24-Feb-14: Revealed this afternoon: Terrorism charges brought against rock-hurling, firebomb-throwing gang on Jerusalem's northern fringe

Route 442 scene [Image Source: Kobi Gideon/Flash 90]

If you're familiar with our nation's capital city, you'll be aware that there are two main intercity roads that connect Jerusalem with the coastal plain and the Tel Aviv region. One is Highway One, now under major reconstruction and expansion, and by far the busier of the two alternatives. And the other: Route 443 that winds its way out of Jerusalem through the Judaean Hills, past Machane Ofer prison, the new urban zone constituted by burgeoning communities of Modi'in and Hashmonaim/Kiryat Sefer, and meeting Route One just south of the international airport.

For 25 years, Route 443 has been the road we traveled more than any other leaving from and returning to home, but not entirely without incident. About ten years ago, our car was hit by a well-aimed rock hurled by a Palestinian Arab man perched on one of the hills near one of the two Bet Ur villages (Bet Ur El Fuqa, Bet Ur El Tahta), with minimal damage to the body thanks to some last-second evasive action. Mostly, thank Heavens, it's been clear sailing.

Lately though, the state of safety on this important artery has noticeably deteriorated. A report less than a week ago ["The road to Jerusalem that’s off limits to Israel’s leaders", Times of Israel, February 19, 2014] included some candid comments from an IDF officer charged with securing the area, and pointing out how easily lives can be endangered:

Stones and firebombs, while potentially lethal, are easy to hide and require no planning or accomplices. Pointing across the four-lane highway at the village of Bayt Ur a-Tahta, home to 3,000 people and stretching across nearly four kilometers of road, the intelligence officer said that from that village, a central point of friction, all someone has to do is walk down to the edge of the road with a bottle of fuel in one coat pocket and a lighter in the other. “He can keep them in the pockets of his coat and light it up one second before he reaches the road, then throw it, and escape,” he said. [Times of Israel]

This afternoon, about an hour ago, the authorities disclosed that some 15 residents of Beit Ur El Tahta have been arrested and charged with carrying out a program of attacks via Molotov cocktail and rocks at vehicles traveling on Route 443. Personal injury and property damage to drivers and passengers are referred to in the charge-sheet. The announcement says several of those arrested have already served prison terms for similar offences in the past. It adds that three other men from the same village were convicted earlier this month of attacks on the same road that included the use of improvised guns as well as rocks. The Shin Bet, the IDF and the Israel Police were all involved in the arrests.

The threat posed by determined, ideologically committed hurlers of rocks and shooters of bullets against ordinary folk traveling the roads in their cars and buses is consistently diminished - to their great shame - by Israel's enemies in the media and in political life. We can't think of a better or more disgraceful example than Jody Rudoren's article in the New York Times last August: "Rocks in Hand, a Boy Fights for His West Bank Village". We posted our thoughts about that here: "5-Aug-13: Boys and their hobbies: the New York Times uncovers another little village".

There's no reason to treat the perpetrators as having intentions any less than premeditated homicide. Michael Palmer, a quietly-determined, high principled man whose son and grandchild were murdered by just that kind of terrorist act, pursued the men who did it and ensured a court verdict of murder was the outcome. Let's hope the inspiration of the Palmer proceedings continues to guide the prosecutors and the courts.

5-Aug-13: Boys and their hobbies: the New York Times uncovers another little village

Morality-free NYTimes homage to would-be killers. How to explain
the role played by those who write the disgraceful paeans
to violence and hatred? 

How sentimental - or acceptable in terms of journalistic integrity - is it that a Jodi Rudoren article in the New York Times on Sunday ["In a West Bank Culture of Conflict, Boys Wield the Weapon at Hand"] describes the deaths of "a man and his 1-year-old son who died" (in fact Asher Palmer and his son Yonatan) without saying the ring leader of the gang hurling the "stones" was convicted of murder? And that others from the same gang are on trial on similar charges?

Menuha Shvat, who has lived in a settlement near here since 1984, long ago lost count of the stones that have hit her car’s reinforced windows. “It’s crazy: I’m going to get pizza, and I’m driving through a war zone,” said Ms. Shvat, who knew a man and his 1-year-old son who died when their car flipped in 2011 after being pelted with stones on Road 60. “It’s a game that can kill.” [Sunday's NYTimes]

The killer is Wa'al Al-Araja. Understanding his story, which involves months of training, cement blocks, large rocks and fast-moving cars, is key to putting the morality tale of the "Abu Hashem boys" and their "hobby" into a grown-up context. Their little village of Beit Ummar, among other "little villages" so beloved of the NYT's editors, features regularly in the news in these parts [see this for instance]. The context is rarely bucolic.

