One Child's Detention In Hebron Embodies The Sickness Of An Entire Regime

[Purveyor]

It takes a racist regime to produce images like this. Nothing less.

I urge readers to look closely at the pictures and videos posted today by Mairav Zonszein, which show the detention of a five-year-old in Hebron. As Mairav correctly points out, the whole process is very calm. Very routine.

I’d add one more adjective: very racist.

Look at those smug soldiers, not even flinching once or thinking twice about detaining a five-year-old. As if there’s no other way for the most powerful army in the region to handle a child who threw a stone.

Look at them, surrounding him, four or five soldiers armed to their teeth with shiny black assault weapons, his parents nowhere in sight. (Here’s where the hasbara folks go: “Well what kind of parents let a kid bla bla bla bla?” Go on, do it. Let’s just get it out of the way early.)

One of my kids is the exact same age. I’m trying to think what this kind of event would do to her, and I shudder. (Hasbara: “Ami, it wouldn’t happen because you’re more responsible than typical Palestinian parents.” Shut up, racists – who aren’t under occupation, by the way.)

MORE...

http://972mag.com/one-childs-arrest-in-hebron-embodies-the-sickness-of-an-entire-regime/75625/

[delrem]

1. The IDF soldiers looked totally pumped.

And Ami Kaufman lands a hard fast punch to the hasbarist nose.

[azurnoir]

2. Lol Mr Kaufman can certainly call it

Look at them, surrounding him, four or five soldiers armed to their teeth with shiny black assault weapons, his parents nowhere in sight. (Here’s where the hasbara folks go: “Well what kind of parents let a kid bla bla bla bla?” Go on, do it. Let’s just get it out of the way early

and that was the response

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113444584

[shira]

3. Kaufman has no response to people calling out the parents...

...other than to cry "racist".

What's worse is that you and Delrem, like the ISM and Paul Larudee who commented in the thread, believe the Palestinians and this child have every "right" to do this. And by this, I mean throw rocks at the Jewish apes and pigs, as the PA incites them to do.

You're all encouraging this racist behavior and then feigning disgust once the authorities are forced to deal with it.

[azurnoir]

4. Thanks for the response

that once again is an example of what Kaufman is talking about

[shira]

6. Come on, true or false....

You believe Palestinian parents and authorities have every right to incite and encourage children as young as 5 years old to throw rocks at moving cars.......to confront the "occupation".

Come on, own your opinion.

[azurnoir]

7. IMO you've created yet another scarecrow

that you predictably demand a black or white response to, when reality is not that plain

[shira]

8. Predictable. Yet another evasion. Be true to yourself! n/t

[azurnoir]

9. and you do same okay? :)

[shira]

12. Ask anything you want. Nothing to hide here...

Funny how you and yours do your utmost to conceal your views.

[azurnoir]

13. actually I take what you post and where you chose to it from as reflecting your views

and you feel free to do the very same, promise

[polly7]

5. Woooo look at those big, tough soldiers. nt.

[azurnoir]

10. wonder if Israel detained any of these kidz

[oberliner]

11. This a very strange individual

Last edited Fri Jul 12, 2013, 07:25 PM - Edit history (1)

From writing an article about how getting on some weird list was the "best day of his life" to writing this article telling people to read a different article already posted on the site. Why not just post a comment to the original article with his thoughts on the matter?

Bizarrely, the original article says one of the most disturbing things about the incident is the lack of violence and presence of "calm" among the soldiers involved. Does that not appear counter intuitive to anyone?

The child threw rocks and was then taken to his parents. There was certainly no "arrest" as the article initially claimed. Notice the link still contains the "arrest" language even though no such thing occurred.

Yes it was heavy handed, but racist? If an Israeli settler child threw a rock towards an Israeli vehicle with no parent present would they not be treated similarly? Remember the scenes of the IDF dragging settlers kicking and screaming out of their homes in Gaza? Were they being antisemitic for treating Jews that way?

To review: there was no arrest, there was no violence, the soldiers were calm, and the child was taken to his parents.

What would the police do in the United States if a kid started throwing rocks at vehicles and the child's parents were not present? Would race play any factor? Not the same situation, of course, but I ask those questions genuinely.

I am prepared to discuss this reasonably with anyone who is interested in doing so.

[azurnoir]

14. Not quite as strange as the claims you're making beginning with this

This article’s headline and text has been corrected to reflect that the child was detained and not arrested.

and more from the article

To handcuff and blindfold his father, right in front of his eyes.

And, to make things worse, it takes a racist lieutenant colonel to reprimand his soldiers for doing that to the father and his son.

But not because of the mental damage to the child! Oh no!

Not because their actions were illegal to begin with (only children 12 and above can be detained in the West Bank according to military law)! God forbid, no!

http://972mag.com/one-childs-arrest-in-hebron-embodies-the-sickness-of-an-entire-regime/75625/

so now I must ask did you read the article or what?

