so in this perverse version of Judaism (or perhaps I should use Bernard Avishai’s apt term, Judeanism, to distinguish this from real Judaism), in which the dead don’t praise God, but rather Israel.
In the days of the Temple, Jews used to slaughter animals as sacrificial offerings to propitiate God. Now, we allow our own slaughtered co-religionists to be the sacrificial animals. What kind of religion is this? A religion in which God approves of the blood of his followers? Is this the religion of Abraham where, instead of God staying the father’s hand as he raises it to slay his son, Issac, God actually demands and approves of the act of child-murder?
To be clear, I’m not saying that either the Jewish God or the settlers approve of murdering their own. But clearly they’re not only willing, but eager to use the dead for political purposes. Perhaps we should put a value not only on human life, but on a pint of the poor victim’s blood. How much is it worth to the propaganda ministry??
What are these images and what is the purpose of their dissemination but to conjure in the minds of viewers a mini-Holocaust? The little babies of Itamar are fascimiles of the Jews killed in the Kishniev porgroms (even lefties like Didi Remez have quoted Bialik’s famous poem, On the Slaughter, about this 1903 massacre) or those killed in the arms of their mothers in the Nazi gas chambers or in Mainz during the First Crusades. There is no difference for the settlerists between Jew hatred from the ancient past or present. For the settlers and those who sell their message, there is nothing better than to brand the Palestinian people as Nazis, and its terrorist acts (for Palestinians as a collective entity are guilty of such murders) as expressions of a wish to genocide. No, Bibi hasn’t said this, but you can be sure there are settlers and their leaders who have before and are now.
There is absolutely no historical proof in any of this. As I’ve written many times here, Palestinian terror is political in nature and not religious. Though settler terror against Palestinians is a mix of politically and religiously motivated, the violence of the Israeli state in the form of the IDF is largely (though not wholly) political. When the conflict is fully resolved politically then there will no longer be violence from either side. To claim otherwise is to be a propagandist for jihad, whether Jewish or Muslim.
What every Jew and every Israeli has to ask him or herself is: if the settlers want to take us down the road of perpetual Jewish jiahd against Islam, will we follow?
How did the decision to publish the photos come about?
From Saturday night, when I found out about the terrible event…we started checking to see if there was any documentation and what happened to it. I started receiving reports that the family apparently would not object [to publishing the images]. I sent messengers to the family to make sure that nothing was done in the heat of the moment. The family had some deliberations and they agreed.
…We held a professional consultation with people from the Foreign Ministry and from the Prime Minister’s Office. Not everyone thought the way I did, that the photos should be published, but everyone was starting to realize that, in this case, it was necessary to act in an unusual manner. The majority felt that since all red lines had been crossed, it would be impossible to just carry on normally, and so we decided to publish the photos.
Every time the topic of public relations and information in Israel and abroad is raised, I’m always asked – why don’t we publish the photos? I say with a bit of cynicism that I can already answer this question in several languages. I always explained that there was the matter of the family and a desire not to cause further suffering – and also that we are not like them, we are not like the Palestinians.
“We are not like them.” Just how are we not like them? We don’t butcher their children as they butcher ours? We don’t exploit our own dead to score points in the international propaganda war as they do? Of course we do. In fact, one of my Israeli readers sent me images of Israeli dead from the Maaleh Akravim terror attack going all the way back to 1954. And for those interested in terror porn it’s available to you, where else, but on the ministry of foreign affairs website. So to act as if this was the first time any Israeli government decided to do what Edelstein’s ministry did is ahistorical and a lie (though perhaps one based on ignorance since I doubt Edelstein is the brightest bulb in the box).
So are we like the Palestinians now?
No, there is a huge difference. They have no problem issuing such photos a few minutes after the incident, without asking the family and without blurring anything out. It is also needless to say that, in some cases, fabricated images are released too.
Israel always criticizes the Arab press for airing photos of damage from IDF attacks in an endless loop, which leads to incitement and hatred. What is the difference here?
There is a big difference. I remember photos of a girl being brought into a hospital in Gaza without a stretcher, of course. They held her in their arms so that everyone will see her and air the picture over and over, as a kind of background image. This is something that causes hatred, whose purpose is to incite more than to shock.
And releasing the images of the murdered Fogel family is NOT intended to cause hatred and its purpose is not to shock??! Then what is its purpose? This is a perfect example of the propagandist who deliberately ignores the impact of his own actions. He so believes in his own victimization and that he is merely responding to evils perpetrated upon his own people, that he simply cannot grasp that he is doing precisely what the other side does. This is a case of willful blindness. It’s as if the entire Israeli government along with much of the country is the blind leading the blind. They kill us. We don’t kill them. They exploit their dead. We don’t exploit ours (except in response to them).
Another point to consider is Edelstein’s absolute inability to understand that it isn’t the image that incites hate, but the IDF’s murder of thousands of Palestinian civilians, some of them in cold-blood, that provokes Palestinian rage. To break this down to its simplest form: pictures don’t kill, weapons do. Whether they be your own guns turned on others or the knives of your enemy turned on you.
Here’s more from Edelstein:
I also don’t put it on Israeli television and ask everyone to watch it. I have no problem with a journalist who decides not to print the image, but I want him to deal with it on his own and always remember the picture. If he doesn’t remember it, then he is less of a person than I thought.
Oh, he’ll remember the picture all right…along with his conviction that any government which would deliberately exploit such images for short-term political gain is a bankrupt one, both morally and politically.
There have been numerous horrific attacks in the past. Why specifically after the attack in Itamar was the decision made to distribute the photos?
It is true that we have experienced quite a few horrors, but at the same time, slaughtering an entire family in their sleep, including children and an infant is, thank God – even according to the standards of these wicked people – something out of the ordinary. There also appears to be an accumulation of things here, with an understanding that words can kill and there must be a response.
Again with the incitement themes: it was the Palestinians who made the killer act, who poisoned his mind with hate. Not the murder and maiming of scores of Palestinian villagers by Itamar goons and those of other extremist settlements.
Recently, a kind of dialogue has emerged to the effect that IDF soldiers are clearly murderers, rapists and looters. This is the feeling that exists around the world and I’m not speaking about [just] the Palestinian Authority.
Well, as for the first and last, there are surely more than enough examples of this. But as for rapists, Edelstein has clearly been smoking a bit too much of the hasbara weed. If there are accusations of rape against the contemporary IDF, they’re made by the most those who lack any credibility. Though it is possible Edelstein is talking about the War of Independence when even a right wing historian like Benny Morris concedes there were instances of rape by the Palmach. But for Edelstein to raise this claim here is merely to invoke solidarity in his fellow Israeli readers for the allegedly terribly injustices perpetrated upon Israel in the world press and on the world stage.
In this atmosphere, of wild incitement against and demonization of Israel, there needs to be a shocking reaction [to the attack] that will cause people to recognize the reality here. We are not doing this out of hysteria and panic, but in a thoughtful way – to convey this image to the same people who think that words do not kill.
No, surely not out of hysteria or panic. Because the hasbara war is going so very well for Israel. So well that it can stand above the fray and act wisely and dispassionately. So that it needn’t milk every situation for potential points scored in the propaganda wars. And as for “thoughtful,” if this is what thoughtful is in an Israeli context, then it’s no wonder that Israel’s Occupation pathology has proceeded to the advanced state of deterioration that it has.
I don’t think that every politician who says that Israeli policy is militant incites murder, but the cries that Israel is “an apartheid state” and “a state of occupation” can lead murderers to think that, by carrying out their murderous crimes, they are freedom fighters.
Do you know if the media around the world used the photos?
The emphasis is on the foreign media. I know that in Israel, apart from a few people for whom not everything makes sense, you don’t have to convince anyone to use horrific images.
Pity the poor lefty extremist editor or pinko peace activist who rejects such images because he simply can’t “make sense” of the fact that the nation NEEDS these images splashed all over the pages of the world’s newspapers. I’d venture to say that there are more than a few such deluded souls even in an Israel debased by Occupation, who couldn’t be convinced of the efficacy of doing precisely what this propaganda minister did.
I also knew that because of the disaster in Japan and the barrage of reports from there, it would not be a lead photo on the front page of The New York Times. The possibility that the images would not be published was also considered. But the mere fact that an editor or senior analyst would receive the photos and look at them and carry out a discussion – I’m certain that this had an effect, and these are the people who shape public opinion. I am sure that whoever has not lost their humanity, will in the future be more careful with regard to Israel.
What kind of “discussion” does he think that Bill Keller had about whether to run these photos beyond: “Run these? Are you kiddin’?” As for editors “losing their humanity,” I’m sure that the next time Yuli Edelstein’s ministry sends anything to any self-respecting journalist they’ll hold it up by two fingers to make sure it doesn’t stink to high heaven before even opening the package.
In the event of another terrorist attack, should we expect the publication of such photos?
Definitely not after every attack. First of all, the family’s wishes will be the determining factor and every case will be considered separately. But at the same time … we will have to think about the specific sort of documentation. The photos taken this time were taken for the purpose of the investigation, not for the needs of the press.
Extraordinary that the Israeli police or whoever investigates such a crime would allow the images to be circulated around the world in such a way. There is such a thing as polluting the scene of the crime and polluting Israel’s case on the world stage. Edelstein has done this with the collusion of investigators who should’ve known better.
Next time – let there never be a next time and let it never happen – I hope we will be prepared with a photographer who has a media-oriented approach, instead of an investigative focus.
Yes, next time let’s have a designated photographer hired by the propaganda ministry whose job it will be to monitor the settler radios for terror activity and get there before the police and ‘shoot’ the bloodiest pictures possible. And instead of waiting, let’s use the latest technology to distribute these images directly from the camera to newsrooms throughout the world. Why even wait and get the family of the victim’s approval? Don’t the needs of the state trump mere human feeling or sorrow?
