Here's her report on yesterday's incident at Alei-Ayin:
West Bank: Clash Over Olive Trees Leaves 8 Wounded
At least seven Palestinians were wounded by gunfire and rubber bullets in clashes with Israeli settlers and soldiers in the northern West Bank on Monday, according to a Palestinian official and the Israeli military. One settler was reported wounded after being hit by a rock. Palestinians accused the settlers of having uprooted olive trees in the area. A military spokeswoman said that settlers and soldiers opened fire after being attacked by Palestinian stone throwers. Three of the Palestinians were shot by settlers, and four by soldiers, the spokeswoman said, adding that of the four, two were wounded by rubber bullets and two by live fire.
"Clashes", of course, is a false charade, a euphemism to whitewash Arab violence.
The incident of saplings uprooted supposedly occured on Friday.
But the Pal. news agency Ma'an spins it out this way:
...Witnesses said the trouble flared when a large group of settlers began uprooting olive trees near the village. The villagers started throwing stones, prompting a settler to open fire.
"We found a lot of settlers uprooting olive trees and when they saw us they started throwing stones at the children, then a settler brought out his M-16 and started shooting at us," said local witness Raed Awdeh. "We threw stones at them, then the army arrived and started shooting rubber bullets and tear gas bombs," he told AFP.
...A Jewish settler was also taken to hospital after being hit by a stone, settler spokeswoman Tamar Asraf told AFP, saying he had been injured by Palestinians who had approached the nearby settlement outpost of Esh Kodesh.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli army confirmed troops had opened fire on what she described as "an extremely violent riot."
"The security forces were attacked by Palestinians with rocks, and in response, they fired directly at those who were throwing rocks," she told AFP, saying troops had used live fire and directed it towards the Palestinians' lower bodies.
"Six Palestinians were injured as a result," she added, saying the incident was under investigation.
Last week, settlers cut down around 500 young olive trees near Qusra which had been planted on the site of a former settlement outpost.
As I pointed out in a previous post, news reports published indicated that the day's event started with a mass attack by Arabs on the Alei-Ayin outpost even have done more than just throw stones, when "dozens of Palestinians wielding axes and clubs arrived at the Alei Ayin outpost," and "soldiers opened fire at six Palestinians after sensing their lives were at risk."
You can see pictures here.
Haaretz, typically, has it this way:
The Palestinians claim that the confrontation began when a group of 20 settlers marched onto land near the village of Qusra and began cutting down olive trees. Resident Eqab Hassan said locals began throwing rocks at the settlers, who responded by opening fire themselves.
The settlers say that the clashes began when a group of Palestinians armed with knives accosted them at the Eli Ayin outpost near the settlement of Shiloh, with the purpose of grabbing the agricultural land they had been tending.
But to return to my original concern of journalist ethics.
Why no hospital/Magan David Adom/Red Crescent references as sources? You see that at all other security-related events in Israel? The Jewish boy, Eitan Zeev, is "reported" injured but the Pals. have an "official" on their side. Kershner can't locate anybody on the Jewish side?
And the uses of "clashes", as if mutual recriminations were taking place instead of an armed mass attack that happened. Arabs refuse to exploit normal legal avenues? It's okay to engage in violence?
And those olive trees. Were they really uprooted? Were they trees? Were they, perhaps, illegally planted?
And what happened to the perpetrators of the scorched-earth act of last summer?
This is inadequate news reporting.
Background:
media slant
on Alei-Ayin with pics
on the recent January destruction
on last summer's field burning by Arabs
^
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