Inquirer Distorts Hebron

 
by Michael Goldblatt 

	Six months ago, the Philadelphia Inquirer 's new Mideast
correspondent, Barbara Demick, authored a first-hand report on life in Hebron, filled with
anti-Israel distortions and falsehoods.  Apparently some reporters never
learn from their errors, because this summer, Ms. Demick returned to
Hebron--and got the story all wrong again.

        Demick's latest report from Hebron began with five long paragraphs
about the Israeli student who posted leaflets with a caricature of Mohammed in the
Hebron marketplace in June.  The entire Muslim world was in an uproar, Demick
noted, "but nowhere did the infamous pig cartoon wreak as much damage as in
Hebron"--leaving the erroneous impression that the caricature provoked the
violence.  In fact, as Demick knows, there was daily anti-Jewish rioting by
Arab mobs in Hebron for weeks before the cartoon incident.

        Demick did mention that Hebron had already been "the scene of almost
continuous rioting all year"--but then quickly adds,  "Those riots had almost
died down when the [protests over the caricature] erupted."  Almost died
down?  The ten days prior to the caricature were filled with unrelenting
violence.  On June 17, waves of Arab attackers hurled 19 firebombs, and
thousands of rocks, at the Jewish community building, Beit Hadassah, in
Hebron.  On June 18, Arabs threw rocks, firebombs, and a pipe bomb at Beit
Hadassah and another Jewish residential building, Beit Schneerson.  On June
19, Arab mobs threw rocks and firebombs at Israeli soldiers guarding the
Hebron Jewish community.   On June 20, Arabs threw dozens of firebombs and
bottles filled with acid at Jewish civilians and soldiers in Hebron.  On June
21, the Arabs set a new record for firebomb attacks in Hebron, throwing over
100 firebombs at Jews in a single day.  A firebomb was thrown at an Israeli
jeep in Hebron on June 24.   Three firebombs were thrown at Israeli soldiers
in Hebron, and Arab drive-by shooters opened fire on a Jewish town adjacent
to Hebron.

        To drive home the false notion that the caricatures provoked the
violence, Demick returned to the caricature incident again, halfway through her
41-paragraph feature story, to question the behavior of the Israeli police in
arresting the student who drew the cartoon.  Quoting "witnesses and reports
in the Israeli press," Demick suggested Israeli police were lax in
apprehending the student.  Yet she did not quote a single Israeli spokesman
to give the police department's side of the story.

        Similar imbalance marred Demick's reference to an April 8 incident
in which Arab attacked a Jewish student in Hebron, and was shot dead by the student.
 Demick interviewed the PLO's police chief for Hebron, Tarik Zaid, who
declared that the Jewish students "got away with murder."  But she provided
no quotations from the Jewish students, from spokesmen for the Hebron Jewish
community, or from Israeli police about the circumstances of the incident.
 Demick merely noted that "An Israeli police spokesman said that the case was
under investigation and that the students could still face charges"--thus
reinforcing the PLO police chief's assertion that the Jews were the guilty
party.

        Demick's characterization of Hebron's significance to Jews was equally
lacking.  No mention of the fact that next to Jerusalem, Hebron is the
holiest city in Judaism.  No reference to the fact that Hebron contains
numerous Jewish holy sites, including the Tombs of the prophet Avner, the
biblical matriarch Ruth, King David's father Ishai, and Otniel Ben Kenaz, the
first Judge of biblical Israel.   In Barbara Demick's version, Hebron has
only one religious site, the Cave of the Patriarchs (where Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob and their wives are buried), "which is also holy in the Islamic faith."

        And how do Jews display their reverence for the Cave?  "Religious
Jews have tried to worship at this shrine for centuries, often coming in armed conflict
with Muslims."  That makes it sound as if the Jews have, for centuries, been
launching violent attacks against Muslims who have at least an equally valid
claim to the Cave.  In fact, of course, Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs
were sacred sites to the Jews for 2,000 years before Islam even existed.
 During the centuries of Muslim occupation of Hebron, there was no "armed
conflict" --because the Muslims had the arms, the Jews were third-class
citizens, and the Muslims prohibited the Jews from praying in the Cave.  It was not until Israel won Hebron in the 1967 war that 1,300 years of Muslim religious discrimination against Jews in Hebron was
finally ended.

        Another serious flaw in the article was its treatment of Arab
terrorism.  In Barbara Demick's Hebron, there is "tit for tat violence."  She noted that the
Arabs staged a pogrom in 1929, although Demick does not mention the number of
victims or any description of the violence.  That was followed, in 1994, by
Baruch Goldstein  "gunning down 30 Muslims in prayer at the Cave of
Machpela."  When the Arabs are the victims, the casualty toll suddenly
appears, and the victims are kneeling in prayer.  How would Inquirer readers
know that there were 69 Jewish victims in 1929, or that they many of them,
too, were praying or studying when they were murdered?

        The worst part of Demick's distorted description, of course, is
that she makes it seem as if both sides are equally guilty of massacres.  Readers
would have no way of knowing, in fact, that the Goldstein attack was an
aberration, whereas Arab violence against Jews is frequent and deadly.  There
was the brutal stabbing to death of yeshiva student Aharon Gross in the
Hebron marketplace (1983).  There was the fatal knife attack on student Erez
Shmuel near the Cave of the Patriarchs (1993).  There was the drive-by
shooting on the Hebron Road in which Mordechai Lapid and his son Shalom were
murdered (1993).  There was the ambush of a bus in the same location, in
which Nahum Hoss and Yehuda Partus were murdered (1995).  There was the
shooting attack that killed teenager Sarit Prigal near the entrance to the
city (1994).  Last summer, an elderly rabbi was stabbed and wounded in an
attack in downtown Hebron, and two retirees who were studying at the Hebron
yeshiva were stabbed and wounded in a second attack.

        All in all, another badly distorted picture of the situation in
Hebron, courtesy of  Barbara Demick and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

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