Report from Mumbai on Mutilation

Here:

"Even the Rabbi and his wife at Nariman House were sexually assaulted and their genitalia mutilated," said a senior officer of the investigating team, not wishing to be quoted.

(Kippah tip: Atlas Shrugs)

This, of course, is not new.

The famous 35 Fighters of Gush Etzion suffered the same genital mutilation:

The Arab attackers mutilated the bodies of the defenders according to British soldiers who witnessed the aftermath of the attack. A soldier who took pictures of mutilated bodies left his roll of film to be developed in Jerusalem and never came back for it, but word of the atrocities had leaked out to the horrified Jewish public. Several decades later the negatives were discovered, but it was decided not to publish the atrocities.

The first burial at Kfar Etzion:



And in 1929, they also burned bodies for good measure, like at Motza:

September 27

The gunman captured in last month's Mumbai attacks...Mohammed Ajmal Kasab said he and his partner, who assaulted the city's main train station, had planned a rooftop standoff...Kasab's seven-page confession, given to police over repeated interrogations, offers chilling new details of the three-day rampage through India's commercial center that left 164 people plus nine gunmen dead.

He said the assault, which started Nov. 26, was initially set for Sept. 27,

And why Sept. 27?

September 27 was the Shabbat, two days before the Jewish New Year and it could have been expected that many more Jews would have been at the Chabad House there.

Two Chabad Responses to Mumbai

One physical and worldly

And another of the spiritual

From An Intelligence Review After Mumbai: The Jewish Angle

South East Asia Analysis Group, authored by Bahukutumbi Raman:

...21. According to the �Hindustan Times� (December 2,2008), the LET�s name as the main plotter of a sea-borne terrorist strike in Mumbai directed against some sea front hotels figured in three technical intelligence reports of the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) based on intercepts reportedly of September 18, September 24 and November 19. These reports were more specific than the earlier interrogation reports about terrorist strikes planned in Goa. However, whereas the reports relating to Goa spoke specifically of Israeli and Western tourists as the targets, the R&AW reports, while indicating that the sea-side hotels in Mumbai preferred by foreign tourists would be the targets, did not speak specifically of Israeli and Western tourists. Nor was there any reference to a planned terrorist strike in the Narriman House, which is also near the sea, where a Jewish religious-cum-cultural centre is located and which has cheap accommodation where Israeli visitors often stay. Among the hotels specifically mentioned by the R&AW was the Taj Palace Hotel, which was attacked by the terrorists on the night of November 26.

22. The presence of the Jewish centre in the Narriman House was not very well known in Mumbai outside Jewish circles. The fact that the terrorists had come to know about it and had included it as one of their principal targets spoke of their extensive local knowledge and of the enquiries that must have been made by them about Israeli/Jewish offices and places of stay near the sea front. They must have made detailed local enquiries either during an advance visit or through accomplices in the local Muslim community. The knowledge, which they seem to have had about the Narriman House, definitely speaks of some local involvement at least in intelligence collection. ." Mark Sofer, the Israeli Ambassador to India, has been quoted as saying: �Out of the thousands of buildings in Mumbai, it was hard to believe that the terrorists had stumbled by chance upon the Jewish center.� They did not target the local Israeli Consulate. This could have been because it was not near the sea front.

23. They wanted to kill as many Jewish people as possible and this might not have been possible in the five-star hotels because most Israeli tourists come on a shoe-string budget and stay in cheap hotels away from the sea front. The Narriman House provided a point where many Jewish people---- locals, Israelis and Jewish visitors from other countries --- congregate. However, since they attacked the place around 10 PM, not many Israelis and other Jewish people were present there. They were able to get only eight Jewish people living or temporarily staying in the premises---- one of them a Mexican and the other Israelis or Americans with the dual nationality of Israel.

24. The terrorists do not appear to have been interested in taking the Jewish people as hostages and using them to achieve any demand. They just wanted to torture and kill all those found in the premises. A rapid reaction raid into the House might have saved at least some lives, if not all the lives. Shortly after getting information about the forcible entry of two terrorists into the Narriman House, a small police party reportedly reached the scene, but it did not apparently have either the numbers or the capability for immediate intervention. One had to wait for the arrival of the specially-trained National Security Guards (NSGs), which is a special intervention force. It arrived the next morning and took nearly 40 hours to enter the premises. By the time it could force its entry into the building it was late. All the eight Jewish people had been killed by the terrorists after torturing them. Only an Indian maid managed to escape with a two-year-old Jewish child. While the Israeli authorities have praised the role of the Indian security forces in dealing with the situation and the co-operation extended by the Government of India, a note of regret over the delayed intervention is evident in some of their remarks.

