Palestine: Murder or terror rampage?

Only Arabs are terrorists… reads the subject heading on live from occupied palestine‘s blog. The blogger is referring to the headlines splashed across Israeli and foreign newspapers after Husam Taysir Dwayat, a Palestinian living in Jerusalem, drove a bulldozer down a crowded street in West Jerusalem, killing three and wounding at least 66 others. Dwayat's spree ended when an off-duty Israeli soldier shot and killed him.

The headlines following Dwayat's rampage included “Bulldozer terror rampage in Jerusalem“. They also focused on Dwayat's prior relationship with a Jewish woman with headlines such as “Jerusalem attacker once had Jewish girlfriend“. Some articles even claimed that Dwayat yelled “God is Great!”

live from occupied palestine expounds on the question of why Dwayat is being labeled a terrorist:

So if Dwayat’s murderous act was not politically motivated, if he was not acting as part of a “sub national groups or clandestine agents”, why is he being labeled by the Israeli media, politicians and other state officials “a terrorist”? Why if he acted alone, in what Israeli security forces and police believe to be an unpremeditated act, is Dwayat being marked as a terrorist?

The answer is, of course, simple. Dwayat was a Palestinian Arab, so quid pro quo, he must be a terrorist. This fact and this fact alone is the reason for him being labeled a terrorist.

DesertPeace is also all to aware of the headlines, and remarks upon those drawing attention to Dwayat's relationship with a Jewish woman:

Truly an earth shattering revelation…. Used to be “All the news that fits, we print”…. Now it’s “All the news that sells, we print”.

Well, I for one ain’t buying!

Will of KABOBfest shares another perspective; the symbolism of the bulldozer in Israel and Palestine:

By killing three Israeli civilians, these acts of murder represent an ironic tragedy. While the shedding of no civilian blood is ever justified, how we talk about such acts is important. Rather than framing it as an isolated incident or as one more heedless Palestinian attack, we should really examine why construction equipment has become a tool of death and destruction in Israel-Palestine. For Palestinian, the bulldozer is a symbol of Israeli aggression. One assault with a bulldozer by a Palestinian does not change that. It only reminds us of the urgent need for a just peace.

Rima Abdelkader, in her Arabisto.com blog, helps readers understand the incident by explaining:

Another important fact left out in Wednesday’s coverage is that bulldozers, specifically Caterpillar, are in some cases used to demolish Palestinian homes. One even killed American peace activist Rachel Corrie in March 2003 who risked her life to protest against the demolitions. This bit of information is significant in discussing Wednesday’s turn of events since the attacker used a Caterpillar bulldozer to kill innocent civilians.

35 comments

  • Jean-Francois and Jillian, I already recovered the comment and it is posted above. It was so long the system accidentally thought it was spam.

    Best,
    Solana

  • Thanks, Solana!

    Tal,

    Then why, when a Jewish person – civilian or military – commits a crime against a Palestinian, is that not referred to as terror?

  • Tal

    Dear Jillian,

    Can you remind me when a Jew citizen killed a Palestinian, and not while the Palestinian was committing a terror attack?

    Those incidents are very rare, to the best of my knowledge, and they are always dealt harshly in the Israeli media. The terrorists attacks that I remember are Baruch Goldestain how killed 40 Palestinans in Hebron. Another one was Ami Popper, who killed 7 Palestinians 25 years ago . There was another one, as I remmeber in the middle of the second Intifada, which I can not remeber his name, and he killed 4 Palestinans, if I remember correctly.

    All of the terrorists where dealt with despise as the worst kind of unhuman creatures, by the mainstream media. They were not hero, but all the other way. They where depict as villains.

    Even Israeli soldiers who killed armed Palestinians in unethical manner, are dealt very harshly by the media. Now days, it was reviled that a soldier had killed a tied Palestinian fighter. The media sure depict this deed as unmoral, and something a soldier most not do.

