UPDATES 9 am Israel time, Friday, July 12 2013
*More bogus numbers from the so-called “Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics” this morning: the PCBS “estimates” that there are 2.72 million Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, and another 1.7 million in Gaza.
How did the PCBS figure this out with no census? Once again, the numbers are merely estimated projections based on estimations. Ironically, most international institutions such as the World Bank estimate that the Palestinian estimates are inflated by as much as 25% or more.
*On Israel’s borders: another Egyptian policeman was killed in the Sinai this morning, and a Free Syrian Army Commander, Kamal Hamami, was killed by fellow rebels linked to Al-Qaeda during a meeting in the city of Latakia.
The Hezbollah major general killed last night.
Meanwhile, the Hezbollah operational commander in Homs was killed overnight (picture on left). This brings to 34 the total number of Hezbollah fighters killed in Homs in the last two days. By the way, Bashir Assad has just granted Syrian citizenship to more than 40,000 foreign fighters fighting for him in the country–primarily members of Hezbollah.
TODAY’S BLOG:
The utter disregard that Palestinians have for their own children is well known. Mothers and fathers use their young boys and girls as provocateurs and human shields to carry out the acts that they themselves fear to do.
An israelstreet blog last week chronicled the case of a Palestinian mother who regularly sends her daughters out to confront IDF soldiers who are manning outposts and checkpoints in the hopes that she will be able to film the soldiers reacting violently to her daughter’s curses and screaming (she hasn’t been successful).
This morning the leftwing Israeli media and their colleagues in the international press have been fed a story by the infamous B’Tselem NGO group. B’Tselem never misses an opportunity to falsify a story or doctor a picture in order to cast Israeli soldiers in the darkest light possible.
The headlines this morning are “IDF Detains 5-year-old Palestinian Rock Thrower”. The story that follows supposedly documents the alleged “abuse” of 5-year-old Palestinian boy.
Maswadeh is the kid in the orange shirt. The teenager holding his hand accompanied him on the short ride to his house.
The facts, however, tell a completely different story.
On Tuesday, five-year-old Wadi’a Maswadeh was out doing what he usually does. He was standing by the heavily trafficked road near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron throwing “rocks” at every Israeli car that passed while being filmed by B’Tselim “field worker” Manal al-Ja’bari.
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Much to the glee of B’Tselem, an IDF patrol happened by and saw Maswadeh throwing the “rocks”. The soldiers decided to stop the boy from throwing rocks, get Maswadeh away from the street, and take him to his parents’ house–so they enlisted the help of a nearby Palestinian teenager to accompany Maswadeh in their jeep. All the while Maswadeh was “sobbing” (remember the posed photos from last week?).
The soldiers took the boy to his home, took him inside, and handed him over to his mother. They then waited outside for his father, Karem, to come home. The soldiers then took Karem and his son to the Palestinian police station at the Hashoter checkpoint which was within walking distance of their house.
Once there, the IDF soldiers left.
The Palestinian police proceeded to fine Karem 5000 Jordanian dinars ($7,000) for his son’s misdemeanor–and then, 30 minutes later, they released them.
To conclude, here are a few questions that your humble servant would like to have answered:
1. Where are Maswadeh’s parents everyday when he goes and stands beside a busy road throwing rocks at Israeli cars? (Of course, I can answer this by simply saying that they could care less where he is.)
2. Why did the Palestinian police fine Maswadeh’s father such an exorbitant sum by Palestinian standards? (Could it be that this is not the first time that Maswadeh or his son have been engaged in illegal activities?)
3. What would your parents have done, dear reader, if the police had caught you–when you were five years old–out beside a road throwing rocks at cars? (I can tell you that in my small hometown, the police would have taken me straight to my parents’ house, and after my father had had a few choice words with me, I would not have been able to sit down for a week).
Far from being a story of IDF abuse, the story of Wadi’a Maswadeh is a story of remarkable IDF restraint and correct action. As usual, the soldiers of the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion deserve to be praised for their efforts.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.