It’s hard to believe that any minister of any government, even Israel’s, would’ve given an interview so patently disgusting and self-serving as Yuli Edelstein did with Haaretz’s Nir Hasson. Edelstein is the aptly named ‘minister of hasbara’ (in Hebrew–in English he’s the ‘minister for public diplomacy’). And what he’s done is disseminate terror porn.
To get the full flavor of just how odious the interview is I’ll quote extensively from it and let Edelstein hang himself with his own words:
Two days ago, the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs released horrific photographs from the scene of Friday night’s terrorist attack in Itamar. The photos show the stabbed and bleeding bodies of the members of the Fogel family, with only the faces blurred, as per their relatives’ request. Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein is the one who made the unprecedented decision to release them.
Do you think this sort of publicity can change Israel’s image?
People who deal more with information sent quite a few supportive messages. I know that on the Internet the images are really catching on and circulating. It’s hard to talk about in terms of success, because we all understand that this is an unbelievably heinous crime. But it does have an important impact.
What astonishes is an Israeli minister publicly admitting that he’s exploiting the dead for the propaganda value of their images. This is one of the worst sins Judaism can imagine: exploitation of the dead. It’s a hillul ha-Shem, a desecration of the divine name. Edelstein, who is a settler himself and Orthodox Jew, has allowed Israel to become his religion, while abandoning his actual religion.
The Ashrey prayer says: “the dead will not praise God…but we [the living] will bless Him from now and forever.” Not so in this perverse version of Judaism (or perhaps I should use Bernard Avishai’s apt term, Judeanism, to distinguish this from real Judaism), in which the dead don’t praise God, but rather Israel.
In the days of the Temple, Jews used to slaughter animals as sacrificial offerings to propitiate God. Now, we allow our own slaughtered co-religionists to be the sacrificial animals. What kind of religion is this? A religion in which God approves of the blood of his followers? Is this the religion of Abraham where, instead of God staying the father’s hand as he raises it to slay his son, Issac, God actually demands and approves of the act of child-murder?
To be clear, I’m not saying that either the Jewish God or the settlers approve of murdering their own. But clearly they’re not only willing, but eager to use the dead for political purposes. Perhaps we should put a value not only on human life, but on a pint of the poor victim’s blood. How much is it worth to the propaganda ministry??
What are these images and what is the purpose of their dissemination but to conjure in the minds of viewers a mini-Holocaust? The little babies of Itamar are fascimiles of the Jews killed in the Kishniev porgroms (even lefties like Didi Remez have quoted Bialik’s famous poem, On the Slaughter, about this 1903 massacre) or those killed in the arms of their mothers in the Nazi gas chambers or in Mainz during the First Crusades. There is no difference for the settlerists between Jew hatred from the ancient past or present. For the settlers and those who sell their message, there is nothing better than to brand the Palestinian people as Nazis, and its terrorist acts (for Palestinians as a collective entity are guilty of such murders) as expressions of a wish to genocide. No, Bibi hasn’t said this, but you can be sure there are settlers and their leaders who have before and are now.
There is absolutely no historical proof in any of this. As I’ve written many times here, Palestinian terror is political in nature and not religious. Though settler terror against Palestinians is a mix of politically and religiously motivated, the violence of the Israeli state in the form of the IDF is largely (though not wholly) political. When the conflict is fully resolved politically then there will no longer be violence from either side. To claim otherwise is to be a propagandist for jihad, whether Jewish or Muslim.
What every Jew and every Israeli has to ask him or herself is: if the settlers want to take us down the road of perpetual Jewish jiahd against Islam, will we follow?
How did the decision to publish the photos come about?
From Saturday night, when I found out about the terrible event…we started checking to see if there was any documentation and what happened to it. I started receiving reports that the family apparently would not object [to publishing the images]. I sent messengers to the family to make sure that nothing was done in the heat of the moment. The family had some deliberations and they agreed.
…We held a professional consultation with people from the Foreign Ministry and from the Prime Minister’s Office. Not everyone thought the way I did, that the photos should be published, but everyone was starting to realize that, in this case, it was necessary to act in an unusual manner. The majority felt that since all red lines had been crossed, it would be impossible to just carry on normally, and so we decided to publish the photos.
Every time the topic of public relations and information in Israel and abroad is raised, I’m always asked – why don’t we publish the photos? I say with a bit of cynicism that I can already answer this question in several languages. I always explained that there was the matter of the family and a desire not to cause further suffering – and also that we are not like them, we are not like the Palestinians.
“We are not like them.” Just how are we not like them? We don’t butcher their children as they butcher ours? We don’t exploit our own dead to score points in the international propaganda war as they do? Of course we do. In fact, one of my Israeli readers sent me images of Israeli dead from the Maaleh Akravim terror attack going all the way back to 1954. And for those interested in terror porn it’s available to you, where else, but on the ministry of foreign affairs website. So to act as if this was the first time any Israeli government decided to do what Edelstein’s ministry did is ahistorical and a lie (though perhaps one based on ignorance since I doubt Edelstein is the brightest bulb in the box).
So are we like the Palestinians now?
No, there is a huge difference. They have no problem issuing such photos a few minutes after the incident, without asking the family and without blurring anything out. It is also needless to say that, in some cases, fabricated images are released too.
Israel always criticizes the Arab press for airing photos of damage from IDF attacks in an endless loop, which leads to incitement and hatred. What is the difference here?
There is a big difference. I remember photos of a girl being brought into a hospital in Gaza without a stretcher, of course. They held her in their arms so that everyone will see her and air the picture over and over, as a kind of background image. This is something that causes hatred, whose purpose is to incite more than to shock.
And releasing the images of the murdered Fogel family is NOT intended to cause hatred and its purpose is not to shock??! Then what is its purpose? This is a perfect example of the propagandist who deliberately ignores the impact of his own actions. He so believes in his own victimization and that he is merely responding to evils perpetrated upon his own people, that he simply cannot grasp that he is doing precisely what the other side does. This is a case of willful blindness. It’s as if the entire Israeli government along with much of the country is the blind leading the blind. They kill us. We don’t kill them. They exploit their dead. We don’t exploit ours (except in response to them).
Another point to consider is Edelstein’s absolute inability to understand that it isn’t the image that incites hate, but the IDF’s murder of thousands of Palestinian civilians, some of them in cold-blood, that provokes Palestinian rage. To break this down to its simplest form: pictures don’t kill, weapons do. Whether they be your own guns turned on others or the knives of your enemy turned on you.
Here’s more from Edelstein:
I also don’t put it on Israeli television and ask everyone to watch it. I have no problem with a journalist who decides not to print the image, but I want him to deal with it on his own and always remember the picture. If he doesn’t remember it, then he is less of a person than I thought.
Oh, he’ll remember the picture all right…along with his conviction that any government which would deliberately exploit such images for short-term political gain is a bankrupt one, both morally and politically.
There have been numerous horrific attacks in the past. Why specifically after the attack in Itamar was the decision made to distribute the photos?
It is true that we have experienced quite a few horrors, but at the same time, slaughtering an entire family in their sleep, including children and an infant is, thank God – even according to the standards of these wicked people – something out of the ordinary. There also appears to be an accumulation of things here, with an understanding that words can kill and there must be a response.
Again with the incitement themes: it was the Palestinians who made the killer act, who poisoned his mind with hate. Not the murder and maiming of scores of Palestinian villagers by Itamar goons and those of other extremist settlements.
Recently, a kind of dialogue has emerged to the effect that IDF soldiers are clearly murderers, rapists and looters. This is the feeling that exists around the world and I’m not speaking about [just] the Palestinian Authority.
Well, as for the first and last, there are surely more than enough examples of this. But as for rapists, Edelstein has clearly been smoking a bit too much of the hasbara weed. If there are accusations of rape against the contemporary IDF, they’re made by the most those who lack any credibility. Though it is possible Edelstein is talking about the War of Independence when even a right wing historian like Benny Morris concedes there were instances of rape by the Palmach. But for Edelstein to raise this claim here is merely to invoke solidarity in his fellow Israeli readers for the allegedly terribly injustices perpetrated upon Israel in the world press and on the world stage.
In this atmosphere, of wild incitement against and demonization of Israel, there needs to be a shocking reaction [to the attack] that will cause people to recognize the reality here. We are not doing this out of hysteria and panic, but in a thoughtful way – to convey this image to the same people who think that words do not kill.
No, surely not out of hysteria or panic. Because the hasbara war is going so very well for Israel. So well that it can stand above the fray and act wisely and dispassionately. So that it needn’t milk every situation for potential points scored in the propaganda wars. And as for “thoughtful,” if this is what thoughtful is in an Israeli context, then it’s no wonder that Israel’s Occupation pathology has proceeded to the advanced state of deterioration that it has.
I don’t think that every politician who says that Israeli policy is militant incites murder, but the cries that Israel is “an apartheid state” and “a state of occupation” can lead murderers to think that, by carrying out their murderous crimes, they are freedom fighters.
Do you know if the media around the world used the photos?
The emphasis is on the foreign media. I know that in Israel, apart from a few people for whom not everything makes sense, you don’t have to convince anyone to use horrific images.
Pity the poor lefty extremist editor or pinko peace activist who rejects such images because he simply can’t “make sense” of the fact that the nation NEEDS these images splashed all over the pages of the world’s newspapers. I’d venture to say that there are more than a few such deluded souls even in an Israel debased by Occupation, who couldn’t be convinced of the efficacy of doing precisely what this propaganda minister did.
