In her Jan. 15 Op-Ed in Haaretz, Hanin Majadli complained about an arrest recently carried out by the Israeli Police in the West Bank city of Nablus (“How an Obscure News Item Shows Israel’s Fear of Palestinian Narratives“):
I don’t actually know why the news item caught my attention. Yahya Ayyash’s widow was arrested by police officers from the crime fighting unit after she allegedly “published inciting remarks on her Facebook page on the 30th anniversary of his assassination”… I immediately thought about how quickly the State of Israel is to arrest Palestinians on either side of the blurred 1967 Green Line – whether by the Israeli army or by civilian police – over social media posts, over words, over memories, over history.
The reader immediately understands the apparent terrible injustice: Ayyash’s widow was arrested “over posts, over words, over memories,” which the police “claimed” constituted incitement!
Moreover, wrote Majadli, the police rushed to arrest the poor widow while there are so many others worthy of arrest who remain free – the Hilltop Youth, members of crime organizations, politicians and journalists inciting against Palestinians, and so on. And yet Ayyash, with her literary scribbles, is the one they chose to arrest, she raged.
The arrest of the allegedly blameless widow is part of a deliberate move to silence the voice of the Palestinians, Majadli asserted:
It’s a reminder that even after Ayyash’s assassination, even 30 years later, the state, even if it emerged the winner, can’t allow itself to have the memory remain… Israel isn’t making do with control over the land, freedom of movement and resources. It has been demanding control over consciousness, over history, over the basic right to tell your story.
Thus, in summary, Ayyash’s widow merely wanted “to tell her story” and “to have the memory remain,” but as far as Israel is concerned, such innocent activity is intolerable, and the police “claims” it is incitement.
There are just two small details which Majadli completely forgot to mention in her article.
First of all, at no point did Majadli indicate who Yahya Ayyash was. While Ayyash is a notorious figure among Israelis age 40 or older, international readers of the English edition as well as young Israeli readers do not necessarily know who he was or why he was targeted 30 years ago.
An attack on Bus 5 in Tel Aviv in October 1994. Yahya Ayyash supplied the explosives and strapped them on to the bomber (Photo by Barkai Wolfson/IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
For their sake, we recall that Ayyash was one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, who harnessed his engineering knowledge to produce explosive devices and become the pioneer of suicide bombings targeting Israelis. During the 1990s, he planned and executed many deadly attacks, in which about 100 Israelis were killed and some 400 were wounded.
More importantly, what did Ayyash’s widow publish for which she was arrested? Majadli cites “posts,” “memories,” “narrative”, “history,” and “the basic right to tell your story.” But what did the widow publish, exactly?
Well, here are the details from the police statement following the arrest:
Among other things, the suspect published a propaganda video glorifying the terrorist Yahya Ayyash, featuring suicide bombings on buses, while using imagery of weapons, explosions, and mass funerals. The video concludes with an inciting call to continue the path of terror under the title “Hope Will Return”…
Furthermore, in her publications, she praised and lauded other terrorists and presented them as “brothers” and “stars of the path,” thereby glorifying acts of terror. [Translation by CAMERA Hebrew.]
Thus, according to Majadli, the Palestinian “story” is a call for the mass murder of Israeli civilians.
Now it is clear why she preferred to omit these details from her article.
CAMERA’s Israel office contacted Haaretz editors regarding the factual omissions which prevent readers from forming their own informed opinion. As of this writing, no correction has been made.
See also “Haaretz Clarifies Regarding Marwan Barghouti’s ‘Alleged’ Terror” and “New York Times Adds Terrorist Background On Op-Ed Contributor Marwan Barghouti.”
For the Hebrew version of this article, see CAMERA Hebrew.