Video: Palestinian carrying watermelon is stopped for four hours by Israeli soldiers

[Little Tich]

Source: Mondoweiss, 9 Jun 2016

This is upsetting. A Palestinian man attempts to bring a watermelon home in Hebron and Israeli soldiers stop him and force him to put the offending fruit down.

Can I pass?

Not yet. Put the watermelon down.

The video was produced by Ta’ayush, and translated by the Alternative Information Center (AIC):

What is green on the outside red on the inside and threatens Israeli security?

On June 1, 2016 an elderly Palestinian tried to go through Shuhada Street in Hebron carrying a watermelon. This is his story.



Read more: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/palestinian-watermelon-soldiers/

[Israeli]

1. Hmmmmmmmm.....................

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1134129797

Post #3 ......

Take Care, Soldier

Don’t die, soldier, hold the radiophone,
don your helmet, your flak jacket, surround
the village with a trench of crocodiles, starve
it out if need be, eat Mama’s treats, shoot
sharp, keep your rifle clean, take care of the armored
Jeep, the bulldozer, the land, one day it will be
yours, little David, sweetling, don’t die, please.

Keep watch for Goliath the peasant, he’s trying to sell his
pumpkin at the local market, he’s plotting to buy a gift for his grandkid,
erase the evil Haman whose bronchitis you denied treatment, eradicate
the blood of Eva Braun by checking on the veracity of her labor pains,
silence her shriek, that’s how every maternity ward sounds, it’s not easy
having such humane values, be strong, take care, forget
your deeds, forget the forgetting.

That thy days may be long, that the days of thy children may be long, that one day
they shall hear of thy deeds and shall stick fingers in their ears and scream
with fear and thy sons’ and thy daughters’ screams shall never fade.
Be strong, sweet David, live long unto seeing thy children’s eyes,
though their backs hasten to flee from thee, stay in touch with thy comrades-in-arms,
after thy sons deny thee, a covenant of the shunned.
Take care, soldier-boy.

Yitzhak Laor.

[Little Tich]

4. I'll take a look. I can read German, so some of the translations will be available to me. n/t

[Israeli]

12. His poems are hard to translate Little Tich......

........full of nuances in Hebrew .
He didnt write them for a wider audience.

Here is one :
http://poemsintranslation.blogspot.co.il/2011/10/yitzhak-laor-newest-testament-from.html

More about him @
http://yitzhaklaor.com/english/

[6chars]

2. That's just crazy

http://www.albawaba.com/news/watermelon-bomb-attack-israeli-bus-foiled-jerusalem

A bomb attack was foiled Friday afternoon in Jerusalem when an Egged bus driver discovered an explosive device packed in a watermelon while making a routine check as the bus was parked outside the Malkha shopping center in Jerusalem, said reports.

http://www.jta.org/1969/07/28/archive/boy-finds-explosive-at-circus-search-turns-up-more-averting-major-catastrophe

Benjamin Peretz and a youthful friend had been looking at the Tokyo Fair from the street but apparently did not intend to watch the performance. They wandered over to one of the numerous watermelon stands looking for “spare” melons. Benjamin opened a melon and observed a pencil-like object embedded in the opening. He removed it and playfully threw it at his friend. It exploded, injuring the boy slightly.

Police were called to the melon stand and began a search. They found the suspected melon and inside of it a kilogram of explosives. A second melon was found with three times that much explosive. An old coat, to which no one had paid any attention, was found to have 20 sticks of gelignite sewn into its lining. The circus performance was halted immediately and the audience followed instructions to leave by the tent through its back entrance while the search for more explosives continued. No more were found.

The police said that the pencil-like object was a timing device which had been set to detonate the explosives as the circus audience was leaving the performance. They said a major catastrophe in damages, injuries and death could have occurred.

[Little Tich]

3. His only crime was that he was a Palestinian.

I doubt that Jews carrying watermelons have to wait four hours for IDF permission to bring it home.

[6chars]

5. that was no crime at all

This was a type 1 error (a false positive). But he was held, not charged with a crime.

Are you familiar with the concept of Type 1 and Type 2 errors? Do you have any thoughts on how to drive both types to zero? Or any thoughts on what a reasonable tradeoff is off type 1 to type 2 errors?

[Little Tich]

7. I don't think that the Palestinian guy with the watermelon realized that he looked just a terrorist,

for him it was just being harassed by the IDF as usual.