It's a revealing article that says more about the cognitive warfare driving this sort of reporting than about the passions and dynamics of this ongoing war. When you think about how it must feel to have to drive regularly in the vicinity of such places (located just a few kilometers south of Jerusalem) and then take note of the sympathetic newspaper coverage (the music track of the embedded video clip is particularly evocative), it throws some sharp light on how lethal journalism works.

Here below is a scene from the real Beit Ummar, as distinct from the disingenuous confection served up yesterday by the editors of the NYTimes. Look closely and you can see the journalists are fully in the picture too, in both senses. Are they cause, effect, neither or both?

Woman and her baby driving through Beit Ummar experience first-hand encounter
with boys, their hobbies and the photojournalists of the world's major newspapers

We tweeted the NYT's writer this morning, saying: 

"@rudoren Homage like this one to proud, would-be killers, vengeance-seeking "boys" of 17, raises issues of journalistic ethics, basic decency

12-Jul-13: A promise to dream: Remembering Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan

The article below was written in memory of Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan. On April 2, 2013, a former member of the Palestinian Authority security forces by the name of Waal al-Araja, a resident of Halhoul was convicted in an Israeli military court of their murder.

We wrote here several times about the attack that brought about their deaths some 21 months ago [see "25-Sep-11: "Only" rock throwers - but now a father and his infant son are dead"] and about the tough determination of Michael Palmer, Yonatan's grieving grandfather and the loving father of Asher, to ensure the Palestinian Arab gang who planned and carried out the attack were brought fully to account by the law.

Al-Araja was convicted not only of the murder of the Palmers [Ynet] but of involvement in a series of additional attempted murders based on the same modus operandi - hurling rocks and cement blocks from fast moving vehicles into the windshields of oncoming cars driven by Israelis.

Attacks by rock hurling terrorists have rarely, if ever, resulted in an indictment for murder in the Israeli system. The world is a much better place now that Michael Palmer was instrumental in effecting this blow for justice.

This article was prepared in connection with the launch of a scholarship fund in memory of the Palmers. Further details here. The article is published with the permission of the author.

A Promise to Dream
The secret to realizing your dreams is to believe in your dream simply because it matters to you.   
Copyright © 2013 Rivkah Rybak [dobiim@yeshabulletin.com]

When the fellow students of Asher at Azrieli College of Engineering Jerusalem (ACE-Jlm), coming from different backgrounds and yet similar circumstances proclaimed to unite in actualizing Asher’s dream, it matters not the time and nor place they dared to declare their unification. For no evil inclination will succeed to break their resolution and must take heed. Against a common bond of understanding and respect strong and true, evil simply has no chance and will always lose.

Asher Palmer had a dream, a wonderful, heartfelt, gratifying dream. He had a home, a beautiful wife, a son and another angelic life waiting to emerge into this world as we know it today. They had a life full of happiness and love. Our life had meaning and purpose. And then one day, in the blink of an eye, it all changed.

Asher’s life goal for himself and his family was to combine Torah and a career in the Israel high-tech industry to strengthen Jewish life in the Land of Israel. The terrorists extinguished two young lives that day, but Asher’s goal cannot be extinguished because dreams never die. Never give up on your dreams, if you keep on believing somehow, somewhere you will find the answer.

Therefore, the goal for those of us who survive is to defeat the evil that killed Asher and Yonatan HY”D and not let it quell his dream. With the help of the Asher and Yonatan Fund established at the Azrieli College of Engineering Jerusalem, together with funds provided by the Palmer family in the memory of Asher and Yonatan Palmer z”l, 36 students were able to do just that, seize the moment and unite through their own actions to fulfill Asher’s dream as well.

Two of those students shared their respective experiences of what is like to receive their share of the scholarship, how it affected them personally and why they felt the fund was important. Yoel (studying Software Engineering) and Yitzhak (studying Industrial Engineering) at the Azrieli College of Engineering.

It is not important, both Yitzhak and Yoel explained, that we were not close friends, we are like family here at (ACE-Jlm). Whilst Yitzhak’s and Yoel’s lives differ in many ways, a common bond brings them together in an expression of bitter-sweet commemoration of Asher and Yonatan Palmer z”l. We have a common goal to improve our lives, the lives of our families, to continue to build and strengthen Eretz Israel.

The unique environment of (ACE-Jlm) allows students like us to fit our learning schedule in to our already very busy lives. As students we not only had to meet the demands of day-to-day life of studies, we also have family obligations. Many of the students here have at least one job, perhaps more, to offset their family’s needs.

Is it possible to express elation and amazement in one breath, asks Yitzhak? To receive the scholarship was an unbelievable gift and yet bewilderment filled the minds of these students. Who and why would anyone want to help us? For some of the students they explained it was also very difficult because of the circumstances surrounding its establishment

Yoel and Yitzhak are both at the end of studies and have already succeeded in procuring employment in their respective fields. Although neither of these students studied together with Asher, as they were at different stages in their study programs than he was, there existed a mutual understanding and respect for each other’s goals.

