Mainstream Israeli media sources provided further evidence Monday
that they are unable or unwilling to report objectively on events in
Judea and Samaria (Yehuda and Shomron), as news outlets appear
determined to ignore new evidence of Arab wrongdoing in a
confrontation near Yitzhar Saturday.
Arab video of the incident has been featured prominently, but video
shot by Jews (below) and disseminated for publication Monday morning
has been largely ignored in the hours since its release. The Jews say
that it shows Arabs setting fire to their own fields, for propaganda
purposes. Arabs have shown similarly unclear footage of Saturday´s
events and claimed it shows Jews setting fire to Arab fields.
For the fourth straight Saturday, Arabs set fire to fields near
Yitzhar. The arson is part of a sophisticated propaganda campaign
with the involvement of B´tselem, a group with funding from the Ford
Foundation that favors the reoccupation of Judea and Samaria by Arabs.
In these attacks, the Arabs and their leftist collaborators set fire
to fields that belong to Jews, and sometimes to their own fields.
They provoke IDF soldiers and violently attack soldiers and Jewish
civilians, with fists, rocks and knives. They videotape all that
ensues and then produce a heavily edited version for the media
featuring only retaliatory moves by the IDF and settlers. The media
swallows the Arab version uncritically and publishes it.
The Jewish residents have lately realized that having their own
footage of the events is of vital importance, and rabbis have given
their permission to videotape the incidents despite the Sabbath. In
the latest incident, video footage shot by the Jewish side shows what
appears to be Arabs setting fire to fields, as well as a terrorist
lying on the ground with a knife next to him. According to security
sources, the Arab lunged at soldiers with the knife and was shot and
wounded.
The footage of the knife has been embedded in a few media reports,
and the second video appears to be featured nowhere except Arutz
Sheva. The video was only edited and released to the media after the
Shavuot holiday, which ended Sunday evening.
Photos by Reuters show Arabs daring to engage in fisticuffs with
armed IDF soldiers, in the knowledge that any violence by the
soldiers will result in a media pile-up of the kind Lt. Col. Shalom
Eisner was subjected to when he used force against anarchists.
