Israeli military, settlers and media foment violence against Palestinians
B’Tselem: Apartheid’s Watchdogs in Israel
Last week, on 28 September 2021, dozens of Israeli settlers, some of them armed, attacked the Palestinian community of Khirbet al-Mufaqarah, which lies in the Masafer Yatta area (South Hebron Hills) in the West Bank, in one of the most severe settler attacks against Palestinians in recent years.
At one point, three-year-old Muhammad Baker Mahmoud Hamamdeh was injured by a stone that hit him in the head.
The incident was captured on video by B’Tselem volunteers and received wide media coverage. Today, B’Tselem published more footage of the incident.
Far-right Israeli media outlet HaKol HaYehudi quoted a military officer claiming that he had seen a young Palestinian setting fire to a structure and that the latter had tried to pin the arson on settlers.
To support this version, several seconds of footage were sent to Channel 12 News reporter Ofer Hadad in which the officer is seen accusing Basel al-Adraa – an activist, journalist and volunteer with B’Tselem’s camera project – of starting the fire, without presenting a shred of evidence.
Today, B’Tselem published new footage proving the allegations baseless:
These are the minutes that preceded the seconds aired on Channel 12 News last night, which served reporter Ofer Hadad to accuse al-Adraa of trying to torch a house.
The officer who made the false accusation was recently described by the IDF spokesperson as “not reflecting the conduct expected of him,” given documentation of his behavior in recent weeks.
Basel al-Adraa responded: “The fake news is a desperate attempt to stop me from documenting, as I am the one who filmed the settler attack on Tuesday, in which 60 masked settlers beat up families, vandalized homes, and fractured the head of a three-year-old boy – backed up by soldiers. I don’t create “false videos” to make settlers seem bad – they seem bad because they commit horrible crimes. Want me to stop? Stop the occupation.”
Channel 12 News did not run a basic fact check before sharing the footage and the unfounded allegations against al-Adraa – nor was he asked to comment.
Israeli soldiers, settlers, bureaucrats, government ministers and judges routinely mete out harsh violence against Palestinians. This time, they were joined by Apartheid’s Watchdogs in Channel 12 Newsroom.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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