Anyone who has ever made a serious commitment to college or university education under normal circumstances can empathize with the addition burdens these students carry. Albeit “(ACE-Jlm)” students endure many challenges, and yet they all exude a tremendous love, fervor and dedication to the preservation and development of the land of Israel, and the people of Israel.

Do not let the fear of not knowing what the outcome will be, and having so much at stake,stop you from acting upon your dreams . Dreams have no limits; you are the creator of your dreams, big or small. Once you understand this concept, the method needed to delineate the ultimate plan of action to accomplish your goals will become crystal clear. The more you chase your dreams the more the obstacles that the world puts in front of us fade, as we learn that any and everything is possible.

Great dreamers attain independence; learning that they're actions can change the outcome. When you follow your dream, you are the first to see it come true. You can share your accomplishments with the rest of the world from your front row seat as you experience the magic of your dreams unfold. Dreaming is the way we define what matters to us and how we want to live our lives to the fullest.

Each human being is a gift, and we each have our own unique dream and purpose for living. We each must mine our imaginations, creativity and souls which will enable to uncover our true purposes and passions. Our dreams are magic, and if respected, nurtured and honored, they ultimately bring tremendous meaning and purpose to our lives.

Through scholarships like the Asher and Yonatan Fund these dreams can and have become a reality. For the students receiving these funds, especially for some, it can make all the difference in their ability to focus on their education and quality of their day-to-day family lives. Difficult though it may have been for some to even accept the award because of the circumstances surrounding its creation, a resounding honor and pride was clearly conveyed by the students sharing in Asher’s dream.

The truth is we all need more opportunities to dream, to imagine and to play. We long to experience being lost in a joyful moment. To laugh, discover, experiment, invent, feel accomplished and live in the moment.

"Promise two things... First, that you'll always remember the times you shared together with a loved one. For you will meet again, some time, somewhere. In the meantime, they will always be with you. Second, you’ll continue to believe in your dreams, the prospect of having a dream come true is what makes life worth living...”

In memory of Asher and Yonatan z”l

2-Apr-13: Justice and rocks

The murder victims: real people, real lives, real loss

In September 2011, we wrote here:

What seemed on Friday to be a routine car accident now turns out to have been an attack by terrorists in the vicinity of the Jewish community of Kiryat Arba. [Source]. The Jerusalem Post reports this evening that police now believe that rock throwing was the cause of the car accident that killed Asher Hillel Palmer, 25, and his one-year-old son Yonatan on Friday. At a court hearing today, counsel for the police said that it now appears the car veered off the road after a rock shattered its windshield. "The police said that the front window was shattered, and a large rock was found inside the car with Palmer's blood on it. People close to the victims claimed that the police quickly determined it as a car accident in order not to inflame the region." A young man and his baby son are dead and a family is forever shattered.

Some time afterwards, we got to know Michael Palmer. A man of great dignity, carefully spoken, determined, he is Asher's bereaved father and the murdered one year-old Yonatan's saba (grandfather). A cultured person who keeps his opinions mostly to himself, he faced (we are assuming) a question with which we ourselves have had to grapple and to answer: They killed my loved ones. What is there for me to do now? 

Michael set out to do whatever is humanly possible to bring the killers to justice. This, for the benefit of readers living in comfortable places far from here, is not always so easy to do and never to be taken for granted. 

We know only some of what he managed to do. We know he retained a lawyer who knows the military court system inside out - not an obvious thing to do, but one that helps to level the playing field. He pressured the authorities to treat the deaths of the young father and his baby son as murder by terrorism: the signs were there for anyone who wanted to see them, but at first the authorities did not see them. 

He pressed for the law to to be applied in the manner appropriate to cold-blooded perpetrators who set out to develop killing skills, and who eventually succeed in killing. 

He resisted with incredible firmness some of the more idiotic aspects of the military justice and prison system, some of which we were there to witness ourselves. 

He patiently endured postponements and adjournments, one after another: the defence lawyer fails to arrive in time, the prisoner has to prepare for exams, another reason, another excuse, another nerve-wracking delay. 

He encouraged well-intentioned strangers and friends to come and be there in the small court room at Machane Ofer on Jerusalem's northern edge - not only to be there but to be there with photographs in our hands. Photos of Asher and of Yonatan. By this, he succeeded in creating something unusual in a terrorism trial: an awareness of the victims. When our daughter Malki's murderers were tried in a different military court eleven years ago, we were told nothing before, during or after. The first intimations we had of their arrests and convictions came when we read about them in the news.