A YouTube Memorial to the Jewish Victims of the Mumbai Terror

(Kippah tip: Muqata)

Check this out.

A Sefer Torah Speaks

This is the Sefer Torah belonging to Chabad of Mombai which was damaged by bullet holes, after the terrorists had fired several rounds into the Aron Hakodesh [Holy Ark]. The bullets tore through the scroll leaving gaping holes.



When the Torah was opened at the airport it became apparent that the bullets tore near the words "וידבר ה' אל משה אחרי מות שני בני אהרן" - "And Hashem spoke to Moshe after the deaths of the two sons of Ahron", in Parshas Achrei ]Leviticus 16:1]. "The that the entire delegation stood frozen, in shock after seeing these words torn by the terrorist's YM"S bullets" said Rabbi Shneur Kupchik, the Chabad Shliach to New Delhi, in a choked voice.

More on Mumbai Media Muddling Through (or Meddling)

Further to my previous post on the subject, it seems that I wasn't the only one to notice the problems of media contacts in Mumbai and spokespersons as well as noew media technology. Here:

The country’s broadcasters were summoned Friday by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to deal with charges that the live saturation coverage had helped the terrorists. At the same time, however, traditional media were criticized as too slow and inaccurate by legions of “citizen journalists” using Internet services such as Twitter and photo site Flickr.

The deputy commissioner of police argued that the terrorists, who were holed up in two major hotels and became involved in floor-by-floor firefights with police, were gaining tactical information from TV. Using powers under Section 19 of the country’s Cable Television Networks Act, he ordered a blackout of TV news channels.

“Transmission of various clippings/live relay/coverage of the actions being taken by the police against the terrorists in South Mumbai is causing impediment in the police action … thereby endangering the lives of the police personnel as also of the hostages,” the order stated.

Cable and satellite channels went off air for nearly half an hour before the order was rescinded.

Media chiefs present at a meeting between the MIB, the Indian Broadcasting Federation and News Broadcasting Assn. hit back by accusing the government information departments and ministerial interfaces of failing to keep up with developments in the media industry.

They said it was unclear which officials had authority to speak to the media, that government and media had never agreed to procedures for coverage of national emergencies, and that the Press Information Bureau is set up to handle print rather than broadcast and online media.

Through blogs, file-sharing and social networking functions on the Internet, dozens of eyewitness reports, some coming from within the two besieged hotels, delivered information faster than conventional media and challenged some of its reporting. Twitter, a user-generated service that delivers text message-sized “tweets,” for instance, reported that there was still gunfire inside the Taj Mahal long after Indian media had said it was finished. Others transcribed lists of casualties from the hospitals faster than mainstream media could access it.

While some hailed the online reporting as “a social media experiment in action,” much of the information on Twitter was woefully inaccurate. Reports of casualties in the thousands were wrong. So too, apparently, was a report that the government had asked Twitter users (aka “tweeters”) to stop reporting for fear that they too might help the attackers.

Correction: No Tallitot on the Victims

Report about Chabad House victims wrapped in tallitot was false

A report in several media outlets that Jews killed during a terrorist raid of the Chabad House in Mumbai on Friday were found wrapped in prayer shawls is false...

...The rumor started because a Jewish doctor placed a tallit over the dead body of a Jewish victim in the hospital morgue, said the Israel Defense Forces attache in India, who led the Israeli rescue efforts. The doctor was apparently motivated by the Jewish precept of honoring the dead, in part by covering the corpse.

The rumor was apparently spread by an Israeli rescue worker from the Zaka organization who went to Mumbai to identify bodies and was in telephone contact with friends in Israel.

Odd Indian Reporting on the Chabad Siege: Jews Villains

I found this reporting here and my comments are in brackets [] and italics:-

Rabbi's child kept asking for water

MUMBAI: Every Friday at 5.30 pm, on the eve of the Sabbath, Shamira Binyamin switches off her cellphone. It's an essential part of the weekly
Jewish prayer ritual she observes which doesn't allow labour in any form. But yesterday, just before doing so, Shamira made over 50 frantic calls. Some were to her brother, Sharon, who was at Colaba all day trying to help rescue operations at Nariman House. Some were to Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg, who was held hostage by terrorists inside the building, which is where the ultra-orthodox jews have their offices. "I just wanted someone to pick up and tell me if Rabbi Gabriel is okay. This must perhaps be the first Friday when he did not observe Chabad,'' she said. [actually, I presume she meant that he wasn't observing the Sabbath or perhaps preparations for the Sabbath]

Everyone Shamira knows in her community has been praying for the safety of the hostages and in particular, Rabbi Gabriel, "who has left his family and friends in New York to serve the Jewish community here''. Her brother Sharon is a Jewish educator who takes classes every Sunday at the Byculla Synagogue along with the rabbi. As someone who regularly buys kosher provisions from Chabad House, Sharon was planning to visit on Wednesday night when he "changed his mind when his daughter started crying''.