[oberliner]

15. I think you are confused

I am not sure I understand what the text in that box is supposed to show. My point was that the article initially said the boy was arrested, which it turns out he wasn't - so the piece had to be changed to reflect that fact. The original, however, is still floating around the internet with the old title:

"Israeli soldiers arrest 5-year-old Palestinian for throwing stone"

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israeli-soldiers-arrest-5-year-old-palestinian-throwing-stone?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AlAkhbarEnglish+%28Al+Akhbar+English%29

"Israeli soldiers arrest 5-year-old Palestinian boy for throwing stone"

https://topinfopost.com/2013/07/12/israeli-soldiers-arrest-5-year-old-palestinian-boy-for-throwing-stone

And so on.

Also, the original piece at 972mag is linked to in the OP with the text: "one-childs-arrest-in-hebron-embodies-the-sickness-of-an-entire-regime" in the link (You confirm this in your repost of the link).

That was the point I was making in that regard.

With respect to your other comments, I do not see why the father was blindfolded and handcuffed. That seems pretty outrageous to me as well.

My opinion on this author is that he is the mirror image of the folks who have blogs that feature regular posts about nasty things that some Palestinians do. He just does it with (Jewish) Israelis.

If, instead, he decided to make regular posts about positive interactions between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, he would be mocked/dismissed as a "hasbarist" or something along those lines.

One can usually find whatever one is looking for. That's what makes sites like 972mag and their counterparts so silly.

[azurnoir]

17. so he should remain silent is that it? he should only post the uplifting stuff that the occupation

does for Palestinian, the uplifting exchanges between Israeli's and Palestinians? Gee just think if that had happened during Vietnam

you also mention the antiPalestinian bloggers posted here , but strangely I do not see you protesting those articles from antiPalestinian sites

eta +972 corrected it's article to say detained rather than arrested sorry if the other publications did not obediently follow suit

[oberliner]

19. The article was already posted by someone else

Normally, if someone posts an article about an incident, one doesn't need to post another article about the same incident with no new reporting or information provided. If he wanted to share his feelings, why not just add a comment to the already existing article as so many others have done? Why post an entirely new article that essentially is just saying: read the other article. Seems like overkill. Or maybe do some additional reporting - find out more about what happened. Talk to some of the people involved. Try to get an interview with the parents of the child. Try to speak to the IDF to get their perspective. See if there are any first-hand witnesses. Dig into the story like a real reporter if it is of interest.

Yes, the 972mag article was corrected. Wouldn't you want anyone who published the article to also make a correction? Seems like an important distinction - arresting the child vs. not arresting him. Your "obediently follow suit" comment seems to suggest that you don't think it's such a big deal that the un-corrected version is out there on other sites (some may not even ever learn that the child wasn't arrested - it's already on youtube with the "arrest" language).

[azurnoir]

21. arrested vs detained either way the child and his dad were forcibly taken into custody

by IDF and that alone is the real outrage-that a 5 year was taken in this manner not whether or not they were detained or arrested

[oberliner]

22. Agreed

I guess my primary argument is that race/racism was not the motivating factor here. I believe that if the child was white, let's say the son of an activist from Northern Europe, the response would have been similar.

I also think it's weird the way the initial article asserts that the lack of violence and the sense of calm was somehow indicative of something sinister. In my view, this situation would have been much much more serious if the opposite were the case (that is, if the soldiers were not calm and there was violence).

[delrem]

18. no, oberliner, I don't want to discuss this with you.

your perception doesn't make the grade.
Perhaps you think that the soldier pacing back and forth, finger near the guard of his weapon at arms and ensuring IDF control, and his several equally well armed and equipped comrades interrogating the families and taking away the 5 year old kid, were acting like normal people do in your sector of the world -- and for that reason it's OK with you.

But that perception does not make the grade with me.

I don't want to listen to hasbara's arguments that all that is "OK", "moral", "deserved", etc., because all those arguments are void.

[oberliner]

20. Thanks for letting me know

Not sure to what extent any of this is normal. If there were video-recordings made and posted regularly documenting the actions of armies/police forces around the world, I don't know where this would stand in that pantheon.

For the record, I don't agree with any of the "hasbara" arguments that you make note of.

The entire totality of the occupation is not OK, moral, or deserved. There ought to be no settlements, no checkpoints, and no daily indignities for Palestinians to face in the West Bank.

I support two independent states living side by side at peace with one another. Something along the lines of the Geneva Initiative.

[delrem]

23. Ok, sounds reasonable. nt

[shira]

16. Ben Dror Yemini on the hypocrisy - from OP comments @ +972

“On the day in which an Israeli soldier detained a Palestinian boy, another 100 people were killed in Syria, most of them innocents. That is the daily average. It is possible that some ‘fighter’ from one of the jihadist groups beheaded three women. In Nigeria, Somalia or Mali, dozens of children were slaughtered, or died of hunger.

“But there is a great difference between all of those horrors and the child who was detained in Hevron,” Yemini noted. “130,000 children died of starvation in Somalia because the jihadists decided not to transfer food to them. The story hardly reached the world’s press, and even when it did, the coverage was marginal.”

“As far as human rights or children’s rights are concerned,” he explained, “the problem is that the story about the child detained in Hevron will receive much more coverage than the starving to death of 130,000 children.” The overabundance of cameras recording every single misstep by the IDF therefore causes a moral aberration, he added.

[Scurrilous]

24. A Most Moral Catch!

[oberliner]

25. Kick for 972mag

This article needs more eyeballs on it.