Today, Michael Palmer together with the mutual friends who introduced us - Melody and Yosef Hartuv (Yosef writes the Love of the Land blog) - left their community south of Jerusalem and headed north by car to hear the judicial panel in the court room pronounce the verdict in the murder trial of Wa'al Al-Araja. 

The road they traveled runs north through a notorious Palestinian Arab village called Beit Ummar. We have written about it here in the past: "23-Feb-12: The power of the camera". Please go and read it if the title does not ring a bell for you. It features some graphic photographs detailing what happens when a deliberately hurled rock, cement block or boulder shatters the windshield of a young Israeli mother's fast-moving car. The Hartuvs and Michael Palmer followed the highway through the same town today. They encountered, as hundreds of other local Israeli residents do daily, the same malevolent intent, the same indifferent onlookers, as we depicted in that blog post a year ago. 

Yosef told us:

While we were passing through Beit Ummar early this afternoon, a Arab youth - I would say between 16 and 18 and wearing a ski cap to conceal his identity - stepped out from behind a building with rock in hand, targeting our car. Veering away, we managed things so that the rock struck 'only' the body of our car. Once before, when we were heading back home from Machane Ofer and a previous hearing, another budding terrorist - or was it the same one? -  shattered the windshield of our car a few hundred meters away from where today's attack happened. It's all just part of the seemingly regular challenge of attending a trial where the accused make use of stones directed at Jewish motorists as murder weapons.

It's possible someone was arrested in Beit Ummar today, but if so it did not happen when the Hartuvs and Michael Palmer were hit. (Perhaps a little later; we can hope.) Shaken but uninjured, they kept on going, and were in court when the decision was given:

The Ofer Base Military Court convicted Tuesday Waal al-Araja, a member of the Palestinian security forces from Halhoul, of the murder of Asher Palmer and his infant son, Yonatan, in September 2011. Al-Araja, who was throwing stones from a moving vehicle toward Palmer's car on Route 60, causing the father and son's death, was also convicted in connection with a series of attempted murders of a similar nature. The verdict is considered unusual in relation to stone hurling incidents where the Military Prosecution seldom files indictments for murder. The judges, Justice Amir Dahan, Justice Zeev Afiq and Justice Steve Berman noted in their decision that there has been no precedent in a similar case since the 1980s. Al-Araja admitted to the crimes ascribed to him in both the interrogation and during the trial but claimed that he did not mean to kill the victims. In their verdict the judges noted that al-Araja was convicted of murder because it was proven that he intended to kill Jews and that he understood that throwing rocks could cause their deaths. The verdict also revealed that at the time that the Palestinian terrorist committed his crimes, he was becoming an expert at hitting his targets and noticed the serious damages that were a result of stone hurling. The judges further noted that al-Araja's associates boasted of their actions, called it Jihad and later claimed that they carried out the acts because "the settlers cursed the prophet Mohammad and burned mosques." [Source: Ynet]

The report goes on to describe Michael weeping and embracing those friends who had kept on turning up to present the court with those unwelcome reminders of what Palestinian Arab terrorism is really about: innocent victims, shattered lives.

We emailed Michael this evening to express our feelings of admiration and relief at the effort and the outcome. He responded with this:

Thanks for your email. Adrian Agassi, the attorney representing Asher's and Yonatan's interests, refused (and continues to refuse - there are five defendants left and appeals) to let the prosecution walk away from the expectations we agreed to with them 18 months ago and he deserves a big share of the credit. 

The pursuit of the men and women who practice terrorism rarely has happy moments, and this was not one of them. Asher is not coming back to his wife and to the baby daughter born five months after his death. And baby Yonatan's smile has ended forever. What's left, and it is something small but precious, is the pursuit of justice. Not vengeance; justice. The lives already stolen will not be restored, but other lives, not yet damaged, can be protected and saved. 

With his own two hands and a fierce sense of what must be done, Michael Palmer saved lives today: no one can know how many. May he and his family be blessed with the joy of knowing this, and from their decent lives and achievements and those of their children and grandchildren. 

POSTSCRIPT: To know a little more about the deaths of Asher Palmer and his baby son, we can offer these earlier posts: 25-Sep-11: "Only" rock throwers - but now a father and his infant son are dead; 27-Jan-12: Rocks of reality? A postscript; 18-Apr-12: Real rocks, real terror, real extremism, real deaths; and 16-Dec-12: Those murders and attempted murders about which you almost never hear.

30-Dec-12: A small, bitter taste of being at the receiving end

The rock hurled at a moving vehicle
in today's attack [Image Source]

We started this blog to give as a forum to write here the war being waged by the terrorists, an ongoing war.

We often mention the circumstances that impelled us to want to write: the cruel and painful loss of the beautiful life of our daughter Malki who was fifteen when she was murdered in an act of Hamas savagery. But neither here in our blog, nor elsewhere, do we dwell on the events themselves: how we felt that day, what it looked like from up close. It's enough that the facts be known.