I also knew that because of the disaster in Japan and the barrage of reports from there, it would not be a lead photo on the front page of The New York Times. The possibility that the images would not be published was also considered. But the mere fact that an editor or senior analyst would receive the photos and look at them and carry out a discussion – I’m certain that this had an effect, and these are the people who shape public opinion. I am sure that whoever has not lost their humanity, will in the future be more careful with regard to Israel.
What kind of “discussion” does he think that Bill Keller had about whether to run these photos beyond: “Run these? Are you kiddin’?” As for editors “losing their humanity,” I’m sure that the next time Yuli Edelstein’s ministry sends anything to any self-respecting journalist they’ll hold it up by two fingers to make sure it doesn’t stink to high heaven before even opening the package.
In the event of another terrorist attack, should we expect the publication of such photos?
Definitely not after every attack. First of all, the family’s wishes will be the determining factor and every case will be considered separately. But at the same time … we will have to think about the specific sort of documentation. The photos taken this time were taken for the purpose of the investigation, not for the needs of the press.
Extraordinary that the Israeli police or whoever investigates such a crime would allow the images to be circulated around the world in such a way. There is such a thing as polluting the scene of the crime and polluting Israel’s case on the world stage. Edelstein has done this with the collusion of investigators who should’ve known better.
Next time – let there never be a next time and let it never happen – I hope we will be prepared with a photographer who has a media-oriented approach, instead of an investigative focus.
Yes, next time let’s have a designated photographer hired by the propaganda ministry whose job it will be to monitor the settler radios for terror activity and get there before the police and ‘shoot’ the bloodiest pictures possible. And instead of waiting, let’s use the latest technology to distribute these images directly from the camera to newsrooms throughout the world. Why even wait and get the family of the victim’s approval? Don’t the needs of the state trump mere human feeling or sorrow?
Two Awarta residents were injured attempting to drive away a mob of Israeli settlers believed to have descended from the illegal settlement of Itamar early Monday evening, witnesses said.
Town residents said more than a dozen masked settlers approached the village in what appeared to be a demonstration, which turned violent when the group started throwing stones and empty bottles at Palestinian homes.
Awarta remains under an Israeli military curfew, and was declared a closed military zone by soldiers, who continue to conduct a wide-scale military operation. Officials say the village is being targeted as part of a search for suspects in the murder of five members of the Fogel family, residents of the illegal settlement next to the village.
Umm Ragheb Obeidat, a village resident, told Ma'an that settlers attacked homes in the eastern area of the village, saying that the settlers had come closer and closer to her home and she feared for the safety of her family.
She appealed for international protection from the settler groups, as reports come in from across the West Bank of settler violence causing harm to Palestinian property and terrifying residents.
An activist with the International Solidarity Movement said the Israeli military intervened when Awarta residents tried to push back the group of settlers.
He said the military used sound bombs, and added that Palestinians quickly returned home when the soldiers arrived, fearing reprisals for breaking the curfew.
An Israeli military spokesman said he would look into the report.
Earlier in the day, the grieving settler community in Itamar told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that residents would not seek violent revenge against the unknown assailants, but would rather create an illegal settlement outpost in the victims' honor.
Awarta has been under curfew since Saturday. Residents have been forced to stay in their homes, except for a call Monday morning demanding all residents aged 15-40 appear in the school courtyard for questioning.
Palestinian security officials told AFP that two Palestinian Authority intelligence officers were among over 300 residents detained by Israeli soldiers.
Village council member Salim Qawariq was taken from his home while Israeli forces inspected it, in part of what witnesses said were an ongoing series of apparently random house-to-house raids.
Searches conducted by the military were said to be at times violent and destructive, ending with the contents of homes damaged. Iin some cases the SIM cards of residents were confiscated, and computer equipment destroyed.
Village council member Qays Awwad said basic food stuffs in the village were running short, with families forced to live off any reserves in their homes.
Israeli forces said Monday they were searching the village for suspects in the murder of five members of a settler family from the adjacent settlement of Itamar. A mother, father and three of their children were stabbed to death on Friday night, by an unknown assailant.
Israeli officials say a Palestinian was behind the murders and that it was a "terror attack."
Israeli forces also rounded up Thai workers employed in Itamar settlement as part of their investigations, sources close to the workers said.
Town residents said more than a dozen masked settlers approached the village in what appeared to be a demonstration, which turned violent when the group started throwing stones and empty bottles at Palestinian homes.
Awarta remains under an Israeli military curfew, and was declared a closed military zone by soldiers, who continue to conduct a wide-scale military operation. Officials say the village is being targeted as part of a search for suspects in the murder of five members of the Fogel family, residents of the illegal settlement next to the village.
Umm Ragheb Obeidat, a village resident, told Ma'an that settlers attacked homes in the eastern area of the village, saying that the settlers had come closer and closer to her home and she feared for the safety of her family.
She appealed for international protection from the settler groups, as reports come in from across the West Bank of settler violence causing harm to Palestinian property and terrifying residents.
An activist with the International Solidarity Movement said the Israeli military intervened when Awarta residents tried to push back the group of settlers.
He said the military used sound bombs, and added that Palestinians quickly returned home when the soldiers arrived, fearing reprisals for breaking the curfew.
An Israeli military spokesman said he would look into the report.
Earlier in the day, the grieving settler community in Itamar told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that residents would not seek violent revenge against the unknown assailants, but would rather create an illegal settlement outpost in the victims' honor.
Awarta has been under curfew since Saturday. Residents have been forced to stay in their homes, except for a call Monday morning demanding all residents aged 15-40 appear in the school courtyard for questioning.
Palestinian security officials told AFP that two Palestinian Authority intelligence officers were among over 300 residents detained by Israeli soldiers.
Village council member Salim Qawariq was taken from his home while Israeli forces inspected it, in part of what witnesses said were an ongoing series of apparently random house-to-house raids.
Searches conducted by the military were said to be at times violent and destructive, ending with the contents of homes damaged. Iin some cases the SIM cards of residents were confiscated, and computer equipment destroyed.
Village council member Qays Awwad said basic food stuffs in the village were running short, with families forced to live off any reserves in their homes.
Israeli forces said Monday they were searching the village for suspects in the murder of five members of a settler family from the adjacent settlement of Itamar. A mother, father and three of their children were stabbed to death on Friday night, by an unknown assailant.
Israeli officials say a Palestinian was behind the murders and that it was a "terror attack."
Israeli forces also rounded up Thai workers employed in Itamar settlement as part of their investigations, sources close to the workers said.
Settlers were seen setting fire to an agricultural field north of Ramallah overnight, while a mob entered a town east of Qalqiliya and set fire to civilian vehicles as Palestinians in the West Bank remain fearful.
Palestinian security had been warning residents against travel to areas of settler violence on Sunday afternoon, but drivers continue to fear roadside attacks on shared settler roads, while Palestinians living near settlements fear attacks from roving mobs of settlers seeking vengeance for the murder of a family in the northern West Bank in Friday night.
East of Qalqiliya, eyewitnesses described more than a dozen settlers in white masks entering the village of Jinsafout after midnight on Monday morning.
The masked vandals set fire to at least one private car, leaving it a burned out shell. Witnesses said they were too afraid to leave their home to douse the blaze.
In the same area settlers were believed to have also torched a tractor, but there farmers were able to put out the fire when the arsonists left the scene.
In the central West Bank town of Dura Al-Qar'a north of Ramallah, two more vehicles were reported to have been torched.
Official sources in the village told Ma'an that the attack took place around 3:00 a.m. A village officials said residents believed that settlers fro the nearby settlement of Bet El were behind the attacks.
"It would not be the first time Bet El residents had attacked our village," the officials aid, adding that the latest attack occurred near an Israeli watch tower at the entrance to the population center.
Earlier in the evening, locals had reported cars being stoned by settlers on the road near Bet El.
Palestinian security had been warning residents against travel to areas of settler violence on Sunday afternoon, but drivers continue to fear roadside attacks on shared settler roads, while Palestinians living near settlements fear attacks from roving mobs of settlers seeking vengeance for the murder of a family in the northern West Bank in Friday night.
East of Qalqiliya, eyewitnesses described more than a dozen settlers in white masks entering the village of Jinsafout after midnight on Monday morning.
The masked vandals set fire to at least one private car, leaving it a burned out shell. Witnesses said they were too afraid to leave their home to douse the blaze.
In the same area settlers were believed to have also torched a tractor, but there farmers were able to put out the fire when the arsonists left the scene.
In the central West Bank town of Dura Al-Qar'a north of Ramallah, two more vehicles were reported to have been torched.
Official sources in the village told Ma'an that the attack took place around 3:00 a.m. A village officials said residents believed that settlers fro the nearby settlement of Bet El were behind the attacks.
"It would not be the first time Bet El residents had attacked our village," the officials aid, adding that the latest attack occurred near an Israeli watch tower at the entrance to the population center.
Earlier in the evening, locals had reported cars being stoned by settlers on the road near Bet El.
The incidents were the latest in a rising tide of violence against Palestinians.
While the attacker or attackers behind the Friday night killing remain unknown, Israeli officials have said the murders were the work of a Palestinian militant group and have been described as a "terror attack."
Hamas, and Islamic Jihad have both said their fighters had nothing to do with the killings. A statement from the West Bank leadership of a little known group calling itself the "Imad Mughniyya Group" had sent a statement to media outlets claiming to have carried out the attack, but details from the statement did not match statements from investigators.
The group's leadership in Gaza sent out a second statement on Sunday, denying involvement.
The second statement said the brigade's struggle was for "freedom and dignity not killing and bloodshed."
Israel's government responded to the incident by announcing a mass increase in settlement construction, with 500 new homes to be built in illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank.
The decision won a nod from the Yesha settlers' council but was furiously denounced by the Palestinians.
"This decision by the government is a small step in the right direction," a Yesha statement said, but added: "It is deeply troubling that it requires the murder of children in the arms of their parents to achieve such an objective."
