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<h1 class="page__title title balance-text" id="page-title">Palestinian
lives don’t matter to US media </h1>
<header class="node__header">
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/rania-khalek"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype="">Rania Khalek</a></span> <span class="field
field-blog"></span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-10-09T21:14:43+00:00">9
October 2015<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/palestinian-lives-dont-matter-us-media">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/palestinian-lives-dont-matter-us-media</a></small></small></b><br>
</span></span> </p>
</header>
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<p>As Israel ramps up its deadly attacks on Palestinians, mainstream
US media outlets are actively concealing the alarming displays of
genocidal racism emanating from Israeli Jewish society.</p>
<p>Violence against Palestinians is nothing new. Israel’s ongoing
colonial project requires enormous levels of brutality against
Palestinians. But this daily reality is only newsworthy when it
blows back against Israeli Jews, which has been the case during
the last week with a number of violent incidents against Israeli
settlers.</p>
<p>Every unsavory act allegedly committed by a Palestinian since the
drive-by shooting of an Israeli settler couple last Thursday has
garnered major headlines. During the same time period, Israeli
settlers and soldiers have terrorized Palestinians across the
occupied West Bank in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/video-israeli-soldiers-protect-settlers-they-attack-palestinians%20in">attacks</a>
that have injured <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768039">nearly
1,000 Palestinians</a>, including at least 66 people with live
rounds.</p>
<p>Yet these acts of systematic violence have barely registered as
an afterthought in establishment press reports, sending a very
clear and chilling message. Palestinian lives, it seems, have no
value until Israeli Jewish lives are affected.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, incitement to murder by Israeli leaders and Jewish
lynch mobs chanting “<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/death-arabs">death to
Arabs</a>” were comprehensively omitted from US media coverage,
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/media-whitewash-israeli-lynch-mobs-preceded-murder-palestinian-teen">much
like they were</a> in the lead up to the burning alive of
16-year-old <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/muhammad-abu-khudair">Muhammad
Abu Khudair</a> last year.</p>
<h2>“Death to Arabs”</h2>
<p>Following a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Old City that killed
two Israeli settlers last Saturday, hundreds of Jewish extremists
<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.678722">paraded
through the streets</a> of Jerusalem demanding collective
vengeance against Palestinians.</p>
<p>Chanting their hauntingly routine “death to the Arabs” rallying
cry, they broke into lynch mobs hunting for Palestinians to
attack.</p>
<p>Anti-Palestinian race riots have <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/merciless-israeli-mobs-are-hunting-palestinians">erupted</a>
with increasing regularity in Jerusalem since the lead up to the
51-day assault on Gaza in the summer of 2014 that killed 2,251
people, the majority of them civilians. According to the Israeli
newspaper <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.678800"><em>Haaretz</em></a>,
“this time it seems that the Jewish mob which took to the streets
was accepted by Jerusalemites with understanding, if not downright
approval.”</p>
<p>The crowd was made up of extremists from an assortment of far
right groups, including activists from <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/lehava">Lehava</a>,
the anti-miscegenation group that equates mixed Arab-Jewish
relationships and assimilation with genocide of the Jewish people.
There were also more female participants than usual and they
played a key role in riling up the crowds.<br>
<br>
“We have to kill them all, including the Arab Druze in the army,”
one woman was <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/.premium-1.678800">quoted</a>
as saying.</p>
<p>“Where were you at seven in the evening?” another woman shouted
at the police. “Go beat up Arabs.”</p>
<p>“Let the people of Israel enter the gates and kill Arabs,”
hollered a youth at the police.</p>
<p>Despite their hostility towards the police, the mob attacked
their Palestinian targets with relative ease under Israeli police
escort throughout the weekend.</p>
<p>On Saturday night Israeli extremists <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.678722">targeted</a>
a Palestinian worker with tear gas and attacked a Palestinian
driver who struck a pedestrian in his frantic attempt to flee.</p>
<p>At the Jerusalem light rail, extremists asked passengers if they
were Arab to determine whether or not to attack them. More
disturbing than the mob itself was the lack of concern from
bystanders, who “responded apathetically and tried to look the
other way,” reported <em>Haaretz</em>.</p>
<p>“There were many drivers who honked in solidarity and vocally
supported them. The cafes and restaurants along Jaffa Road were
full of people watching the march of hatred passing back and
forth.”</p>
<p>In stark contrast to the saturation of headlines about the
Palestinian attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers, just one