In trying to give an as-it-happens overview of the events in this ongoing war, we mention attacks that most people often don't know anything about. The reporting of the acts of terrorism, as we have said here often, is poor, sporadic and mostly not informative or analytic. People far from the scene usually don't know what happened (unless it turns out to be an especially expensive attack) because the mainstream news organizations no longer see much value in reporting them. And they rarely comprehend or try to examine what these attacks do to the people exposed to them, the survivors.

Earlier today (Sunday), another in a long, long line of so-called rock-throwing attacks landed on top of a young family from the small pioneering community of Rehalim in the Binyamin region of Judea, north of Jerusalem. (It's close to the older and larger Shiloh community, and has a population of about 40 young families, including some 50 pre-school children.)

Arutz Sheva/Israel National News published a first-person account some hours ago, accompanying it with photos of some aspects of the aftermath. It's a somewhat sanitized report: no screaming toddlers here; no photos of family members comforting each other; no facial close-ups showing the shock, the relief, the fear. Instead, we have some dispassionate photos of the family's car and of the rock that came within inches of causing a terrible tragedy.

Miracle Saves Baby from Rock-Throwing Terrorist
Israel National News | December 20, 2012  |  A rock-throwing Arab teenager nearly killed a baby Sunday morning when the huge rock he hurled at the car crashed a few inches from the infant... “We were driving south from Rehalim when an Arab around 17 years old, standing next to a school, threw a huge rock at the car”... [The family's vehicle was] traveling around 80 kilometers an hour (50 mph), and the rock smashed through the car window and landed only a few inches from the baby’s seat. [The driver, the child's father] was sitting with his wife in the vehicle, and their eight-year-old son and two-year-old daughter were sitting next to the infant... Mainstream media did not report the attack, following usual practice to ignore rock-throwing unless it causes an accident or injury.

The INN report makes the point that when seventeen year-old Palestinian Arabs, like the one today, hurl rocks - which are frequently more accurately termed boulders - at Israeli vehicles on the roads, their aim is to inflict maximum injury. Preferably, to kill.

The criminal prosecution of the Arab gang accused of killing Asher Palmer and his two-year-old son a year ago near Kiryat Arba has focused some attention (certainly not enough) on the growing phenomenon. We have attended some of the hearings in the Military Tribunal at Machane Ofer, and have written about the tragedy of the Palmer murders - see "11-Oct-11: Living with neighbours who want us all back to the stone age". The words we use ("rock" and "throwing") to describe these acts of murder and attempted murder simply do not do justice to the savagery of the attacks.

Perhaps viewing the images below - so 'insignificant' an attack that it will surely go almost completely unreported - will convey a taste of the realities and the danger facing Israelis who live near and among the thugs who celebrate such deeds.

Every week or so, we republish here the latest of Yehudit Tayar's reports on the war that is mostly unreported: we invite you to review the most recent one: "25-Dec-12: Scenes from the front lines, courtesy of the Tayar Report". Yehudit's bulletins leave little doubt about the growing rate and scope of rock hurling and boulder-throwing attacks like today's.

The images above and below of the vehicle come from the Israel National News report of today's attack on the family from Rehalim.

16-Dec-12: Those murders and attempted murders about which you almost never hear

Asher Palmer and his infant son were murdered in this vehicle which
came under lethal rock attack a year ago [Image Source: Ynet]

The note below comes from Yehudit Tayar whose "Scenes from the Front Lines" we publish here regularly. (Here's the most recent of them.) Yehudit's note deals with what happened this afternoon to our mutual friends Melody and Yosef Hartuv whose well-named blog "Love of the Land" always makes for interesting reading.

Rocks Are Lethal Weapons       

Yehudit Tayar (December 16, 2012)

Today was another continuation of the trials in the Machane Opher military court of the terrorist gang who murdered Asher and Yonatan Palmer HY"D on Highway 60 - the Hevron Jerusalem Highway, a little over a year ago.

Today was supposed to be the summary of the defense of Ali, one of the terrorists who was in the vehicle during the time of the terror attack that resulted in the murder, by means of a huge boulder heaved from a moving car towards the car in which Asher, a young father and his infant son, Yonatan - not yet a year old - were traveling.

Throughout the trial, the defense attorney has repeatedly tried to persuade the court and the prosecution that there had been previous cases of Arabs throwing rocks and that their reasons for the attacks were "in order to punish, injure or kill Jews". Ali's lawyer continued to try and persuade the court that there was no reason to accuse Ali of attempted murder because of all the previous cases that he mentioned.

There we were: Adrian Agassi, the lawyer who represents the Palmer family, and a group of friends and family who have been sitting for over a year with the Palmers through the entire endless nightmare of the trials of the terror gang who practiced heaving huge rocks from moving vehicles towards the cars of "settlers" (as the terrorists testified).

