Friday, June 30, 2017
Elder of Ziyon
Ma'an English reports it this way:
An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that a Palestinian shot towards Israeli soldiers during a dawn raid in Jenin, before dropping his weapon and fleeing.Ma'an Arabic has a different way of reporting, calling Nazzal a "martyr" in its headline.
No Israelis were injured in the incident, the spokesperson said, adding that the army recovered the weapon on the scene.
The spokesperson added that the soldiers were targeted as they were undertaking an operation to remove a memorial stone commemorating Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) leader Khalid Nazzal.
Nazzal, who was assassinated by Israeli intelligence in 1986, was a leader in a deadly hostage operation in the northern Israeli town of Tarshiha-Maalot in 1974, during which some 29 people were killed.
The Jenin municipality had removed the memorial a week earlier, but placed it back a day later following local uproar, as Palestinian residents perceived the removal as capitulation to Israeli accusations that the monument would incite to anti-Israeli violence.
Following the restitution of the plaque, the Israeli army informed the Palestinian Authority (PA) that it would carry out a raid to remove the stone once again.
What neither story mentions is that the majority of victims were teenage children staying overnight in the Netiv Meir elementary school in Ma'alot.
Even Ma'an's English article sees nothing wrong with a monument to a mass murderer, saying that Israel only claims that such honors incite violence and Palestinians disagree and say that the "occupation" is what causes them to be violent. (Of course, Ma'alot is within the Green Line.)
The idea of honoring a terrorist responsible for the murder of 22 children (including a four year old boy) is not even a subject of debate in Palestinian media. It is obvious hat Nazzal is a hero deserving of honor, and the only bad guys are Israelis who are offended by this.
