By Samah Sabawi
Morning news of Inspired murder broke out, I got a call from my father, a man from Gaza whose entire life was derailed by Isræls occupation of his country. He fuming: "nothing could justify these murders," he cried "even if we were to put an end to the occupation, harassment, brutality Isræls army and settlers-minute we entertain Act so criminals to kill a child with cold blodVi becomes no better than those whose actions we despise." His comment on my Facebook Wall licensed.
A day later, sent some of my Jewish friends me messages inquiring if it was true that the Palestinians in Gaza celebrate the killing of Jews. One of them asked "Is there a custom to distribute sweets after such events?" The messages came with multiple hyperlinks. I expected to see the usual calm hasbara websites, but to my surprise was a link to the Australian Herald Sun, which brings me to an article titled ' White House condemns assassination '.
The article had no mention of any Gaza celebrations, but was accompanied by a large AFP credited photograph of a man standing in a street in Gaza offers a small plate of sweets to two stick core flotte Hamas policemen. The only reference or clue to the banquet came in fotøts caption: ' a Palestinian man distributes sweets in the streets in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on 12 March 2011 to celebrate an attack which killed five isrælske settlers on inspired solution near the West Bank city of Nablus. " I did some more research and found that the same article also appeared on Perth now, News.com.au and The Daily Telegraph.
From here I began an extensive search on the Internet. There were references to Gaza celebrations in a number of international media sites including Fox News and the Washington Post, but all references pointed to one original source – three photos of AFP cameraman posted at Getty images, so I followed the trail.
The three original pictures starred the same man with the same small sweet plate. In the first shot he offers to plate for the two police officers; Second, he offers it to a man in a car at a traffic light that looks a little confused, but accepts the offer of sweets; and in the third photo, offers the same man candy small plate for an old Lady sitting on a sidewalk. In the light of the photos revealed nothing more than an average busy day in a street in Gaza with the normal amount of traffic, a couple of cars, vans, etc. There was nothing in the images to convey a feeling of joy or feast: there were no crowds, no smiling faces, no banners, no flags and no scarfs … in reality no people appeared in photos except for the man with the plate and his subjects. This was extremely unusual for a Gaza banquet.
But even if one assumes that this lone man with the sweet plate really celebrate, how on earth are doing something in the direction of making the international media? A Palestinian man in a population of 1.5 million offers a tray of deserts? The same newspapers that published these pictures also publish photos of coaches isrælske tourists standing on top of a Hill are celebrating while watching phosphourous rain falls on Palestinians under Isræls bombardment of Gaza in 2009? Double standards here is amazing.
It mattered little to no Palestinian faction claimed responsibility and even Hamas issued a statement saying that the Palestinians are not aimed at children. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview on Israel Radio: "Scenes such as these – murder of infants and children and woman slaughtered – cause any person with humanity to hurt and to cry." Frenzy of demonisation continues even though until this article was written, there was no real evidence that any Palestinians were involved in the murder.
Photos of the so-called Gaza celebrations become an internet sensation, because they provide desperately needed proof that the Palestinians are evil in nature. A headline from a hasbara site read "how to start a party in Palestine? You kill a Jewish family. "
The campaign to demonise, of course, is in full swing, and seems to have no moral boundaries. Hardly had the blood of murdered children's dried up the Ministry of public diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs in Israel rushed to free graphics images murdered children should be used as feed in the war to demonise the Palestinian people. The Minister – which authorised the release – said in an interview with the daily Haaretz isrælske "on the Internet the pictures really catch and circulating". What could be worse than people who murder children and then celebrate?
We do not learn from the tragic experiences of the Jewish history of the evil demonisation of a whole people? My reply to my Jewish friends inspired was quite simply; "Your people and mine deserve better than this".
-Samah Sabawi is a public advocates of the Australians for Palestine. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.
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