As usual, we sat hugging the photographs of Asher and Yonatan Z"L during these hearings and finding it impossible to believe the defense lawyers' requests to the court.

We left there and parted until Sunday, and what will be the continuation of the trials. Melody and Yosef drove towards their home in Kiryat Arba. When they reached Beit Ummar on Highway 60, the Jerusalem-Hevron highway, Arabs attacked their car with rocks and bashed in the front window.

When I received the phone call from Melody, and as I reported the attack to the security and medical rescue forces, I was in shock. Just now we had heard the defense of a terrorist who murdered two innocent people just because they were Jews as he tried to convince the court that attacks with rocks are not attempted murder - and here again is an attempted murder of Jews by Arabs.

Melody was B"H injured in her hand and not worse. But the vehicle provided to them by Molly, the mother of Asher and grandmother of Yonatan Z"L had its entire front windshield smashed in. 

It is impossible to even begin to attempt to describe such a situation where one is returning from a trial of terrorists who attacked a car with rocks in order to murder innocent people merely because they were Jewish, and then your car is attacked and the windshield bashed in.

Israel's courts must finally recognize that rocks are lethal weapons and are being used to murder Jews.

Yehudit Tayar is a volunteer emergency medic, serves as one of the veteran spokespeople for the Jewish pioneers in Yesha, works with the security forces and for the past 32 years has made a home for herself and her family in Bet Horon, a community in Iseael's Benjamin region.

29-May-12: Terrorism from up close: low-intensity attacks continue

The rocks are rarely hurled in a vacuum

The chronology below picks up where we left off a week ago ["24-May-12: Terrorism from up close: the past few days"]. Like the earlier data, this is based on the Tayar Security Report, compiled by Yehudit Tayar.

Thursday May 24, 2012

• The village of El Arub, southwest of Bethlehem on the Bethlehem-to-Hebron road: A bottle is hurled at an IDF post
• Hawara, south of Shechem (aka Nablus): Rocks are thrown at Israeli vehicles. A bus is damaged.
• The vehicle of one of the Jewish residents of Hebron is blockaded on the main road between Kiryat Arba and Hebron. The driver is fortunately able to extricate herself from a potentially very harmful situation.
• The Jewish section of Hebron: A bottle is thrown at an Israeli bus
• Near El Fuar in the Southern Hebron Hills: A rock attack on an Israeli bus
• El Arub (again): Rocks are hurled at vehicles traveling on the Gush Etzion-Hebron arterial road
• Bet Umar, notorious site of a large number of rock throwing attacks: Additional such attacks directed at vehicles traveling the Gush Etzion-Hebron road
• The road between Turmus Aya and Shilo in the Benjamin region: One again, rock attacks on Israeli vehicles
• Kiryat Arba in the vicinity of the Palestinian Arab neighbourhood of Jebel Johar: A rock-throwing attack on the nearby IDF security post

Friday May 25, 2012

• Once more (see our previous report), Palestinian Arabs engaged in systematic throwing of rocks from speeding vehicles at Israeli vehicles and their drivers and passengers, an action calculated to produce death and maiming (of the kind for which several Palestinian Arabs are currently on trial for the murders of Asher Palmer and his year old son - see "25-Sep-11: "Only" rock throwers - but now a father and his infant son are dead"). This time, the attack took place near the Israeli community of Ofra in the Benjamin region. An IDF patrol searched for the perpetrators, but so far without success.

Sunday May 27, 2012 

• Hebron, near the IDF checkpost adjacent to the Tomb of the Patriarchs: A Palestinian Arab is apprehended with a large knife. He confesses to planning to attack and stab Israelis.
• Hebron near Police Square: A Palestinian Arab is apprehended by security forces in possession of a knife and suspected of planning a terrorist attack
• The Israeli community of Yitzhar in the Shomron (Samaria district): Palestinian Arabs start a fire in the community's fields. Fire fighters Take two hours to bring the blaze under control. While they are engaged in fire fighting, the authorities as well as IDF security forces come under attack from Palestinian Arabs, one of whom - brandishing a knife - is shot and immobilized by security personnel.
• Shuafat: Attacks by rocks and Molotov cocktails (firebombs) on security personnel.
• In the vicinity of the city of Modi'in, halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, five Molotov cocktails (firebombs) are hurled at a Border Police patrol close to the village of A-Tira
• Tapuah security checkpost: As reported here yesterday ("28-May-12: Tapuah Junction: Yet another suspect nabbed with pipe bombs on him"), a Palestinian Arab is caught and remanded to custody after three firebombs and three pipebombs are found hidden in his possession - we reported on this
• Hawara (again): An Israeli bus comes under rock attack
• Bet Umar, notorious site of a large number of rock throwing attacks: Another such attack is made on an Israeli civilian bus traveling the Gush Etzion-Hebron road

Monday May 28, 2012

• In the Israeli community of Kedumim, in the Shomron (Samaria district), there are multiple burglaries in the town's mobile-home neighborhood
• Kochav Yaakov: A suspected Palestinian Arab intruder penetrates the community, causing a state of high alert to go into effect. Previous such penetrations have had catastrophic outcomes.
• Tekoa, south of Jerusalem: There are reports that over Shabbat, Israeli anarchists and Palestinian Arabs conducted a violent demonstration at the entrance to the community
• Bet Umar: Yet another rock-hurling attack on an Israeli civilian bus traveling the Gush Etzion-Hebron road
• Around 5 this morning, on the Israel-Egypt border near Carmit, 10 illegal Chinese infiltrators accompanied by four armed people-smugglers are caught. Several people are injured during the arrests.
• South-west of Shechem (Nablus): A fire bomb is thrown at an IDF post at Tel Aras

Safe to say that almost without exception, these calculated and premeditated attacks - every one of which has the potential to take or damage lives - go unreported outside the immediate area, making it difficult to understand Israel's constant preparedness and vigilance.

27-Jan-12: Rocks of reality? A postscript

A blog we posted earlier today ["27-Jan-12: Reality bites and the Palestinian Arab future is not what it used to be"] ended with a comment based on someone's use of the expression "rocks of reality".

Four months ago, almost to the day, we wrote about another in the depressingly long list of Palestinian Arab acts of hatred-driven terror directed against Israeli Jews. It was headlined "25-Sep-11: "Only" rock throwers - but now a father and his infant son are dead".

Two days ago there was a postscript.

Terror victim's widow gives birth    Puah Palmer, whose husband Asher and son Yonatan were killed in West Bank five months ago, gives birth to girl | Four months after her husband and infant son were killed in a terror attack in the West Bank, Puah Palmer gave birth Wednesday to a baby girl. Asher Palmer, 25, and his 1-year-old son, Yonatan, died in September when their car overturned after it was stoned as they were traveling on Highway 60.

The terrorists strike, there's a victim, maybe two, a paragraph appears somewhere on the inside pages (or not at all) or is linked via a small headline on a webpage, perhaps even a photo (a small one, never intended to be seen by people outside the family)... and life goes on. 

But for those of us who have lived through the terror and the tragedy and the trauma, life is never the same. Oh certainly, it's the same and life goes on if you are not the victim or the victim's widow or the victim's parent. 

But if it reaches into the most intimate parts of the life you were living before the barbarism and racism and hatred of those terrorists forced their way in, then life most assuredly is never the same again.

May the new life to which the young widow, Puah Palmer, gave birth this week become a source of pride and happiness to her, to her family circle and to the whole community and people of Israel. May the baby girl have the merit to do many positive and considerate deeds in her life, thus enlarging the stock of the world's good, and diminishing the evil for which the stone-age killers of her father and her older baby brother stand. Mazal tov!

5-Dec-11: Attempted murder by rock

Site of the attacks

From the British Sky News this afternoon:

Motorist's Terror As Rock Smashes Into Car 

A motorist has told of her lucky escape after a large rock was thrown from a bridge, shattering her car windscreen. Lisa Horne, 26, said she was left "very shaken" and "scared to drive" following the incident last Thursday evening on the A12 in Essex. She and her 48-year-old mother escaped unharmed when their Vauxhall Astra was targeted as they travelled under the Fryerning Lane Bridge near Ingatestone. Around 40 minutes later, a 57-year-old woman and her husband were injured after a "bucket-sized" piece of concrete was dropped on to her car from a different bridge on the same stretch of road between Chelmsford and London. Police are treating both incidents as attempted murder.

And so they should.

People who hurl rocks at moving vehicles and at the people inside them either want to kill those people or are absolutely indifferent as to whether or not that is the result.  Either way, it's murder or attempted murder. The deaths on an Israeli road two months ago of Asher Palmer and his baby son Yonatan ("25-Sep-11: "Only" rock throwers - but now a father and his infant son are dead") are proof enough. Palestinian Arab youths and men routinely engage in rock-throwing attacks on Israelis in their cars. We understand what their goals are. Some Brits might now, too.

UPDATE Monday 8:15pm: The story is getting wider coverage. Today's Daily Mail has these quotes:
"It is not fair, you could have taken peoples' lives away and left my children without a mum.'
'I just don't know how they went home that night and slept,' she said.
'They could have killed four people within half an hour."
'I just don't understand how people could do that. I cannot sleep thinking about it.'
"Sick, twisted, ferral little thugs - I despair - bring back national service, the cane, the stocks, public hanging"
This appears to be evolving into the sort of story to which the ordinary members of the British public can relate. Wouldn't it be something if someone over there made the connection to what Israelis have had to endure for years, up to and including today?

11-Oct-11: Living with neighbours who want us all back to the stone age

From today's Jerusalem Post:

Jerusalem: Stones hurled at Light Rail, bus  | Stones were hurled Monday at the Light Rail in Jerusalem's Shuafat neighborhood, near the Israel Police National Headquarters. A windowpane was smashed but no injuries were reported. The train drove on to a garage but all the passengers were dropped off at the nearest station, in the French Hill. An alternative train was sent in its place. The Light Rail has been installed with stone-proof windows and therefore despite the smashing of a windowpane a plastic shield managed to prevent any injuries. Almost at the same time, stones were hurled at a bus near the Jaffa Gate in the Old City. The bus driver lost control of the vehicle, hit a wall and consequently sustained light injuries. The passengers were not injured. Jerusalem police have launched a wide-scale search to trace the perpetrators.

It's timely to recall that the deaths of a young father and his year-old child in their vehicle was attributed by the police to a mere road accident two weeks ago (we wrote about it here: "25-Sep-11: "Only" rock throwers - but now a father and his infant son are dead"). But some days later, two Palestinian Arabs were arrested and charged with hurling rocks in an attack that caused the car to crash, as a result of which Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan were killed near Kiryat Arba. Police, now under criticism for having originally missed the malicious stoning connection in the Palmer deaths, are investing 17 other cases of stoning attacks on Israeli vehicles involving the same suspects.

Sadly, there is no shortage of stonings (we wrote about this here: "6-Oct-11: Those rock throwing "youths" are proliferating"), or stones or suspects.

25-Sep-11: "Only" rock throwers but now a father and his infant son are dead

Rocks, slings and young men: Irresistible romantic imagery
for dishonest editors - and the source for a rising death toll of
innocent civilians 

Two of the constants in this part of the world are (a) the phenomenon of Palestinian Arab men - some young, but not all - hurling rocks at fast-moving Israeli cars; and (b) the wilful but completely dishonest minimization of the deadly threat posed by such attacks. Here's the latest illustration of why this double-headed problem is so serious.

What seemed on Friday to be a routine car accident now turns out to have been an attack by terrorists in the vicinity of the Jewish community of Kiryat Arba. [Source]. The Jerusalem Post reports this evening that police now believe that rock throwing was the cause of the car accident that killed Asher Hillel Palmer, 25, and his one-year-old son Yonatan on Friday. At a court hearing today, counsel for the police said that it now appears the car veered off the road after a rock shattered its  windshield. "The police said that the front window was shattered, and a large rock was found inside the car with Palmer's blood on it. People close to the victims claimed that the police quickly determined it as a car accident in order not to inflame the region."

A young man and his baby son are dead and a family is forever shattered.

It's possible the perpetrators drew inspiration from a highly publicized ambush by masked rock-throwing children of an Israeli in Jerusalem's suburbs last October. You might remember the incident (see video below): the Arab media and especially Al Jazeera presented what happened in their customary Daoud vs Goliath fashion: "innocent" and "meek" Arab schoolboys, armed only with loincloths and slingshots callously run down by aggressive Israeli in his armored Zionist vehicle. The presence of a phalanx of cameramen, clearly positioning themselves at that location because of the expectation that there would be some highly photogenic violence is completely absent from the anti-Israel reporting. Likewise the cynical abuse of Palestinian Arab children by their adults (Arabs) who are at the scene.

Throwing rocks at moving cars is an act of terrorism. Terrorism means the deliberate inflicting of violence on civilians in order to intimidate a population - to paraphrase the United Nations General Assembly's draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. That's a convention that is highly unlikely ever to be enacted, by the way, given the perpetual opposition to it from the UN's most powerful lobby, the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Throwing rocks is as deadly as firing a rifle or throwing a grenade. The people who routinely portray rock throwing Palestinian Arabs as liberation warriors in training know this. That's why despicable is too mild a word for scurrilous advocacy/reportage pieces like "Throwing rocks at the occupation – and Western prejudice too" [Electronic Intifada] and "Forget rock-throwing teens. Growing peaceful Palestinian resistance could tip the conflict" [Christian Science Monitor].

Like some other kinds of terrorists, rock throwing youths can seem like romantic figures - especially when portrayed that way by naive or activist editors - right up until the moment they bring tragedy into your own family or community.

UPDATE 3-Oct-11: We just found this photograph (at left) of the father and son killed by rock-hurling thugs: Asher Hillel Palmer, and his infant son Yonatan Z"L. May their memories serve as a blessing, and may their family find comfort among the mourners of Zion.

UPDATE 27-Jan-12: There's a further postscript here.