On Monday 14 July I shared an item from the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies on Facebook. It had apparent impeccable credentials, coming from a page called Kids are not a Target. While my own children have grown up I have always felt strongly about keeping the next generation out of conflict. But there was something not quite right there. At that stage 34 Palestinian children had died and about 200 had been injured but the only kid mentioned in the post was 16-year-old Yarin Levi of Ashkelon. I queried that. The best response came from Aeyal Gross who wrote Per se I dont see anything bad in the picture, of course if one also acknowledged the - much bigger number - of Palestinian victims. If this is part of Israeli propaganda just showing Israeli victims that you are of course right. But it appears that even Aeyal was wrong. The next day, 3 Israeli kids were hit by Hamas rockets. But nothing from the NSW JBD. Perhaps they decided that their effort was just too blatant. Or maybe they took their cue from the original website. On that day Their Facebook page mentioned an 8-year old Jewish kid from Ashdod was injured as were two kids aged 11 and 13 who were injured when a Hamas rocket hit an Arab Bedouin village in Israel. Not only do Arab kids not have names, even their village can remain nameless. Why? Why indeed? An investigation of the circumstances suggested that providing the background to the severely injured Mariam Elukli and her moderately injured sister Atil may boomerang on those seeking to get a propaganda gain. For a start the authorities only found out that the girls were injured when their relatives brought them to the hospital. In an article in Local Call Fadi Msamara, took up the story. And here the question arises: Why? Did they not follow Home Front Commands instruction on how to protect yourself when the missile-alert siren goes off? Or maybe the missile caught them by surprise on the way back from summer camp which they do not have? And maybe they unfortunately didnt run fast enough to make it to the nearest secure place? What happened to the Iron Dome was supposed to protect them? Actually no. Two girls had no way to avoid their injury. There was nothing they could have done differently. Firstly they indeed did not comply with the Home Front Command, and didnt follow its instruction because the command was not concerned enough to come to their village, and because no one ever explained to them what the dangers were, and what they must do. So that in fact they were not even aware that there was danger lurking about. The all-powerful Iron Dome battery located a few kilometres from the village did not even bother to lock on to this missile, and the reason is simple: the Iron Dome intercepts only those missiles that are calculated to hit an inhabited area. It uses the states maps in which many villages in the Naqab/Negev do not appear. Lo and behold they are all Arab villages. So on Saturday the Iron Dome missile did not intercept missiles that fell between the villages of Al Zarnouk and Wadi Guin. It did not intercept a missile fell near the village of Abu Taloul and even missiles that fell in the very same village where the two girls were injured. And why? Because for the State, these villages are deemed to be to open areas. These are not Beer Sheva or Nevatim, or Lehavim, Arad or Dimona. These open areas inhabited by invisible people. Arabs live there. So with background like this you can see why Kids Are not a Target dropped the injured kids stories like a hot potato. (And why the NSWJBD followed suit.) Now you can see kids drawings as well as messages to the brave soldiers of the IDF. And for people overseas, the CEO of the NSWJBD, Vic Alhadeff, who often uses the first person in posting on their FB page, also happens to be the chair of the NSW Community Relations Commission. What a perfect combination.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 06:58:33 +0000