AFP contributed to this report
While the attacker or attackers behind the Friday night killing remain unknown, Israeli officials have said the murders were the work of a Palestinian militant group and have been described as a "terror attack."
Hamas, and Islamic Jihad have both said their fighters had nothing to do with the killings. A statement from the West Bank leadership of a little known group calling itself the "Imad Mughniyya Group" had sent a statement to media outlets claiming to have carried out the attack, but details from the statement did not match statements from investigators.
The group's leadership in Gaza sent out a second statement on Sunday, denying involvement.
The second statement said the brigade's struggle was for "freedom and dignity not killing and bloodshed."
Israel's government responded to the incident by announcing a mass increase in settlement construction, with 500 new homes to be built in illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank.
The decision won a nod from the Yesha settlers' council but was furiously denounced by the Palestinians.
"This decision by the government is a small step in the right direction," a Yesha statement said, but added: "It is deeply troubling that it requires the murder of children in the arms of their parents to achieve such an objective."
AFP contributed to this report
Palestinians in the West Bank face more and more attacks as the third day passes since the killing of five Jews illegally settled in Itamar settlement near Nablus.
Armed Jewish settlers from Tafuh have vandalized homes in Yasouf village east of Salfit, smashing the windows of Mohammed Rizq Hussein, villagers report.
After clashes locals managed to push the assailants out of the village.
Other settlers infiltrated the village of Gensafot in Qalqalya governorate and set fire to two vehicles.
The attackers were spotted getting out of a Toyota car and setting a tractor and another vehicle ablaze before leaving the village.
Awarta village mayor Qais Awad said a curfew imposed by Israeli occupation forces three days ago after the Itamar incident has caused a shortage of food in the village, including bread and milk. He added the village has also since then run out of electric meters.
The Israeli army was deployed across the village and seized several rooftops overlooking Itamar, Awad reported. He also said that soldiers were systematically searching homes, where they kept women and children in a room and cuffed and blindfolded all males over 15 years and turned homes upside down.
The army has also mixed up papers and medicines in the village clinic and municipal building, Awad said.
He said he tried to open the clinic for them, but they threatened to open fire at him.
Armed Jewish settlers from Tafuh have vandalized homes in Yasouf village east of Salfit, smashing the windows of Mohammed Rizq Hussein, villagers report.
After clashes locals managed to push the assailants out of the village.
Other settlers infiltrated the village of Gensafot in Qalqalya governorate and set fire to two vehicles.
The attackers were spotted getting out of a Toyota car and setting a tractor and another vehicle ablaze before leaving the village.
Awarta village mayor Qais Awad said a curfew imposed by Israeli occupation forces three days ago after the Itamar incident has caused a shortage of food in the village, including bread and milk. He added the village has also since then run out of electric meters.
The Israeli army was deployed across the village and seized several rooftops overlooking Itamar, Awad reported. He also said that soldiers were systematically searching homes, where they kept women and children in a room and cuffed and blindfolded all males over 15 years and turned homes upside down.
The army has also mixed up papers and medicines in the village clinic and municipal building, Awad said.
He said he tried to open the clinic for them, but they threatened to open fire at him.
Kerlik had confessed to the murders, reportedly telling investigators he wanted to "take revenge"
by Nasser Atiyeh
The murderers of five family members in the Israeli settlement of Itamar are as yet unknown, but already Israeli political leaders and the military brass have passed judgment and condemned the Palestinians as child killers.
From the start the possibility that the murders were criminal in motive was dismissed out of hand.
On these judgments mobs of extremist settlers are exacting vigilante revenge. The gruesomeness of the killings, the slaying of an infant, is more than enough to rile, to enrage, but it may be useful to recall a similar incident. In the Israeli city of Rishon Letzion in October 2009, a Russian-born Israeli man killed a family of six before he set their apartment ablaze.
Among the dead was a five-month-old infant and his three-year-old brother. Palestinians living in Israel were among the first said to be suspects.
This reference to the Rishon massacre is not just academic. Then, as now, there was a frantic campaign pushed by Israeli media, political groups and setters.
In this frenzy - the current incarnation - the Israeli government has decided to whip up more plans for settlement construction, has accused the Palestinian Authority of inciting the murders in its bid to have settlement construction halted, and also attempts by Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to connect Hamas to the incident in Itamar.
Then the Itamar settlers vowed to build a new outpost in honor of the slain family. Then the Israeli minister of interior Eli Yishai recommended building 1,000 housing units for each victim.
The Israeli government, instead of seeking to cool the situation, has shaken the public by releasing the photos of the knifed family, in what can only be interpreted as an attempt to incite against Palestinians and recruit international sympathy.
Palestinians have already condemned the killings. Our president called them "inhuman," and brutal.
Israeli efforts to achieve political gains in the wake of a tragedy could not be more clear.
This is the latest in a political move to stop the process of establishing a Palestinian state, particularly the campaigns from our leadership to gain recognition from the international community.
Even the United States has welcomed the establishment of a Palestinian state by September.
Recent international polls have shown that Israel's popularity is down.
Politically, then, the Itamar murders are an expedient way to help Israel out of a crisis of government.
Since no Palestinian group has claimed the killing, one could begin to question the advisability of such a forceful reaction at such an early stage of the instigation, which remains under gag order.
Israeli forces have so far detained hundreds of Palestinian suspects and yet revealed no incriminating evidence.
Until the puzzle is put together, however, it seems the Palestinians will pay a heavy toll of settlers attacks, land confiscations and more settlement building, doing irrevocable harm whether a Palestinian was behind the attack or not.
Nasser Atiyeh is a Hebrew-Arabic translator at Ma'an News Agency, he lives and works in Bethlehem.
by Nasser Atiyeh
The murderers of five family members in the Israeli settlement of Itamar are as yet unknown, but already Israeli political leaders and the military brass have passed judgment and condemned the Palestinians as child killers.
From the start the possibility that the murders were criminal in motive was dismissed out of hand.
On these judgments mobs of extremist settlers are exacting vigilante revenge. The gruesomeness of the killings, the slaying of an infant, is more than enough to rile, to enrage, but it may be useful to recall a similar incident. In the Israeli city of Rishon Letzion in October 2009, a Russian-born Israeli man killed a family of six before he set their apartment ablaze.
Among the dead was a five-month-old infant and his three-year-old brother. Palestinians living in Israel were among the first said to be suspects.
This reference to the Rishon massacre is not just academic. Then, as now, there was a frantic campaign pushed by Israeli media, political groups and setters.
In this frenzy - the current incarnation - the Israeli government has decided to whip up more plans for settlement construction, has accused the Palestinian Authority of inciting the murders in its bid to have settlement construction halted, and also attempts by Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to connect Hamas to the incident in Itamar.
Then the Itamar settlers vowed to build a new outpost in honor of the slain family. Then the Israeli minister of interior Eli Yishai recommended building 1,000 housing units for each victim.
The Israeli government, instead of seeking to cool the situation, has shaken the public by releasing the photos of the knifed family, in what can only be interpreted as an attempt to incite against Palestinians and recruit international sympathy.
Palestinians have already condemned the killings. Our president called them "inhuman," and brutal.
Israeli efforts to achieve political gains in the wake of a tragedy could not be more clear.
This is the latest in a political move to stop the process of establishing a Palestinian state, particularly the campaigns from our leadership to gain recognition from the international community.
Even the United States has welcomed the establishment of a Palestinian state by September.
Recent international polls have shown that Israel's popularity is down.
Politically, then, the Itamar murders are an expedient way to help Israel out of a crisis of government.
Since no Palestinian group has claimed the killing, one could begin to question the advisability of such a forceful reaction at such an early stage of the instigation, which remains under gag order.
Israeli forces have so far detained hundreds of Palestinian suspects and yet revealed no incriminating evidence.
Until the puzzle is put together, however, it seems the Palestinians will pay a heavy toll of settlers attacks, land confiscations and more settlement building, doing irrevocable harm whether a Palestinian was behind the attack or not.
Nasser Atiyeh is a Hebrew-Arabic translator at Ma'an News Agency, he lives and works in Bethlehem.
Fogel funeral
Israeli forces on Monday afternoon rounded up all Thai workers employed in the Itamar settlement, site of the murder of five members of the Fogel family, and held them for questioning, informed sources told Ma'an.
Though Palestinians have been forbidden from working in the settlements of the northern West Bank, foreign workers, mostly from Thailand and the Philippines, have been contracted for labor in the area.
Sources close to some of the Thai laborers said that all of the workers had been gathered and taken for questioning in relation to the stabbing deaths of a settler family on Friday night.
Israeli officials have refused comment on the issue. Israel's national police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Ma'an that a gag order has been imposed on information connected to the investigation.
Official statements to the media maintain that forces are searching for Palestinian militants in connection with the murders.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces detained over 300 Palestinians in Awarta in the Nablus district after imposing a three-day curfew on residents, Palestinian security officials told AFP. Two Palestinian Authority intelligence officers were amongst those detained, officials added.
The militant wings of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah have all denied involvement in the murders, with the Al-Aqsa Brigades saying Monday in a statement that they "oppose the targeting of civilians and killing of children no matter what the pretext may be."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the Palestinian Authority of incitement, saying that comments against illegal Israeli settlements provoked the violent attack.
The Gaza government accused Israel of being hasty in its assumption that the killings were perpetrated by Palestinians, calling Israeli media and government spokespeople premature when they labeled the incident a "terrorist attack."
Israeli forces on Monday afternoon rounded up all Thai workers employed in the Itamar settlement, site of the murder of five members of the Fogel family, and held them for questioning, informed sources told Ma'an.
Though Palestinians have been forbidden from working in the settlements of the northern West Bank, foreign workers, mostly from Thailand and the Philippines, have been contracted for labor in the area.
Sources close to some of the Thai laborers said that all of the workers had been gathered and taken for questioning in relation to the stabbing deaths of a settler family on Friday night.
Israeli officials have refused comment on the issue. Israel's national police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Ma'an that a gag order has been imposed on information connected to the investigation.
Official statements to the media maintain that forces are searching for Palestinian militants in connection with the murders.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces detained over 300 Palestinians in Awarta in the Nablus district after imposing a three-day curfew on residents, Palestinian security officials told AFP. Two Palestinian Authority intelligence officers were amongst those detained, officials added.
The militant wings of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah have all denied involvement in the murders, with the Al-Aqsa Brigades saying Monday in a statement that they "oppose the targeting of civilians and killing of children no matter what the pretext may be."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the Palestinian Authority of incitement, saying that comments against illegal Israeli settlements provoked the violent attack.
The Gaza government accused Israel of being hasty in its assumption that the killings were perpetrated by Palestinians, calling Israeli media and government spokespeople premature when they labeled the incident a "terrorist attack."
When I heard the horrific news last night that 5 Israeli settlers were murdered in their home in the settlement of Itamar, I knew it would only be a matter of hours before a shoddy piece of journalism describes the murders as the end of a "lull in the violence" or the end of "relative calm" since 4 Israeli settlers were killed in an attack near Hebron last summer. At that time, the Washington Post ran an editorial saying that the attacks then ended "three years of peace" in the region which we posted about.
So I suppose it should come as no surprise that the Washington Post's own Janine Zacharia leads the way this morning by displaying a complete ignorance of the situation she is supposedly covering or an overt pro-Israel bias (or both). Here's Zacharia's story and the critical excerpt:
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz, citing a preliminary investigation, reported that the children killed were ages 11, 3 and a 3-month-old baby. The newspaper also said that another 12-year-old daughter and two of her younger brothers managed to escape.
The attack shattered a relative calm that had prevailed in the West Bank in recent months as Palestinian security forces assert greater control in the territories where they are allowed by Israel to operate and as Israeli and Palestinians forces coordinate security efforts.
Last August, four Jewish settlers were killed in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.
Zacharia's chronology is likely representative of the broader mainstream media's coverage of these events, sadly. American readers or consumers of mainstream media (MSM) are delivered a simple, straightforward message: Israelis are killed about 6 months apart and in between everything was calm.
The problem is that for Zacharia and much of the MSM "relative calm" means no Israelis were attacked, injured or killed and ignores the ongoing occupation and violence against Palestinians.
In this period of "relative calm", the Israeli Human Rights group B'Tselem recorded at least 41 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in occupied Palestinian territory.
This includes Omar Qawasmeh, the 66 year old Palestinian civilian who was massacred in his bed while he slept by raiding Israeli soldiers and two 20-something Palestinian unarmed civilians shot and killed at the same checkpoint less than a week apart.
That reports can describe the killings of dozens of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers as "relative calm" and finding them completely unremarkable is disgusting in itself. Still, it's only part of the story.
Readers may know that one of our ongoing research projects at the Palestine Center is the recording and analysis of Israeli settler violence against Palestinian civilians. This past fall, we made an extensive presentation of these data that shed light on a facet of occupation almost never discussed. The presentation covered data from Jan of 2009-Aug. 2010 and included over 1000 instances of settler violence.
Since then, we've undertaken the coding of a much more significant period of time that would span 6 years and give us the ability to understand more about the history and trajectory of Israeli settler violence. This would be the most comprehensive analysis of settler violence that I am aware of. I was hoping to make an updated presentation covering this new data in the fall, however given the recent surge in Israeli settler violence we've expedited the project and will make the presentation this spring.
So what instances of settler violence were there in the period of "relative calm" that Zacharia describes?
There were, in fact, over 300 instances of settler violence during this period which left over 85 unarmed Palestinians injured, 4 dead, and inestimable property damage (Including thousands of torched or uprooted olive and almond trees).
Among these events were over 26 acts of Arson, 59 acts of destruction of property, 32 physical attacks, 20 shootings, 60 acts of stone throwing and 23 instances of theft. There were also 10 instances of vehicular attacks where settlers mowed down Palestinian civilians including a 5-year old and 11 year old in Hebron, an 85-year old in Salfit and this horrifying act caught on video in Jerusalem.
Attacks originated from the settlements of Adora, Ariel, Ateret, Bat Ayin, Beit El, Beitar Elit, Bracha, Dulip, Efrat, Eli, Eli Zehav, Elkana, Elon Moreh, Haggai, Halamish, Harsina, Havat Gilad, Immanuel, Itamar, Kaida, Karmei Tzur, Karmel, Karnei Shomron, Kedumim, Maale Mikhmas, Maon, Maskiyot, Neve Daniel, Rehalim, Revava, Shama, Shuvot Rachel, Shilo, Sussia, Talmon, Kfar Tappuah, Yaki, Yash Adam and Yitzhar. These attacks were directed against 79 different Palestinian villages and cities in every district in the West Bank....and this is only in the past 6 months.
If these 6 months can be described as "relative calm" one really has to wonder just what extent of violence against Palestinian civilians would be considered noteworthy by the mainstream media?
In a world where everything is relative, it seems the mainstream American press has decided that Palestinian lives are relatively worthless compared to Israeli lives. But this is also a world where the mainstream media is losing its grip on the control of storytelling and information that directly contradicts faulty journalism is available at everyone's finger tips.
We'll continue to do our part to bring this information, especially about settler violence, to you and we hope you'll share it with others who'd otherwise be mislead by a relatively worthless mainstream media.
So I suppose it should come as no surprise that the Washington Post's own Janine Zacharia leads the way this morning by displaying a complete ignorance of the situation she is supposedly covering or an overt pro-Israel bias (or both). Here's Zacharia's story and the critical excerpt:
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz, citing a preliminary investigation, reported that the children killed were ages 11, 3 and a 3-month-old baby. The newspaper also said that another 12-year-old daughter and two of her younger brothers managed to escape.
The attack shattered a relative calm that had prevailed in the West Bank in recent months as Palestinian security forces assert greater control in the territories where they are allowed by Israel to operate and as Israeli and Palestinians forces coordinate security efforts.
Last August, four Jewish settlers were killed in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.
Zacharia's chronology is likely representative of the broader mainstream media's coverage of these events, sadly. American readers or consumers of mainstream media (MSM) are delivered a simple, straightforward message: Israelis are killed about 6 months apart and in between everything was calm.
The problem is that for Zacharia and much of the MSM "relative calm" means no Israelis were attacked, injured or killed and ignores the ongoing occupation and violence against Palestinians.
In this period of "relative calm", the Israeli Human Rights group B'Tselem recorded at least 41 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in occupied Palestinian territory.
This includes Omar Qawasmeh, the 66 year old Palestinian civilian who was massacred in his bed while he slept by raiding Israeli soldiers and two 20-something Palestinian unarmed civilians shot and killed at the same checkpoint less than a week apart.
That reports can describe the killings of dozens of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers as "relative calm" and finding them completely unremarkable is disgusting in itself. Still, it's only part of the story.
Readers may know that one of our ongoing research projects at the Palestine Center is the recording and analysis of Israeli settler violence against Palestinian civilians. This past fall, we made an extensive presentation of these data that shed light on a facet of occupation almost never discussed. The presentation covered data from Jan of 2009-Aug. 2010 and included over 1000 instances of settler violence.
Since then, we've undertaken the coding of a much more significant period of time that would span 6 years and give us the ability to understand more about the history and trajectory of Israeli settler violence. This would be the most comprehensive analysis of settler violence that I am aware of. I was hoping to make an updated presentation covering this new data in the fall, however given the recent surge in Israeli settler violence we've expedited the project and will make the presentation this spring.
So what instances of settler violence were there in the period of "relative calm" that Zacharia describes?
There were, in fact, over 300 instances of settler violence during this period which left over 85 unarmed Palestinians injured, 4 dead, and inestimable property damage (Including thousands of torched or uprooted olive and almond trees).
Among these events were over 26 acts of Arson, 59 acts of destruction of property, 32 physical attacks, 20 shootings, 60 acts of stone throwing and 23 instances of theft. There were also 10 instances of vehicular attacks where settlers mowed down Palestinian civilians including a 5-year old and 11 year old in Hebron, an 85-year old in Salfit and this horrifying act caught on video in Jerusalem.
Attacks originated from the settlements of Adora, Ariel, Ateret, Bat Ayin, Beit El, Beitar Elit, Bracha, Dulip, Efrat, Eli, Eli Zehav, Elkana, Elon Moreh, Haggai, Halamish, Harsina, Havat Gilad, Immanuel, Itamar, Kaida, Karmei Tzur, Karmel, Karnei Shomron, Kedumim, Maale Mikhmas, Maon, Maskiyot, Neve Daniel, Rehalim, Revava, Shama, Shuvot Rachel, Shilo, Sussia, Talmon, Kfar Tappuah, Yaki, Yash Adam and Yitzhar. These attacks were directed against 79 different Palestinian villages and cities in every district in the West Bank....and this is only in the past 6 months.
If these 6 months can be described as "relative calm" one really has to wonder just what extent of violence against Palestinian civilians would be considered noteworthy by the mainstream media?
In a world where everything is relative, it seems the mainstream American press has decided that Palestinian lives are relatively worthless compared to Israeli lives. But this is also a world where the mainstream media is losing its grip on the control of storytelling and information that directly contradicts faulty journalism is available at everyone's finger tips.
We'll continue to do our part to bring this information, especially about settler violence, to you and we hope you'll share it with others who'd otherwise be mislead by a relatively worthless mainstream media.
The grieving settler community in Itamar will not seek violent revenge against the unknown assailants behind the murder of the Fogel family, but will rather create an illegal settlement outpost in their honor, Israel's daily newspaper Haaretz reported.
"The youth want to act, express themselves. We want to channel it into positive directions," the daily quoted settlement youth coordinator Pinchas Michaeli as saying.
According to Haaretz, the group is "now talking about building a new neighborhood in memory of those murdered."
The addition of neighborhoods to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, when the homes are built outside the boundaries of the existing settlement, is called "outposting," and results in the creation of an illegal settlement outpost.
Itamar, according to a 2006 survey done by Israeli peace group Peace Now, covers 4.7 dunums of land in the West Bank municipality of Nablus. Some 43.8 percent of that land is privately registered to Palestinian owners.
The settlement has six outposts already, none of which among the six outposts slated for demolition under a new Israeli law mandating the dismantling of outposts which Israeli courts determined were built exclusively on Palestinian-owned land. Under the same law, those outposts which were not deemed illegal would be legalized.
Speaking to Haaretz, one Itamar settler drew a distinction between the residents there and other settlement groups in the northern West Bank. "These people don't go out and demonstrate, that's not their style," 24-year-old Yohanan Goldin said.
Another settler, Itamar Brooker, told Haaretz: "There is an extremist group in the area, they are reactionary, and their photographs are always printed in the papers ... But understand: 'price tag,' demonstrations, it's not even a part of our lexicon. Never has been, never will be."
"The youth want to act, express themselves. We want to channel it into positive directions," the daily quoted settlement youth coordinator Pinchas Michaeli as saying.
According to Haaretz, the group is "now talking about building a new neighborhood in memory of those murdered."
The addition of neighborhoods to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, when the homes are built outside the boundaries of the existing settlement, is called "outposting," and results in the creation of an illegal settlement outpost.
Itamar, according to a 2006 survey done by Israeli peace group Peace Now, covers 4.7 dunums of land in the West Bank municipality of Nablus. Some 43.8 percent of that land is privately registered to Palestinian owners.
The settlement has six outposts already, none of which among the six outposts slated for demolition under a new Israeli law mandating the dismantling of outposts which Israeli courts determined were built exclusively on Palestinian-owned land. Under the same law, those outposts which were not deemed illegal would be legalized.
Speaking to Haaretz, one Itamar settler drew a distinction between the residents there and other settlement groups in the northern West Bank. "These people don't go out and demonstrate, that's not their style," 24-year-old Yohanan Goldin said.
Another settler, Itamar Brooker, told Haaretz: "There is an extremist group in the area, they are reactionary, and their photographs are always printed in the papers ... But understand: 'price tag,' demonstrations, it's not even a part of our lexicon. Never has been, never will be."
Settler violence escalates as the military occupies and raids villages.
International Solidarity Movement activists in Awarta describe a horrific "collective punishment" of the Palestinian village: children taken from school, homes raided, imposition of a 24-hour curfew, constant drone surveillance, and massive imprisonments of the male population.
"The soldiers have locked us with the children and young men and are guarding me now," said an International Solidarity Movement (ISM) member who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We can`t leave the house and right now we can`t even leave this room.
Awarta has become a ghost town, with all the villagers confined to their homes, running out of gas, scared and crying quietly under the buzz of drones and detonations of sound bombs.
"The soldiers take people in every house. I don`t know how many hundreds of people they`ve taken now. The children are scared, of course. The women are crying. They take their sons and fathers away. All the village is very quiet, people can`t really talk, the children have to be quiet," the member said. After gathering some of them from school, Awarta`s boys and men were taken by soldiers to the jail near Huwara. "Here they are collectively punished.
ISM reports that the military has beaten people, cut off electricity and polluted water lines, and broken computers and phones.
Huwara to Hebron
From north to south in the West Bank (or Judea to Samara), settlers have lashed out this week at Palestinian civilians and their property. They have stoned cars on roads around Hebron, Kiryat Arba, Shiloh, Huwarra and Nablus, and two nights ago destroyed a nursery, a building, and smashed windows in Huwara.
Yesterday, settlers torched four cars near the junction towards Yitzhar. Down the road at Adam`s Burger King restaurant and confectionery, the owner was locking up a dusk yesterday.
"Last night we did not sleep," the owner said. He described a dark, fearful night of listening to the synchronized mosques speakers blaring warnings down the valley. A caravan of settlers from the funeral of the killed Itamar family was returning soon, and the village feared a restless night of waiting to be attacked.
"We`d rather be open till midnight or one, but we`re closing," he said as his businesses iron shutters squeaked shut. A rock flew out from a passing car with yellow license plates, quickening his work. "Be careful, move your car. They are crazy. Things are bad, very bad."
Across the street lays a ruined construction project. The night before, settlers had come and ravaged the site, tearing down walls, breaking material and causing thousands of dollars worth of damage.
"They are terrorists," Ismael said, holding broken marble slabs, standing on a pile of ruined construction material estimated to be worth $3,000.
"Every year it is worse in the West Bank," said Mohammad Hassan, a Huwara resident whose house, the closest to the Yitzhar outposts, is guarded by a small Israeli squad. "If the situation stays like this, it will be ten time as crazy."
"This is forever, believe me," said Hassan. "I wish we could live in peace together but if they don`t take the settlers out of the West Bank we will never come to peace with Israel or the settlers."
Across the valley, Maan News Agency reported that soldiers roamed Awarta yesterday with loudspeakers blaring a call for all 15-40 year-olds to gather at the local school, where the Palestinian New Network reported 12 were arrested.
More than a dozen settlers in white masks entered Jinsafout last night, incinerated a car to its chassis, and attempted to burn a tractor. Two more cars were reported burnt just north of Ramallah.
So far, Awarta has not witnessed any settler violence, perhaps because of the leadership of their neighbors from Itamar. While announcing plans to build a new residential area in the settlement named after slain patriarch and rabbi Udi Fogel, [the settlers expressed to Haaretz a complete denial of reprisal attacks against Palestinians-].
"People who know us ask us why we`ve come to study with all the crazies, but that`s rubbish. There is an extremist group in the area, they are reactionary, and their photographs are always printed in the papers," Brooker adds. "But understand: price tag, demonstrations, it`s not even a part of our lexicon. Never has been, never will be."
But the ISM member trapped in Awarta drew a different conclusion.
"The military does such a good job - the settlers doesn`t need to be here.
More and more settlements
After the funeral for the killed Fogel family, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu approved expansions in Gush Etzion, Ma`ale Adumim, Ariel, and Kiryat Sefer with 500 new buildings.
"It`s not because of a particular terrorist attack that we will build a few more houses in [Gush Etzion] or in Maaleh Adumim," said Elyakim Levanon, a rabbi from Elon Moreh. "Rather, we have to convene at our own initiative and decide where and how we want to build; this is our land and our country.
We have to stop once and for all with this nonsense about illegal outposts, Levanon said on the temporary postponement yesterday of his new position as Samaria`s first Chief Rabbi. "This is our home and our inheritance, and we must continue building, and Itamar must become a city and a new center in the [northern West Bank].
International Solidarity Movement activists in Awarta describe a horrific "collective punishment" of the Palestinian village: children taken from school, homes raided, imposition of a 24-hour curfew, constant drone surveillance, and massive imprisonments of the male population.
"The soldiers have locked us with the children and young men and are guarding me now," said an International Solidarity Movement (ISM) member who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We can`t leave the house and right now we can`t even leave this room.
Awarta has become a ghost town, with all the villagers confined to their homes, running out of gas, scared and crying quietly under the buzz of drones and detonations of sound bombs.
"The soldiers take people in every house. I don`t know how many hundreds of people they`ve taken now. The children are scared, of course. The women are crying. They take their sons and fathers away. All the village is very quiet, people can`t really talk, the children have to be quiet," the member said. After gathering some of them from school, Awarta`s boys and men were taken by soldiers to the jail near Huwara. "Here they are collectively punished.
ISM reports that the military has beaten people, cut off electricity and polluted water lines, and broken computers and phones.
Huwara to Hebron
From north to south in the West Bank (or Judea to Samara), settlers have lashed out this week at Palestinian civilians and their property. They have stoned cars on roads around Hebron, Kiryat Arba, Shiloh, Huwarra and Nablus, and two nights ago destroyed a nursery, a building, and smashed windows in Huwara.
Yesterday, settlers torched four cars near the junction towards Yitzhar. Down the road at Adam`s Burger King restaurant and confectionery, the owner was locking up a dusk yesterday.
"Last night we did not sleep," the owner said. He described a dark, fearful night of listening to the synchronized mosques speakers blaring warnings down the valley. A caravan of settlers from the funeral of the killed Itamar family was returning soon, and the village feared a restless night of waiting to be attacked.
"We`d rather be open till midnight or one, but we`re closing," he said as his businesses iron shutters squeaked shut. A rock flew out from a passing car with yellow license plates, quickening his work. "Be careful, move your car. They are crazy. Things are bad, very bad."
Across the street lays a ruined construction project. The night before, settlers had come and ravaged the site, tearing down walls, breaking material and causing thousands of dollars worth of damage.
"They are terrorists," Ismael said, holding broken marble slabs, standing on a pile of ruined construction material estimated to be worth $3,000.
"Every year it is worse in the West Bank," said Mohammad Hassan, a Huwara resident whose house, the closest to the Yitzhar outposts, is guarded by a small Israeli squad. "If the situation stays like this, it will be ten time as crazy."
"This is forever, believe me," said Hassan. "I wish we could live in peace together but if they don`t take the settlers out of the West Bank we will never come to peace with Israel or the settlers."
Across the valley, Maan News Agency reported that soldiers roamed Awarta yesterday with loudspeakers blaring a call for all 15-40 year-olds to gather at the local school, where the Palestinian New Network reported 12 were arrested.