The soldiers of the IDF should have had some basic training before being issued a rifle and bossing Palestinians around. The type of error they committed was being a bunch of idiots.

[shira]

11. Has nothing to do with a crime. Jewish/Israeli lives matter...

The timing of this video is impeccable, right after the TLV shooting just days ago in which 2 Palestinians near Hebron were able to sneak into Israel to murder 4 innocents. Excuse me, that's legit resistance in your view....sorry to call that murder, which it was.

You're also assuming it took hours for the IDF to let him through. Ta'ayush is the organization that supports the PA executing Palestinians for selling land to Jews. That you take their bullshit at face value says more about you than any security measures the IDF carries out.

[shira]

9. Thanks for that context about melon bombs.

The haters would like it to appear as if IDF security personnel have nothing better to do than just harass nice Palestinians all day.

[oberliner]

6. To Mondoweiss, Israeli Jews barely register as humans

The only coverage in Mondoweiss of the recent murder of innocent Jewish Israeli civilians in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian terrorist is with respect to the ways it will inconvenience Palestinians.

[Little Tich]

8. What do you think about the OP?

I put up the OP because it's completely trivial - a story about a man and his watermelon - but at the same time an example of what daily life for Palestinians is like in the occupied territories. That it's Mondoweiss is just an added bonus. But do you think that the event will help to improve the image of the IDF or will it just make Palestinians feel that the IDF is unfair?

Do you think Ta’ayush and AIC are doing a good job?

[Israeli]

13. You might not be aware Little Tich......

But AIC is down once again ..........so much for free speech .

ref : ......

site_logo

alternativenews.org, like many other sites critical of Israeli policy, has been under attack these past weeks, and is once again down.
We are working to solve this problem and in the meantime, please access our Facebook page for news and updates.
You can read more about the attacks on justice for Palestine websites in this article by Vice News.

http://www.alternativenews.org/english/

[Little Tich]

14. Yeah, it's pretty low to try to silence your opponents by taking down their websites.

However, DDOS attacks are a democratic tool - anyone can use the Low Orbit Ion Cannon, for example, so I can't say that doing such things should be prohibited, even if they cause problems. I wouldn't cry foul if someone would take down the website of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs...

I really hope AIC will get their website up and running ASAP.

[shira]

10. Still scraping the bottom of the sewer @ Mondoweiss? I thought...

Last edited Sun Jun 12, 2016, 11:25 AM - Edit history (3)

...after their posting of a petition by the racist Free Palestine movement (which you admitted is racist) that you'd perhaps have 2nd thoughts about posting from that vile rat's nest. . Guess not.

Video is obviously a setup from start to finish. Transparent goading of the officers. From this story, I gather that the activists want the IDF to relax their guard, let anyone in because no one's a risk at all, and therefore risk the security of Israeli citizens because the lives of Israelis is nothing in comparison to inconveniencing Palestinians. Am I right? Isn't that the point? I mean, besides making Israeli security officers look like Nazis....

What do you think about the history of melon bombs in Israel? Are you for or against them in the name of resistance?

[Little Tich]

15. I think it's good to have a wide range of sources on DU - even Mondoweiss.

I don't object to the posting of OPs from Hasbara mills and neocon think-tanks, even if I more or less completely disagree with their arguments. I'm only against posting hate speech.

I would learn much less if there were restrictions on what sources that could be posted on DU.

When it comes to the watermelon incident, it's extremely unlikely that Ta’ayush somehow was using entrapment against the IDF soldiers - it's more likely that the Palestinian was walking home with his watermelon and that activists from Ta’ayush just happened to be nearby when the IDF soldiers decided to act like dickheads. The IDF seems to be going out of its way to violate persons and their privacy as much as possible with unwarranted stops and searches anywhere at any time.

[shira]

16. If you're against posting hate speech, Mondoweiss did just that with Paul Larudee's letter. n/t

[Little Tich]

18. You mean this letter?

Please boycott us, Governor Cuomo
source: Mondoweiss, June 9, 2016

In compliance with Governor Cuomo’s 2016 Executive Order No. 157, Directing New York State Agencies and Authorities to Divest Public Funds Supporting BDS Campaign Against Israel, we wish to report and confirm that our corporation boycotts all Israeli products and services, and encourages other institutions, companies and individuals to cease and avoid all economic, academic and cultural activity that supports the racist state of Israel until that state dissolves itself, welcomes all Palestinians to return to their homes, restores all of their property and pays damages for the harm it has done to Palestinians and their property.

