Rewind to one year and five months ago.
Saturday night in Jerusalem, as I remember it from living in the city, is a time of reawakening. The city gently wakes up from the rest of the Jewish holy day, Shabbat, and shops reopen, people traverse the country to return to work on Sunday morning. Tourists peruse the shops in the city center. All the lights aglow, the city begins to murmur with activity.
Rewind to 7 days ago, October 1, 2015.
Eitam and Naama Henkin were murdered in cold blood by terrorists who shot them dead in their car while their four children sat in the backseat and watched, helpless to stop it.
Rewind to 5 days ago, October 3rd.
This past Saturday night, a continued wave of terror permeated through the streets of Jerusalem, into the Old City, where I have walked many nights alone to go pray in peace and for peace at the Western Wall of our fallen Temple. Terror viciously ripped Nehemia Lavi and Aharon Banita from this world, both victims of stabbing.
At the behest of Adele’s screams, Nehemia ran to help and was murdered saving Nehemia and her children.The onlookers of these violent acts, Palestinian teenagers and shopkeepers in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City stood by, laughed, physically abused and heckled Aharon’s wife Adele after she ran through the streets crying for help with a bludgeoned knife in her back.
Fast forward to right now.
I type “Palestine” into Google News Search. I am barraged with images of wounded and dying Palestinian youth, injured civilian press and scores of accounts of the “Israeli Occupying Forces” rampantly murdering innocent Palestinian “rock throwers” and “teenagers”. The word Intifada is pervasive in the commentaries.
I type “Israel” into Google News Search. Abbas condemns Israeli retaliation. Abbas accuses Israel of instigating escalation. Palestinian shot dead by Israeli soldier. In the onslaught of slogans and media campaigns, why does it appear as though there is justification for the deaths of Israelis, of both Jewish and non-Jewish Israeli children?
It puts into stark contrast the worth of an Israeli life versus the worth of a Palestinian life. Do Israeli lives matter? When the life of Gilad Shalit is only saved after five years of torment and solitude for the release of convicted 1027 Palestinian terrorists, who’s lives matter more? When the world community condemns Israel for protecting its civilians by suggesting that having 64 killed in the summer of 2014 was not enough, what are Israelisleft to believe?
And now, as the reports pour in on the number of Palestinian casualties during the clashes in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, why does the media report the murder of Israelis as “Palestinan shot after two dead in Jerusalem attack”
In the ocean of misleading headlines, omissions, and false comparisons, these are all missing one incredibly important fact that has become a trending hashtag on social media over the last few days: #IsraeliLivesMatter.
Perhaps if we can convince the world that Israeli lives matter too, we can distinguish an understanding that when a terrorist comes into your home and tries to murder your children—there is only one response.
This post was contributed by CAMERA on Campus’ South Region Coordinator Tatiana-Rose Becker.