major US media outlet mentioned the hate fests but only after four
Palestinians were <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/world/middleeast/israeli-officials-struggle-to-contain-spate-of-violent-attacks.html?_r=0">stabbed</a>
by an Israeli Jew in Dimona following a week of incitement and
race riots that went unreported.</p>
<h2>How to whitewash a lynching</h2>
<p>The race riots continued into early Sunday morning, with a mob of
rightwing Jews chasing 19-year-old <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-tore-fadi-allouns-family-apart-then-it-killed-him/14900">Fadi
Alloun</a>, shouting to Israeli police, “Shoot him! He’s a
terrorist! Shoot him!” and “Don’t wait! Shoot him!”</p>
<p>The police obliged, firing several gunshots. Alloun, unarmed and
visibly terrified, was executed on the spot and the racist crowd
rejoiced in celebration, cheering, “Yes! Yes! Son of a bitch!” and
“Wow!” and “He’s an Arab!” and “Death to the Arabs!”</p>
<p>Israeli officials quickly justified the killing by claiming
without a shred of proof that Alloun was shot after stabbing a
15-year-old Israeli boy.</p>
<p>Despite publicly available videos showing Alloun being shot in
cold blood while posing no threat and despite Israel offering no
evidence to corroborate the accusation that he stabbed an Israeli,
US media outlets accepted Israel’s version of events as fact.</p>
<p><em>The New York Times</em> Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren
and correspondent Isabel Kershner parroted Israeli police claims,
<a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/world/middleeast/israel-restricts-palestinian-access-to-jerusalems-old-city.html?ref=topics">reporting</a>
that Alloun “stabbed and wounded a 15-year-old Jewish boy on a
road outside the Old City.” They went on to whitewash the video
footage of Alloun’s killing, describing the lynch mob who hunted
him as “Israeli civilians in pursuit,” as if they were good
Samaritans tailing a dangerous criminal.</p>
<p><em>The New York Times</em> published at least ten news stories
about the recent spate of violence, yet it wasn’t until the <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/world/middleeast/israeli-officials-struggle-to-contain-spate-of-violent-attacks.html?_r=0">tenth
report on 9 October </a>that it found space to report on a
“death to Arabs” rally.</p>
<p>The Associated Press<em> </em>followed a similar rubric.</p>
<p>“A Palestinian teenager stabbed and moderately wounded a
15-year-old Israeli early Sunday morning in Jerusalem before being
shot dead by an Israeli officer, police said,” was the extent of
its <a
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-israel-bars-palestinians-from-jerusalems-old-city-2015-10?IR=T">coverage</a>
of Alloun’s killing.</p>
<p>The article went on to detail several instances of Palestinians
allegedly behaving badly toward Israelis by hurling stones and
Molotov cocktails at soldiers, though a vague recognition that
Palestinians had been injured by Israeli forces was buried towards
the end of its report.</p>
<p>In a follow-up <a
href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_PALESTINIANS?SITE=AZCAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-10-05-17-44-52">report</a>
the AP whitewashed a massive gathering of “thousands of Israelis”
outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence on
Monday night who were “demanding tough action,” according to the
AP.</p>
<p>Who were these “thousands of Israelis” and what “tough action”
were they demanding? The AP doesn’t say.</p>
<p>According to <em>Haaretz</em>, the protest was organized by the
Samaria Settlers’ Committee, a far right group that <a
href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/left-wing-ngos-warn-settler-groups-video-could-incite-to-violence/">produced</a>
an animated video earlier this year, which employed classical
anti-Semitic tropes to incite against left-wing Jews.</p>
<p>In attendance were Israeli cabinet ministers Haim Katz and Yariv
Levin, who demanded Netanyahu respond to Palestinian attacks on
settlers by building more illegal Jewish-only settlements in the
occupied West Bank. Settlement construction, <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.678942">said</a>
Levin, will allow Israel “to beat terrorism in the most Jewish way
possible.”</p>
<p>“Freezing [settlement] construction encourages the villains,” he
told the crowd.</p>
<h2>“Burn them in their villages”</h2>
<p>Despite the US media’s refusal to report on them, the “death to
Arabs” rallies have continued unabated.</p>
<p>On Thursday evening, hundreds of Jewish extremists marched
through Jerusalem chanting “death to Arabs” and “<a
href="https://twitter.com/ShevGoldberg/status/652200081593008128">burn
them in their villages</a>.”</p>
<p>They were reportedly <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4708801,00.html">led
by extremists</a> affiliated with Lehava and the notoriously
fascist Beitar Jerusalem soccer fan club <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.679132?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">La
Familia</a>.</p>
<p>If not for social media and a handful of English-language Israeli
media outlets, the existence of these lynch mobs would be
virtually unknown.</p>
<div id="file-32096" class="file file-document file-text-oembed
oembed-rich oembed-default oembed-twitter">
<div class="oembed-content">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" width="550">
<p dir="ltr" xml:lang="en" lang="en">Right wing mob moving
toward East Jerusalem chanting ‘Death to Arabs.’ Police on
horseback trying 2 contain somewhat <a