Read more: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/06/please-boycott-governor/

I wouldn't post something like this myself on DU because I don't think Israel needs to dissolve itself and there's no reason to boycott Israel. Besides, the language is so inflammatory that if I was on jury over such a post, I would vote for a hide. While I can't really explain why such a letter appeared on Mondoweiss, I still think that the watermelon story doesn't amount to hate speech in any way.

As a counter example, with your logic the Algemeiner should be banned from DU, as it is obviously promoting hate speech:

New Organization Monitors Campus Radicals to Expose Them to Future Employers (VIDEO)
Source: Algemeiner, MAY 13, 2015

A new organization was launched on Tuesday to track organizers of anti-Israel movements on U.S. college campuses and alert the public, as well as future employers, about their involvement with the hate groups, The Algemeiner has learned.

Canary Mission was founded by students and citizens concerned by the growing number of campus movements that work to demonize and boycott Israel, harass Jewish and pro-Israel students, and spread radical, antisemitic ideas.

In a statement issued on its website, Canary Mission’s anonymous founders said the public has the right to know who is a part of this “dangerous campaign” of “ugly antisemitism and anti-Americanism that drives the anti-Israel movement on campuses across the United States.”

“So do the future employers of those who immerse themselves in antisemitic activity as college students,” the statement continued. “We are determined to expose the statements, activities, and unsavory affiliations of all of those responsible for spreading this hate on our campuses.”

Read more:
https://www.algemeiner.com/2015/05/13/new-organization-monitors-campus-radicals-to-expose-them-to-future-employers-video/

It's possible that I'll post more stuff from Mondoweiss in the future, but frankly, I don't like the letter from the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees (AIPAC?) at all, and I would like to know the reason why Mondoweiss decided to publish it.

[shira]

20. "While I can't really explain why such a letter appeared on Mondoweiss..."

Seriously?

It's on Mondoweiss because that's exactly what Mondoweiss is and has been all about since the moment the blog started. Unless you're afraid of finding what you don't want to see, google-search Mondoweiss archives for all things "Free Palestine" or Paul Larudee, Alison Weir, Gilad Atzmon, David Duke, etc. That's the BDS movement in all its racist glory, and it's always been like that.

I don't really care about sources. This is about BDS and Mondoweiss being racist antisemitic hate organizations.

[Little Tich]

22. I'm against all forms of racism, and I don't tolerate the promoting of Palestinian interests over

those of Jews.

Some people may not think it's a bad thing, but I consider advocacy of unequal rights where Jews are supposed to have less than equal rights to be anti-Semitism. If these organizations promote unequal rights, then they're just a bunch of racists, and I want nothing to do with them.

That doesn't mean that I'll buy your baseless arguments connecting BDS to anti-Semitism. BDS is a tool, and it's who are targeted and why that decides whether it's legitimate or not.

But I don't like that Mondoweiss is carrying water for Paul Larudee - it's pretty clear that Cuomo is trying to abolish free speech in NY, but two wrongs don't make a right.

[oberliner]

17. That's not what this website is about

A note on sources:

Please use discretion when referencing obviously biased or factually questionable material. Vanity websites are generally not as credible as the New York Times, the Washington Post or the UK Guardian and are likely to be locked. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself is the author readily identifiable and likely to be cited by the mainline world press or encountered in an alternate format (mass-published book, academic journal, newspaper article, radio or TV show).
Please avoid posting "information" from overtly racist websites. A good, but not exhaustive, guide is Franklin's Hate Directory (www.hatedirectory.com).
Posting from Whatreallyhappened.com, Chronwatch.com or Debka.com is specifically not allowed.

[Little Tich]

19. I would respect your opinion more if you were less one-sided. n/t

[shira]

21. You should respect the facts, no matter the source. n/t

[oberliner]

23. I didn't present any opinion

Just the rules for the forum.

[Little Tich]

24. If your non-opinion applied to pro-Israel sources as well,

I would respect your non-opinion much more.

[oberliner]

25. I have repeatedly said that Israel National News articles ought not to be posted here

They present similarly hateful rhetoric as Mondoweiss in my opinion.