More than a dozen settlers in white masks entered Jinsafout last night, incinerated a car to its chassis, and attempted to burn a tractor. Two more cars were reported burnt just north of Ramallah.
So far, Awarta has not witnessed any settler violence, perhaps because of the leadership of their neighbors from Itamar. While announcing plans to build a new residential area in the settlement named after slain patriarch and rabbi Udi Fogel, [the settlers expressed to Haaretz a complete denial of reprisal attacks against Palestinians-].
"People who know us ask us why we`ve come to study with all the crazies, but that`s rubbish. There is an extremist group in the area, they are reactionary, and their photographs are always printed in the papers," Brooker adds. "But understand: price tag, demonstrations, it`s not even a part of our lexicon. Never has been, never will be."
But the ISM member trapped in Awarta drew a different conclusion.
"The military does such a good job - the settlers doesn`t need to be here.
More and more settlements
After the funeral for the killed Fogel family, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu approved expansions in Gush Etzion, Ma`ale Adumim, Ariel, and Kiryat Sefer with 500 new buildings.
"It`s not because of a particular terrorist attack that we will build a few more houses in [Gush Etzion] or in Maaleh Adumim," said Elyakim Levanon, a rabbi from Elon Moreh. "Rather, we have to convene at our own initiative and decide where and how we want to build; this is our land and our country.
We have to stop once and for all with this nonsense about illegal outposts, Levanon said on the temporary postponement yesterday of his new position as Samaria`s first Chief Rabbi. "This is our home and our inheritance, and we must continue building, and Itamar must become a city and a new center in the [northern West Bank].
@rzabaneh Rania Zabaneh
Some Palestinian websites are reporting a foreign worker MIGHT be behind the Itamar attack that left 5 settlers dead.
Residents of Itamar settlement: 'Price tag' isn't even part of our lexicon
Students at the yeshiva in Itamar say they are not extremists and do not intend on avenging the deaths of the Fogel family, instead Itamar residents discuss building new neighborhood in memory of those murdered.
The Torah study hall in Itamar is a prefabricated building: utilitarian, cold, harshly lit, and casually situated on a rocky incline exposed to the elements. In the front of the hall is "Rabbi Udi's" usual table, which on Sunday turned into a memorial to Udi Fogel.
Fogel had prayed right here with his students on Friday night, and was murdered in his home with his wife Ruti and three of their children several hours later.
Fogel's students gathered around the table, but did not touch it, were careful to leave the table as they found it: a prayer book, a tractate of the Talmud, a book of Jewish ethics, books of Rabbi Kook, the Book of the Khazars, a Torah, and others. A hand-written note left on the table contained rabbinical commentary he intended to teach.
If someone is expecting a revenge attack or "price tag" they won't find it here, at the yeshiva where Fogel taught, whose chief rabbi is Avihai Ronski, the former IDF Chief Rabbi.
"These people don't go out and demonstrate, that's not their style," says Yohanan Goldin, a 24-year-old sixth-year yeshiva student. Goldin was close to Fogel, and was part of the community security team that was called in to find that Fogel was killed.
A day and a half after the attack, Goldin feels the need to improve the public image of the community, and perhaps the yeshiva, as well. "'Price tags" are not the way of the yeshiva," he said.
Goldin's friend, fifth-year yeshiva student Itamar Brooker, says, "Anger does not interest us, people aren't hung up on that. There is pain, there is shock, but not anger. Personally, I still haven`t taken it in. A family has been stabbed to death, it will take time to register."
Brooker says, "Normal people don't go to demonstrations. These people are delegitimized, even demonized, especially those living on the hilltop, as if they are extremists."
"People who know us ask us why we've come to study with all the crazies, but that's rubbish. There is an extremist group in the area, they are reactionary, and their photographs are always printed in the papers," Brooker adds. "But understand: 'price tag,' demonstrations, it's not even a part of our lexicon. Never has been, never will be."
So what is part of the community's lexicon, the yeshiva's lexicon? Rabbi Ronski talked with his students about celebrating the holiday of Purim in a week. On the gate at the entrance to the community they hung signs: '26 years and 22 killed, but the youth of Itamar cannot be broken'.
In the evening, after the funeral, the residents gathered for a meeting. Pinchas Michaeli, the village youth coordinator, told Haaretz about children that are not willing to sleep in their own beds since the attack.
Michaeli adds, "The youth want to act, express themselves. We want to channel it into positive directions." Are these mere declarations? No, Michaeli responds. In Itamar, they are now talking about building a new neighborhood in memory of those murdered.
Some Palestinian websites are reporting a foreign worker MIGHT be behind the Itamar attack that left 5 settlers dead.
Residents of Itamar settlement: 'Price tag' isn't even part of our lexicon
Students at the yeshiva in Itamar say they are not extremists and do not intend on avenging the deaths of the Fogel family, instead Itamar residents discuss building new neighborhood in memory of those murdered.
The Torah study hall in Itamar is a prefabricated building: utilitarian, cold, harshly lit, and casually situated on a rocky incline exposed to the elements. In the front of the hall is "Rabbi Udi's" usual table, which on Sunday turned into a memorial to Udi Fogel.
Fogel had prayed right here with his students on Friday night, and was murdered in his home with his wife Ruti and three of their children several hours later.
Fogel's students gathered around the table, but did not touch it, were careful to leave the table as they found it: a prayer book, a tractate of the Talmud, a book of Jewish ethics, books of Rabbi Kook, the Book of the Khazars, a Torah, and others. A hand-written note left on the table contained rabbinical commentary he intended to teach.
If someone is expecting a revenge attack or "price tag" they won't find it here, at the yeshiva where Fogel taught, whose chief rabbi is Avihai Ronski, the former IDF Chief Rabbi.
"These people don't go out and demonstrate, that's not their style," says Yohanan Goldin, a 24-year-old sixth-year yeshiva student. Goldin was close to Fogel, and was part of the community security team that was called in to find that Fogel was killed.
A day and a half after the attack, Goldin feels the need to improve the public image of the community, and perhaps the yeshiva, as well. "'Price tags" are not the way of the yeshiva," he said.
Goldin's friend, fifth-year yeshiva student Itamar Brooker, says, "Anger does not interest us, people aren't hung up on that. There is pain, there is shock, but not anger. Personally, I still haven`t taken it in. A family has been stabbed to death, it will take time to register."
Brooker says, "Normal people don't go to demonstrations. These people are delegitimized, even demonized, especially those living on the hilltop, as if they are extremists."
"People who know us ask us why we've come to study with all the crazies, but that's rubbish. There is an extremist group in the area, they are reactionary, and their photographs are always printed in the papers," Brooker adds. "But understand: 'price tag,' demonstrations, it's not even a part of our lexicon. Never has been, never will be."
So what is part of the community's lexicon, the yeshiva's lexicon? Rabbi Ronski talked with his students about celebrating the holiday of Purim in a week. On the gate at the entrance to the community they hung signs: '26 years and 22 killed, but the youth of Itamar cannot be broken'.
In the evening, after the funeral, the residents gathered for a meeting. Pinchas Michaeli, the village youth coordinator, told Haaretz about children that are not willing to sleep in their own beds since the attack.
Michaeli adds, "The youth want to act, express themselves. We want to channel it into positive directions." Are these mere declarations? No, Michaeli responds. In Itamar, they are now talking about building a new neighborhood in memory of those murdered.
Israels interior minister Eli Yishai called on his government to initiate the building of 5, 000 settlement units in the West Bank, 1, 000 for each one of the five settlers killed in Itamar settlement.
Yishai stressed the need to intensify settlement expansion in the West Bank in light of what he described as the incitement against Israelis and the Palestinian calls for killing them.
He said that the Palestinian authority does not want peace and encourages murder while Israelis put their heads in the sand like ostriches.
Last Saturday morning, the Israeli media announced the death of five Jewish settlers in Itamar settlement near Nablus city, while Israeli officials hastened to accuse the Palestinians of killing them and incited settlers to avenge their death.
Some observers believe that Zionist official parties are behind what happened in Itamar settlement in order to justify pre-planned aggressive acts against the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
In a related incident, a large number of Israeli troops violently raided and ransacked Palestinian homes during the last two days in Awarta village of Nablus, and physically and verbally abused the villagers.
Local sources reported that the troops set up more than 15 military posts on the rooftops of houses in the village and prevented the citizens from leaving their homes.
They added that Israeli soldiers opened fire at water tanks on the rooftops amid racist slurs against Arabs.
Israeli soldiers reportedly beat Palestinian citizens when they break into houses and steal everything they can during the raids.
Yishai stressed the need to intensify settlement expansion in the West Bank in light of what he described as the incitement against Israelis and the Palestinian calls for killing them.
He said that the Palestinian authority does not want peace and encourages murder while Israelis put their heads in the sand like ostriches.
Last Saturday morning, the Israeli media announced the death of five Jewish settlers in Itamar settlement near Nablus city, while Israeli officials hastened to accuse the Palestinians of killing them and incited settlers to avenge their death.
Some observers believe that Zionist official parties are behind what happened in Itamar settlement in order to justify pre-planned aggressive acts against the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
In a related incident, a large number of Israeli troops violently raided and ransacked Palestinian homes during the last two days in Awarta village of Nablus, and physically and verbally abused the villagers.
Local sources reported that the troops set up more than 15 military posts on the rooftops of houses in the village and prevented the citizens from leaving their homes.
They added that Israeli soldiers opened fire at water tanks on the rooftops amid racist slurs against Arabs.
Israeli soldiers reportedly beat Palestinian citizens when they break into houses and steal everything they can during the raids.
Hamas has condemned the marked increase in harassment and arrests by the Palestinian Authority targeting Hamas supporters in the West Bank following the killing of five settlers in the illegal Itamar settlement three days ago.