    I wish our opponents would have criticized their terrorists in the same way we do. I’m sure that if they would have done it, we could have much less violence by now.

    All the best,
    Tal

  • Here’s the most recent example, Tal: http://www.imemc.org/article/56157

    Fortunately, he’s alive, but how do you explain that?

  • Tal

    I hope he will be well and alive…

    Strange… I looked at Google news and found out that the INEMC is the only source for this story.

    Form my experience, some of the stories are made up. The Palestinian media is very biased and uncritical, and will take every wounded or killed citizen to be a result of Israeli military actions.

    You can see in the story that you sent me that they have declared him dead, while you know he is a live.
    It is a fighting tool for them, and they do not care much about the truth.

    I think this is something that made the west count more on Israeli reports then on Palestinian reports.

    You may know this critical movie about Palestinians sources: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=t_B1H-1opys

    And even so, I am sure that there are Palestinians kids who were killed by Israeli military actions. Most of them are non-deliberately. But there may be some that was intended. I know that there were several cases when the Israeli court found out about deliberate killing of civilians, and they were sentenced. Also I know of a case in which a tank commander fired at what he thought to be a terrorist, but was later found out to be a Palestinian women. In this case the platoon commander was charged, and his military career was damaged.

    All the soldiers that were found to kill civilians deliberately, were harshly criticized by the Israeli media.

    Hope this shade some light,

    Tal

  • “Can you remind me when a Jew citizen killed a Palestinian, and not while the Palestinian was committing a terror attack?”

    So let me get this straight, putting a million and half citizens for over a year under full siege from, food, electricity, medicine, and all life basics just to force them to reject their elected government [which they elect for the 1st time of their history and they are punished for their choice], is not a terrorist action?!!!

    you may forgot 2006 war?, tell me who considered that killing Lebanese Civilians is a perfect way to force the resistance to surrender?!!

    To refresh your memory you have
    bombed Beirut, targeted civilians buildings, electricity, water, and even red cross posts, you’ve bombed civilians cars, destroyed bridges and buildings they are not even in the war zone!!!.

    you are right,
    There are no terrorist Jews, their government is.

    and since you are the only democratic people in middle east as your government say, and all your governments were elected by you, and you are the most advanced people in ther area, having the most powerfull army in the region…bla bla bla.

    you know what, I don’t care. you want to name Muslims and Arabs as a terrorist, do it, the resistance will never stop, and we will support resistance today, tomorrow, and for ever.

    once you recognize your terrorism, and decide to stop it, peace will be exist, otherwise, your existence will be questioned for ever.

  • Tal

    Dear Alloush,

    You have written:

    “putting a million and half citizens for over a year under full siege from, food, electricity, medicine, and all life basics just to force them to reject their elected government [which they elect for the 1st time of their history and they are punished for their choice], is not a terrorist action?!!!”

    Let me remind us how this has all started. Israel, under Ariel Sharon, left the Gaza strip so that the Palestinians can live their life there, without Israeli occupation. Most Israelis supported this act and believed that once Israel will retreat from Gaza, the Palestinians will use their energy to recover themselves and prosper. But this did not happened. Instead the Hamas interpreted this as an Israeli weakness, and believed that if he will continue the fight, Israel will collapse and Hamas will have the whole land.

    Hamas fired rockets at Israeli cities and villages. What do you expect from a state to do in such situation? When Britain’s citizens were bombard by the Germans in world-war II, the British army went after the Germans and bombard the Germans and starved them. In the first world-war, the British army starved the Germans to death. Three quarters of a million Germans died in starvation.

    In 1933 the Germans elected the Nazis and therefore, brought upon Europe the worst war ever. 72 million people around the world were killed because the Germans elected an aggressive party. The Palestinians elected a radical party to power, and thus brought upon us a state of war.

    Israel had left Gaza, and the Gaza regime started to fire at Israeli civilians, and so, Israel has the right, I think, to do what the British did when their citizens were bombard.

    You also said:
    “To refresh your memory you have
    bombed Beirut, targeted civilians buildings, electricity, water, and even red cross posts, you’ve bombed civilians cars, destroyed bridges and buildings they are not even in the war zone!!!.”

    I do agree that this reaction was much to much for what the Hizbula had done.The war started when the Hizbula attacked Israel and kidnapped 2 soldiers and killed eight, unprovoked. This is added to other incidents in which Hizbula used snipers to kill Israeli soldiers.

    I do think Israel over reacted. She tried to say to the Lebanese, if you will not take care of Hizbula, I’ll take care of Lebanon. I think it was a stupid war that made much more damage then good. Hizbula only got stronger. Yes I agree, this was a stupid war. But Lebanon and Hizbula had their share. Hizbula also attacked civilians by rockets, and he started it by provoking Israel, for a long time.

    Finaly, you said “once you recognize your terrorism, and decide to stop it, peace will be exist, otherwise, your existence will be questioned for ever.”

    Well, please explain me how this should work? we got out of Lebanon, and were still attacked? We got out of Gaza, and the Hamas’ missiles followed us. How should we stop this violence dance? it seems that the only way to stop it, is to let the Arabs destroy Israel. I do not think, we will let you do it.

    Really, I think that the way out of this violence, is that Arabs will recognize Israel right to live, and Israel will give the Palestinians a land in the 67 borders. What do you say?

  • tal forkosh

    Then why, when a Jewish person – civilian or military – commits a crime against a Palestinian, is that not referred to as terror?

    I dont knew but for sure he is not a hero or a Freedom fighter.

  • “Let me remind us how this has all started”

    Oh dear, let me tell you when this has started, it was started when Jewish around the world not even related or visited middle east in 1000 year has decided to make their own nation on ِArabic land.

    It was started when you bombed and destroyed Arabic villages spreading terror of civilians all they have to defend them selves was rifles from WW1, against your terrorist killing machine, causing a large scale of immigration of Palestinian to all over the world.

    Look as an Arab and Muslim I can understand the suffer that Jewish had in Europe, not only from Nazi, we all know that Europeans hated Jewish over the history.

    I can understand all of this, and I don’t have a problem to see Jewish coming to Palestine to start over, but start over in one nation that treat Muslims as mush as Jewish.

    This map may could make you understand:
    http://aqmme2.googlepages.com/a.jpg

    When I said recognize your terrorism, is when you admit that you have no rights to build a Jewish state without Palestinian.

    The solution is so clear, dissolve the racist organization of Zionism, stop occupation, and let all the Palestinian who was immigrated to back home to Palestine, then If you want to live with us, you are most welcome, you wont, you can always go back to your original home.

    for me, I hope for peace, but in my memory as an Arab, when Israel mentioned I can only remember, sadness, and pain, it’s hard for me to forget what you have done to us.

  • Jean-François

    Thank you Solana! The idea of censure actually crossed my mind…I know it’s shameful ;)

    @Tal. Agree with you. Very often what a westerner considers a reasonable compromise through negotiation is misconstrued as weakness by extremists and taken advantage of. furthermore, one has to seriously doubt Hamas of Hezbullah’s their honor and intentions when negociating–they desire peace, but the peace they desire has no room for Israel or Jews, unless they assume Dhimmi status like in medieval times. Moderate and progressive Palestinians need to stop listening to the propaganda and rhetoric and oppose it openly. They need to show other Palestinians that there is a peaceful future possible with Israel, and that this future cannot be brokered by Hamas, Hez and their ilk. Palestinians need to delegitimize extremist positions and their parties and marginalize them.
    Meanwhile, every concession Israel makes to these organizations serves to bolster popular support and legitimize their claims. When will a moderate and progressive Palestinian party appear? One which I hope embodies the opinions and feeling most of their people have? Unfortunately for now, true peace-loving Palestinians have poor options and Israel rightly treats them with suspicion.

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