By: Alexander Hymowitz, SUNY Binghamton Alumn, Hasbara Fellow
Mr. Gideon Levy, shame on you. I wholeheartedly believe that your Op-Ed piece entitled I Feel No Sympathy for the Settlers should be the foundation for your immediate departure.
“When you are capable of being indifferent to the execution of a psychologically impaired young man by soldiers, you can also be indifferent to the shooting of a pregnant woman by Palestinians.“
Full Stop.
The moment you put these words on paper you opened yourself up to the simple question – What kind of monster are you? Are you the kind of monster that openly disseminates fake information? Are you the type of news contributor that publishes shock articles without giving all the facts? Where is your moral compass, Mr. Levy?
Readers, let us take a trip down Gideon Levy’s previous work and understand why this man is not only a deceptive news contributor but an amoral, unsympathetic human.
ALL loss of life is tragic, but the killing of the psychologically impaired young man, Mohammed Khabali and the killing of 4-day-old infant Amiad Yisrael are NOT the same.
Everything from your title “I Feel No Sympathy for the Settlers” to the words contained in the article are pure and utter, unsympathetic, apathetic and frankly, unsettling, bile.
“When you are capable of being indifferent to the execution of a psychologically impaired young man by soldiers, you can also be indifferent to the shooting of a pregnant woman by Palestinians.“ How can you even put these two in the same category?
According to your own words, “A mentally ill man and a pregnant woman, both helpless. Both shootings were equally criminal, there is almost no moral difference between them.” Frankly Mr. Levy, there is.
Mohammed Khabali was, by your own account, a suspicious individual carrying a suspicious object (a black broomstick) at a suspicious time (2:24 A.M) at a public, violent, rock-throwing riot. Gideon, you wrote yourself,
“According to Abd al-Karim Sa’adi, a field investigator for B’Tselem, who carefully collected evidence immediately after the killing as though he were from a police forensic unit, including footage from all the security cameras on the street, the stones landed halfway between the young people and the soldiers. No one was hit.”
Mr. Levy, let’s establish a fact pattern…
Mohammed Khabali was at the scene of a riot, which you yourself acknowledged.
Khabali had under his possession a suspicious tool, again, which you acknowledge.
Khabali was warned to leave, as stated in your recent piece (“In Sa’adi’s estimation, no more than 15 or 20 young Palestinians confronted the soldiers, from some distance. One of them told Mohammad, “Za’atar, you should get out of here.”)
Khabali was then warned by the Israeli military to leave, according to the IDF’s Spokesperson’s investigation. (In a statement to Haaretz this week, the IDF Spokespersons Unit said, “Last week a Military Police investigation was launched. At this stage it can be noted that during operational activity of Israeli soldiers in Tul Karm, a violent riot erupted and dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks towards the fighters. In response, the soldiers used riot-dispersal means and live fire. It was reported that one Palestinian was killed and another injured [in this incident]).
Mr. Levy let us take a look at the footage, which you posted, of the situation again. However, this time let’s look at the uncut version posted by B’Tselem, specifically at the seconds between 02:23:35 to 02:24:30. In this version, at the far end of the video emerges an individual in a white shirt who quickly motions forward, as if to throw something, with his hands and then quickly hides behind a building. The idea that this individual threw something gets corroborated by footage of the situation from Camera #01. If you stop the footage at 08:23:42 you can clearly see in the background of the footage, soldiers running from cover from an object hurtled their way. Let us not stop there though. Individual H.F., an onlooker from the riot corroborated that stones may have been hurled in an interview with B’Tselem. He says, “For all I know young guys could have been throwing stones or shouting at the soldiers there.” Now, if we go back to the footage of camera #2 and follow the individual in black, who is next to the stone-throwing individual in white, from 02:23:35 to 02:24:31(clearly seen with an illuminated stick) we can establish that this gentleman is in fact Mohammed Khabali. We know this because we see him with his stick, clearly identifiable at 02:24:58. Simply put, Mr. Khabali, was an active participant in the stone-throwing that occurred on Dec. 4th outside of Tul-karm which can now be proven with video evidence.
Mohammed Khabali, age 22, was then unfortunately killed by IDF soldiers near Tul-Karm.
Khabali’s death, although incredibly sad, is not even remotely comparable to the death of four-day-old Amiad Israel.
This article is not to prove or disprove the validity of Mohammed Khabali’s death, nor is it to claim that the death of one individual is “worth” more of less than any other but rather it is to demonstrate that you, Mr. Levy, are not being fair to the readers.
Gideon Levy, shame on you; shame on you for being unable to separate the facts from the narrative you would like to hear and see.
ALL life is sacred and all loss of life is equally as sad but you can’t even begin to acknowledge that the cold-blooded killing of a four-day-old baby is not the same as the killing of, at minimum… a suspicious individual at a suspicious junction carrying a suspicious object after being warned by both his own friends and the IDF to leave.
“When you are capable of being indifferent to the execution of a psychologically impaired young man by soldiers, you can also be indifferent to the shooting of a pregnant woman by Palestinians.“
Gideon, even if you had correct information, all the facts and even an inkling of emotion you would understand that these are the words of monster. How can you compare the unfortunate killing of a criminal with the death of a four-year-old? How?
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P.S. Ha’aretz shame on you as well for publishing something so deeply rooted in falsity, depravity and hatred.