The group said in a statement Sunday that the escalation contradicts with current talks of national reconciliation.
It said the escalation was a bid to eliminate the Gaza-governing movement and the protectors of the Palestinian project.
This exposes the falsity of Fatah's talks on reconciliation and claims to have suspended negotiations, the statement says.
Hamas called on Fatah to end the arrest campaign and release Hamas's men detained in its prisons, and to respond to national and popular calls and efforts demanding reconciliation and an end to the split.
The group said in a statement Sunday that the escalation contradicts with current talks of national reconciliation.
It said the escalation was a bid to eliminate the Gaza-governing movement and the protectors of the Palestinian project.
This exposes the falsity of Fatah's talks on reconciliation and claims to have suspended negotiations, the statement says.
Hamas called on Fatah to end the arrest campaign and release Hamas's men detained in its prisons, and to respond to national and popular calls and efforts demanding reconciliation and an end to the split.
The military wing of the Palestinian Authority`s ruling Fatah party, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said Monday that its activists had no part in the slaying of five members of a settler family in Itamar on Friday night.
Commenting on the nature of the killings, which saw five out of eight members of the Fogel family stabbed to death, including a four-month-old infant, the brigades said they "oppose the targeting of civilians and killing of children no matter what the pretext may be."
The killings triggered settler outrage and an Israeli military manhunt in the northern West Bank, and were condemned by the Palestinian Authority, with President Mahmoud Abbas saying Monday that the killings were "inhuman."
Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades came under scrutiny after an offshoot with loose affiliation going by the "Imad Mughniyya Group" sent a statement to media outlets claiming to have carried out the attack, but details from the statement did not match statements from investigators. Members of the group in Gaza later denied any involvement.
The loose connection with the Al-Aqsa brigades saw some news reports point fingers at the group, prompting the release of a statement saying "All statements released by other groups claiming they are affiliated to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades under any names, are false and unacceptable."
The brigades went on to condemn the wave of settler attacks targeting Palestinians, saying "Our people are encountering unprecedented frantic attacks by mobs of settlers," adding that the attacks were creating an increasingly unstable situation in the West Bank as the rest of the Arab world was in turmoil.
"Settlers have escalated their aggression, [they are] taking advantage of this time following the killing of five settlers. Israel claims that the killing was a 'natural outcome' from Palestinian 'incitement' against settlers, saying we urge people to attack innocent people," the statement said, the allegations were untrue.
The militant group said it held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "completely responsible for the latest breakdown ... the government has unleashed settlers who have been attacking Palestinians, provoking them day and night."
Israel must not "take advantage of the death of innocents," the statement concluded.
In the wake of the deaths, Netanyahu announced the construction of 500 new settlement buildings, even as international groups called for an urgent return to peace talks, which Palestinians say can not go forward as long as illegal settlements continue to be constructed on occupied land.
Commenting on the nature of the killings, which saw five out of eight members of the Fogel family stabbed to death, including a four-month-old infant, the brigades said they "oppose the targeting of civilians and killing of children no matter what the pretext may be."
The killings triggered settler outrage and an Israeli military manhunt in the northern West Bank, and were condemned by the Palestinian Authority, with President Mahmoud Abbas saying Monday that the killings were "inhuman."
Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades came under scrutiny after an offshoot with loose affiliation going by the "Imad Mughniyya Group" sent a statement to media outlets claiming to have carried out the attack, but details from the statement did not match statements from investigators. Members of the group in Gaza later denied any involvement.
The loose connection with the Al-Aqsa brigades saw some news reports point fingers at the group, prompting the release of a statement saying "All statements released by other groups claiming they are affiliated to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades under any names, are false and unacceptable."
The brigades went on to condemn the wave of settler attacks targeting Palestinians, saying "Our people are encountering unprecedented frantic attacks by mobs of settlers," adding that the attacks were creating an increasingly unstable situation in the West Bank as the rest of the Arab world was in turmoil.
"Settlers have escalated their aggression, [they are] taking advantage of this time following the killing of five settlers. Israel claims that the killing was a 'natural outcome' from Palestinian 'incitement' against settlers, saying we urge people to attack innocent people," the statement said, the allegations were untrue.
The militant group said it held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "completely responsible for the latest breakdown ... the government has unleashed settlers who have been attacking Palestinians, provoking them day and night."
Israel must not "take advantage of the death of innocents," the statement concluded.
In the wake of the deaths, Netanyahu announced the construction of 500 new settlement buildings, even as international groups called for an urgent return to peace talks, which Palestinians say can not go forward as long as illegal settlements continue to be constructed on occupied land.
Soldiers toured Awarta village on Monday morning, calling through loud speakers for all residents aged 15-40 to gather in the yard of the community's school.
A village council official and a local man working for the Palestinian security departments were said to have been detained overnight.
The call to appear at the school was the first time many were permitted to leave their homes in three days, and village council leader Qays Awwad said interrogations were expected.
An Israeli-imposed curfew remains in place on the village for the third day in a row, keeping Awarta residents locked indoors as a wide-scale military campaign continues. Israeli media said the military had declared the village a closed military zone.
Awwad village council Salim Qawariq had been taken from his home while Israeli forces inspected it, while informed Palestinian sources confirmed the detention of Lieutenant Iyad Muhammad Awwad, a Palestinian general intelligence officer.
Two activists with the International Solidarity Movement were able to enter Awarta before the curfew was imposed, and confirmed the continued closure of the town.
Speaking with Ma'an one Swedish national with ISM said searches conducted by Israeli forces appeared random, with home being entered more than once over the course of three days.
In one home the activist said he visited shortly after a military search, framed pictures were smashed, furniture overturned, fuse cables cut, cash and SIM phone cards confiscated, a computer thrown off its desk, and oil poured into barrels of drinking water in the kitchen.
"From where we are we have seen at least 19 people taken from homes and transported to an unknown location," he said.
Locals told the ISM activists that Israeli forces searched the town hall, taking some 1,800 shekels ($500) from a drawer, and an unknown amount from the council's safe.
Medicines and basic food stuffs in the village were said to be running short, with families forced to live off any reserves in their homes, council member Awwad said.
Israeli forces said Monday that they were searching the village for suspects in the murder of five members of a settler family from the adjacent settlement of Itamar. A mother, father and three of their children were stabbed to death on Friday night, by an unknown assailant.
Israeli officials have said that they believe a Palestinian was behind what has been described as a "terror attack."
Condemnations of the killings were issued in Ramallah, with prime minister-designate Salam Fayyad saying "An infant, two children and their parents were the victims, and as we have always rejected violence against our people, we reject it against others and we condemn it."
Home-to-home invasions were reported from Saturday afternoon when the curfew was imposed, and Awwad said residents were being terrified by the brutal search methods.
Israeli police were put on high alert and the army said troops had been ordered "to be vigilant" for any attempted revenge attacks, reports said on Sunday.
The murder of five out of eight members of the settler family sparked anger from Israel and its settler communities. A wave of attacks against Palestinian civilians has been documented across the West Bank, including the torching of an agricultural field north of Ramallah, vandalism in the southern West Bank near Hebron, and several incidents of rock and Molotov cocktail throwing on settler roads connecting West Bank population centers.
A village council official and a local man working for the Palestinian security departments were said to have been detained overnight.
The call to appear at the school was the first time many were permitted to leave their homes in three days, and village council leader Qays Awwad said interrogations were expected.
An Israeli-imposed curfew remains in place on the village for the third day in a row, keeping Awarta residents locked indoors as a wide-scale military campaign continues. Israeli media said the military had declared the village a closed military zone.
Awwad village council Salim Qawariq had been taken from his home while Israeli forces inspected it, while informed Palestinian sources confirmed the detention of Lieutenant Iyad Muhammad Awwad, a Palestinian general intelligence officer.
Two activists with the International Solidarity Movement were able to enter Awarta before the curfew was imposed, and confirmed the continued closure of the town.
Speaking with Ma'an one Swedish national with ISM said searches conducted by Israeli forces appeared random, with home being entered more than once over the course of three days.
In one home the activist said he visited shortly after a military search, framed pictures were smashed, furniture overturned, fuse cables cut, cash and SIM phone cards confiscated, a computer thrown off its desk, and oil poured into barrels of drinking water in the kitchen.
"From where we are we have seen at least 19 people taken from homes and transported to an unknown location," he said.
Locals told the ISM activists that Israeli forces searched the town hall, taking some 1,800 shekels ($500) from a drawer, and an unknown amount from the council's safe.
Medicines and basic food stuffs in the village were said to be running short, with families forced to live off any reserves in their homes, council member Awwad said.
Israeli forces said Monday that they were searching the village for suspects in the murder of five members of a settler family from the adjacent settlement of Itamar. A mother, father and three of their children were stabbed to death on Friday night, by an unknown assailant.
Israeli officials have said that they believe a Palestinian was behind what has been described as a "terror attack."
Condemnations of the killings were issued in Ramallah, with prime minister-designate Salam Fayyad saying "An infant, two children and their parents were the victims, and as we have always rejected violence against our people, we reject it against others and we condemn it."
Home-to-home invasions were reported from Saturday afternoon when the curfew was imposed, and Awwad said residents were being terrified by the brutal search methods.
Israeli police were put on high alert and the army said troops had been ordered "to be vigilant" for any attempted revenge attacks, reports said on Sunday.
The murder of five out of eight members of the settler family sparked anger from Israel and its settler communities. A wave of attacks against Palestinian civilians has been documented across the West Bank, including the torching of an agricultural field north of Ramallah, vandalism in the southern West Bank near Hebron, and several incidents of rock and Molotov cocktail throwing on settler roads connecting West Bank population centers.