href="http://t.co/m2erFmI31N">pic.twitter.com/m2erFmI31N</a></p>
— Laura Dean لورا دين (@lauracdean) <a
href="https://twitter.com/lauracdean/status/652201373610737664">October
8, 2015</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div id="file-32050" class="file file-document file-text-oembed
oembed-rich oembed-default oembed-twitter">
<div class="oembed-content">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" width="550">
<p dir="ltr" xml:lang="en" lang="en">Crowds of Israelis are
chanting “death to Arabs” behind live report on Channel 2</p>
— Mike S. Omer-Man (@MikeOmerMan) <a
href="https://twitter.com/MikeOmerMan/status/651805022368473088">October
7, 2015</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div id="file-32051" class="file file-document file-text-oembed
oembed-rich oembed-default oembed-twitter">
<div class="oembed-content">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" width="550">
<p dir="ltr" xml:lang="en" lang="en">Right now- right wing
attempt to march to the old city screaming “death to Arabs”
among other things <a href="http://t.co/0PGsAdop1b">pic.twitter.com/0PGsAdop1b</a></p>
— Elisheva Goldberg (@ShevGoldberg) <a
href="https://twitter.com/ShevGoldberg/status/652196148254347264">October
8, 2015</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div id="file-32052" class="file file-document file-text-oembed
oembed-rich oembed-default oembed-twitter">
<div class="oembed-content">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" width="550">
<p dir="ltr" xml:lang="en" lang="en">Lehava leading the pack.
“Death to Arabs” “Muhammad is dead” “arabs are whores” <a
href="http://t.co/5y45FAc6nW">pic.twitter.com/5y45FAc6nW</a></p>
— Elisheva Goldberg (@ShevGoldberg) <a
href="https://twitter.com/ShevGoldberg/status/652208192705859584">October
8, 2015</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div id="file-32053" class="file file-document file-text-oembed
oembed-rich oembed-default oembed-twitter">
<div class="oembed-content">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" width="550">
<p dir="ltr" xml:lang="en" lang="en">Police running, frantic
and looking pretty scared. Mob headed to Yafo. Latest chant:
“burn them in their villages” <a
href="http://t.co/OgRgBhChLh">pic.twitter.com/OgRgBhChLh</a></p>
— Elisheva Goldberg (@ShevGoldberg) <a
href="https://twitter.com/ShevGoldberg/status/652200081593008128">October
8, 2015</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<p>Palestinians were <a
href="http://http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4708890,00.html">attacked
in Netanya</a>, a city in present-day Israel, the same night by
a hate mob chanting “death to Arabs” and “Netanya residents are
taking care of the Arabs.”</p>
<h2>Lighting the next match</h2>
<p>The next lynching of a Palestinian isn’t a matter of if, it’s a
matter of when.</p>
<p>Even Israel’s security cabinet expressed concerns, <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.679305">predicting</a>
that another deadly attack by Jewish extremists similar to the
burning of the Dawabsha family over the summertime is likely to
occur.</p>
<p>And once again Israeli leaders will have <a
href="http://https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israeli-leaders-lit-match-burned-baby-ali-dawabsha">lit
the match</a>.</p>
<p>Slamming Netanyahu for being too soft on Palestinians, Israeli
justice minister and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-lawmakers-call-genocide-palestinians-gets-thousands-facebook-likes">genocide
advocate</a> <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ayelet-shaked">Ayelet
Shaked</a> openly agitated for collective punishment. “We need
to do things that will hurt [the Palestinians], so they understand
[terrorism] doesn’t pay,” <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Pressure-grows-on-Netanyahu-to-act-with-iron-first-in-light-of-Palestinian-terror-onslaught-419855">said</a>
Shaked.</p>
<p>As “death to Arabs” riots erupt across Jerusalem, Mayor Nir
Barkat is <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.679383">imploring</a>
Israelis to carry their guns at all times to shoot potential
Palestinian “terrorists.”</p>
<p>In the Israeli lexicon the word “terrorist” refers to any
Palestinian who resists Israel’s matrix of oppression, including
children who throw rocks. Israel’s security cabinet recently made
it official by <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/25/israel-live-ammunition-measures">approving</a>
the use of live fire against Palestinian rock-throwers.</p>
<p>Therefore urging Israeli civilians to shoot “terrorists” amounts
to giving vigilantes license to kill not only Palestinians who
attack settlers but also children who throw pebbles or any
Palestinian perceived as threatening to Israel’s colonial system.</p>
<h2>“Eliminate the enemy”</h2>
<p>During a visit to the far right protest outside Netanyahu’s home,
<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/naftali-bennett">Naftali
Bennett</a>, Israeli education minister and leader of the
ultra-nationalist <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/habeyit-hayehudi">Habeyit
Hayehudi</a> (Jewish Home) party, applauded as <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Bennett-calls-for-Israelis-to-eliminate-the-enemy-421358">heroes</a>
Israeli settlers who shot alleged Palestinian assailants dead over
the last week.</p>
<p>“Against the cowardly Arab terrorism, a wave of Jewish courage is
rising to defeat it,” he told the protesters, encouraging them to
“eliminate the enemy.”</p>
<p>“For the past 120 years, people are trying to kill the Jews here.
