(Scroll down for video) — Last Friday pictures emerged of an IDF soldier looking inexperienced and scared as he tried to restrain a boy who threw rocks at him while a group of angry Arab women tried to pull him away from the boy.
The shocking twist is that not only did the pictures not have the intended effect of showing an evil soldier but that Arab readers of the Arabic version of Aljazeera were actually astonished at the restraint the armed soldier showed.
Nabi Saleh is a tiny Arab village with just 530 residents located 14 miles northwest of Ramallah. The residents have held weekly protests for years over a land dispute with the nearby Jewish village of Halamish. The protests almost always involve Arab youngsters throwing rocks at IDF soldiers.
When this brand new IDF soldier was separated from his unit, and mobbed by a raging gang of women, the regular protest actually got some media attention.
Arab paparazzi are always waiting at the ready in Nabi Saleh on Fridays. This weeks protest photos drew outrage from the West but Arab readers reacted quite the opposite.
Facebook user Shay Ket translated some comments into Hebrew from Arabic, which JNi.media translated into English:
Ahmed Elsayed wrote: “When I saw an Arab child dying of hunger and another drowning in the sea and the fish eat it when he escapes death to the West… I became convinced that the worst thing produced by the Arab countries are the Arab rulers.”
Ahmed Issa: “Many commentaries say ‘The Israeli soldier is kinder than Arab soldiers,’ and this is true. But don’t forget that the Arab soldier follows the orders of tyrannical Arab leaders, and he’s not interested in his image, while Israel markets itself to the West as a bastion of democracy and human rights, and every Israeli soldier has a thousand faces: in front of the camera and behind the camera.”
Tita: “If it had happened in Egypt, they would have shot that boy with live ammunition instead of being so considerate.”
Amin: “Honest to God, it’s a shame that women are fighting and the men look on.”
Osama: “Note how although he had a weapon, and although he is a soldier of the Zionist entity, he did not shoot him in the head. Imagine the same thing [happening] in Arab countries, how our people would have acted…” Arab readers commenting on Aljazeera
On Saturday The Daily Mail revealed that one young girl who is seen biting the soldier’s right hand in the photos, is Ahed Tamimi, whose parents, Bassem and Nariman, also in the images, are well known Palestinian activists in the village of Nabi Saleh. The blog Israellycool has nicknamed the girl “Shirley Temper” and has been dubbed a “Pallywood” star by Prof. Richard Landes. Tamimi was awarded the Handala Award for Courage by Turkish President Erdoğan, in the city where she says she’d rather live — Istanbul.
She has appeared in similar videos where she argues with and hits Israeli security forces and has risen to prominence after being filmed confronting a soldier who arrested her brother, which resulted in her being presented the bravery award.
Watch the video from Friday’s protest here:
