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Rocks and rockets

After hearing many upsetting reactions to what was perceived as an anti-Israel article by Jodi Rudoren in The New York Times, I read the article myself. It is titled “In a West Bank culture of conflict, boys Wield the Weapon at Hand.”

I went in looking for the anti-Israel angle people were upset by. And to be sure, I found it immediately. The article is about the culture of violence in the Arab village of Beit Ommar. It describes the Arab youth and their stonethrowing ways at Israeli passing cars. Except for one vague quote from an Israeli, Israel’s voice is mute in the piece.

Even worse, the author trivializes the seriousness of stonethrowing by glibly referring to this Arab pastime as “the futility of stones bouncing off armored vehicles matters little,” and paints the IDF as somewhat unfair in its arrests of these threatening youths throwing rocks (just imagine what would be the fate of stonethrowers in Egypt or Syria).

The article is accompanied by a photo of four uniformed IDF soldiers at the narrow threshold of an Arab home, as a little Arab boy hides behind the dress of his scarf clad mother.

So yes, I saw what could be upsetting about the article in terms of its anti-Israel bias. The tone of the piece was almost a glorification of stonethrowing, something most of us would condemn, be it the sadly mainstream culture of Arab youth doing the stonethrowing or the marginal, Israeli youth who have recently emerged doing the same.

But honestly, what struck me much more strongly was the Arab story the author was telling.

Here was a bird’s eye view of Arab youth in an Arab village.

What you read about were children and teens, not adults, but kids, who are essentially exploited, manipulated and cynically used by their parents and teachers to risk their lives and be the instruments for hurting other human beings.

What you read about was a village where a children’s normative game activity — encouraged and supported by the parents — is “Arabs and Army.” Not reading. Not working. Not volunteering. Not playing. But a game of children stonethrowing and the subsequent, inevitable, IDF arrest.

What you read was a story about yet another Palestinian generation where, with pride, energy is invested in hate and violence.

I know of these children and teens. They are the “atfal al-hijara,” the children of the stones, as they are called.

Another group to add to the list of exploited children of the world.

Personally, if I were Arab I would be much more upset about this article than any Israeli should be.

I am personally acquainted with a Palestinian living in this village or right outside this village. Not everyone is engaged in this violent behavior.

Last I spoke with him, this acquaintance endeavors to be a good dad, spending his time bonding with his sons, teaching them how to ride horses, as well as how to farm. But the fact is, these stonethrowers in his community of Beit Ommar are regarded with respect.

It is ludicrous how the Times author brushed over the dangerous and too often even lethal consequence of these stonethrowings — which, by the way, are not mere stonethrowings, but rockthrowings — big, hard-impact rocks.

Also misrepresented were these rock throwers, acting not only out of boredom, acting out not an innocent, playful pastime as the author might have you at times believe. Rather, these rocks are thrown by these youth with the purpose of maiming and killing. In other words, attempted murder.

Rocks or rockets, they can both kill.

And they are both sent hurling through the air at Israeli Jews with the goal of just that: killing.

Yes, there were inaccuracies — the impression that stones were thrown at military vehicles — when in reality it is civilian vehicles that are regularly aimed at with a hail of stones on the road, killing innocent men, women and children,. Only the most recent case: little Adele Bitton, who is still in a coma.

Still more damning, the stone-throwers in this Palestinian village are welcomed home out of jail as heroes. Their teachers view these stone hurlers with a mix of pride and terror.

A fairly large percentage of children are in jail and consequently fall behind in school, left to repeat grades.

The family about whom the Times wrote, the Abu Hashem family, has had seven family members in jail at different times, as if this behavior, this stonethrowing is something to be proud of. Something worthwhile to miss school for — even a whole grade.

As the article states: “They [the Arab stonethrowing youth] do it because their brothers and fathers did.”

Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News



Tehilla Goldberg

IJN columnist | View from Central Park


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