The enemy changes, but we remain here, growing and building our
land,” said Bennett. “We are the eternal nation, and we are
raising our heads. Jewish heroism will defeat the enemy.”</p>
<p><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/eli-ben-dahan">Eli
Ben-Dahan</a>, the settler rabbi and deputy defense minister who
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/obama-gives-19-billion-weapons-welcome-gift-israels-racist-government">decreed</a>
that Palestinians are “beasts,” called for faster demolitions of
the family homes of Palestinian attackers and for the expulsion of
their families.</p>
<p>“Demolishing terrorists’ houses and deporting their families is
the best deterrent and most efficient way to deal with terrorism
by individuals,” Ben-Dahan told an army radio station. He also
urged Israelis armed with guns to “be alert and prevent another
terrorist attack.”</p>
<p>Yinon Magal, an elected reperestive of Habeyit Hayehudi in
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, tweeted and then deleted, “it is
important to make an effort so that terrorists who carry out
attacks are not left alive.”</p>
<p>He later clarified, “I’m not saying we should take the law into
our hands and lynch people.”</p>
<p>He added, “Whoever is trying to kill us should be taken out.”</p>
<p>It remains unclear how this is different from his original tweet.</p>
<p>During a right-wing sit-in protest at the site of a stabbing
attack in the Old City, Moti Yogev, a member of the Knesset from
Habeyit Hayehudi, was captured on film <a
href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/knesset-member-tell-arab-woman-to-go-to-the-grave/">shouting</a>
at an elderly Palestinian woman, “Go to the grave. You will not
pass here! Only Jews!”</p>
<p>While Israeli Prime Minister <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/benjamin-netanyahu">Benjamin
Netanyahu</a> appears uninterested in provoking a Palestinian
uprising at the moment, he is being pushed further to the right by
the ultra-nationalist hardliners that dominate his governing
coalition.</p>
<p>Not to be outflanked by Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu has declared “<a
href="http://news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-israel-fight-death-against-palestinian-terror-181855197.html">a
fight to the death</a> against Palestinian terror.”</p>
<p>This incitement has deadly consequences. Israeli soldiers
executed <a href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768115">six
Palestinian</a> protesters and injured another 60 in Gaza for
allegedly throwing rocks at the border fence. And on Friday, a
Jewish Israeli in Dimona <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768096">stabbed</a>
four Palestinian workers.</p>
<p>The Associated Press, which has avoided covering incitement by
Israeli leaders, rushed to <a
href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d9ed0e18122f4b2ca47c4a5c763e81ff/israel-high-alert-after-days-palestinian-attacks">report</a>
Netanyahu’s condemnation of the attack and then blamed
Palestinians for fueling the unrest.</p>
<p>As Israel’s culture of hatred spirals out of control, the media
outlets concealing the incitement from top Israeli leaders and the
“death to Arabs” riots they help spawn are complicit, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/media-whitewash-israeli-lynch-mobs-preceded-murder-palestinian-teen">again</a>.</p>
<p><em>Editors Note: At initial publication, none of the US media
outlets discussed in this article had addressed “death to the
Arabs” rallies. The article has been updated to reflect that
after more than a week of ignoring the phenomenon, The New York
Times eventually mentioned it in a report.</em></p>
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