After the Rabbi's child and nanny came out of the besieged building on Thursday, they headed straight to Sharon's house in Byculla. There were there for ten minutes before being escorted to the police station and later, the Israeli consulate. At Sharon's, the nanny who was "very hungry'' was given kosher food, while the boy, Moshe, who kept asking for "maim'' (Hebrew for water), was treated to tefillin, a peanut-and-wheat preparation meant for toothless kids. [tefillin are the head and arm phylacteries. maybe she meant porridge?] "We always go to the Rabbi when we need him,'' Sharon told his sister. "Now he needs us.''

For Shamira and others of this close-knit Jewish community, the last three days have been life-changing. Ezra Moses, secretary of the Thane synagogue, rushed to Colaba on Thursday where he "could not do much but watch''. Moses was revolted by the news coverage on some channels that "seemed to make Jews the villains by saying that they were giving shelter to terrorists''. He even called up the channel and gave them an analogy: "If a robber enters your house and holds a gun to your head, what option do you have?''

That last bit, that the Jews were "villains", is new to me.

Twitter Comes Into Its Own

Mr. Shanbhag, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, said he had not heard the term citizen journalism until Thursday, but now he knows that is exactly what he was doing. “I felt I had a responsibility to share my view with the outside world,” Mr. Shanbhag said in an e-mail message on Saturday morning.

The attacks in India served as another case study in how technology is transforming people into potential reporters, adding a new dimension to the news media.

At the peak of the violence, more than one message per second with the word “Mumbai” in it was being posted onto Twitter, a short-message service that has evolved from an oddity to a full-fledged news platform in just two years.

Those descriptions and others on Web sites and photo-sharing sites served as a chaotic but critically important link among people across the world — whether they be Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn tracking the fate of a rabbi held hostage at the Nariman House or students in Britain with loved ones back in India or people hanging on every twist and turn in the standoff while visiting relatives for Thanksgiving dinner.

“When you look at TV, you see one channel at a time, then you go to another channel,” said Dina Mehta, an ethnographer and social media consultant in Mumbai. “On Twitter, you get feeds from many different people at the same time.”...

...“I relied on Twitter heavily,” said Mordechai Lightstone, 24, a freelance journalist and Lubavitcher with a Twitter account. “As a person interested in what is going on over there, it gets frustrating when the news cycles on itself.”

Mr. Lightstone said that only a week or so ago he persuaded the leaders of his community to use Twitter as a publishing tool. He has been running that Twitter account, as well as his own.

Reading Mr. Lightstone’s posts, as well as those of another Lubavitcher, Reuven Fischer, gave a glimpse into a community fearing for one of its own but wanting to remain hopeful about its mission.

Mr. Lightstone wrote, “This is pure hearsay, but I was told that the shlucha was rescued — again this unsubstantiated #chabad #mumbai,” using the Yiddish word for the rabbi’s wife and marking keywords with pound signs so that the post would be easier to find in a search of Twitter.

As the news that the rabbi and his wife had been killed emerged, and the Sabbath approached, Mr. Lightstone and Mr. Fischer took pains to temper their sadness with the joy of the day of rest.

Mr. Fischer wrote, “We should Honor Shabbos with joy this week. We can mourn after Shabbos doing Mitzvot in honor of ALL effected by this tragedy.”

Though traditional in dress and beliefs, Lubavitchers pride themselves on harnessing all of the available tools to spread their teachings.

The Chabad House

I'm watching Israel's Channel One news and the reporter there, Yoav Limor, relays that several of the bodies, including those of the Rabbi and his wife, had been found when the Indian police entered covered with tallitot (prayer shawls) indicating that one of the other Jewish residents/guests had covered them before he/her himself/herslef had been shot.

Video Clip of Rabbi & Rebbitzen Holtzberg

CNN borrows an Israeli TV clip from Channel 10: