Painful, but less so

Sheerin Abu Akala served in the media promoting my enemy propaganda, I do not consider her a "colleague", and I have no interest in attending the mourning festival for her death, which was announced by some of my colleagues. Abu Akala was not harmed because she is a journalist Between the IDF and terrorists

Kalman Liebskind

12/05/2022

Thursday, 12 May 2022, 23:15 Updated: Saturday, 14 May 2022, 22:01

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Honestly, I do not care who hit journalist Sheerin Abu Akla in Jenin, and I do not care if she was killed by the fire of the terrorists or by the fire of our forces.

Our enemy is in Jenin, this enemy is responsible for the murder of many Israelis, and in order to hit him, IDF fighters must reach out to him, and carry out their mission while operating in a difficult arena, with terrorists firing at them all the time

. It's not good, it's unfortunate, whoever is not involved in the fighting should not pay for it with his life, but as long as there is no other way to fight the enemy, this will probably not be the last case. Now it happens when the victim is a Palestinian journalist. He drove his car from Othniel to the Cave of the Patriarchs and an IDF force, which suspected it was a terrorist, shot him to death.

And when I follow the day of mourning announced yesterday by some of my colleagues in the media, it is important for me to say the name of Rabbi Merzbach - who was not a journalist but was a Jew and the father of five children,

And since I have seen, as mentioned, the reference of several journalists to this event, and to the pain they expect to be resolved in its wake, I seek to outline here my degree of pain after such traumatic events, and in general.

Well, in the first place, and the most painful, are people I know.

After them are casualties I do not know, but ones I see myself close to.

The three people killed in the Elad terrorist attack, for example, fall into this definition.

More on Walla!

Preliminary investigation in the IDF: The journalist was standing in the area of ​​the terrorists in Jenin, all the fighters claimed that they did not shoot at her

To the full article

More on Walla!

• USA: Demand immediate investigation into the killing of Al Jazeera journalist, those responsible should be prosecuted

• The bullets whistling in the arena in front of the proud gunmen: the video battle between Israel and the Palestinians

• Bennett: Suspicion that the journalist was killed by Palestinian fire;

  The IDF distributed a video of the incident

• Want to beat the pain but are afraid of spending it?

  B-Cure Laser on trial at an unprecedented price

Anyone who walks around in such a battlefield knows that he may be harmed.

Abu Akala (Photo: screenshot, documentation on social networks according to section 27A of the Copyright Law)

At the next level are people I do not know, and know nothing about.

Suppose a French journalist is killed, God forbid, during coverage of the war in Ukraine.

I have no personal acquaintance with him, I have no emotional closeness to him, but since I assume he was dear to his relatives and friends, it hurts me that this happened to him.

On one of the lower stairs are people I have no acquaintance with, but their daily routine makes me realize that they are not on my side but on my side.

For example, people who work in Al Jazeera, a propaganda tool that serves the enemy in its war against us.

Am I happy that such people get a stray bullet in their head?

No.

Can I connect to the pain of their relatives and family?

Probably.

Just as I can relate to the pain of a Gaza resident killed by an IDF bomb on a Hamas facility near his home. On the one hand he himself did not fight, so I'm sorry for him. On the other hand, I remind myself that he is part of the group that does not want me here.

This is exactly where my reference to Sheerin's death to Akala stands, and in these circumstances, those who tried to drag us into participating in mourning for her death, seemed to me a little detached from the Israeli experience.

Yesterday I saw a line of journalists asking us to refer to Abu Akala as a "colleague".

And I wonder, why only to her?

Apparently, the reporters of Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV channel are also colleagues.

They're in the press, and I'm in the press.

They broadcast on TV, and I broadcast on TV.

And yet, as far as I am concerned, there is nothing between them and me.

They are my bitter enemies, even if they have in their pocket a journalist's certificate that someone gave them.

Defeat the enemy

Sheerin Abu Akala has served in the media dealing with propaganda against Israel and its enemies.

Although I did not know her in her life, to understand who it was, it was enough to get acquainted with her workplace, and watching my colleague, Omri Haim, who reported in the edition of "Here 11", that she represented "anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian line", and listening to Zvika Yehezkeli who explained in the news Channel 13, which "has always been between Fatah and Hamas in its broadcasts."

Yehezkeli, to whom I later turned, also told me that Abu Akala did not recognize our right to a state even within the 1967 borders, and that both Hamas and Fatah agreed with her in her life, treating her as a "martyr" after her death.

And when I see the state funeral service they organized for her in the Muqata, and Abu Mazen declaring there that she was a "national voice" that "passed on the suffering of the mothers of the martyrs and prisoners and of Jerusalem and the refugee camps," and I see the condemnations of Israel coming from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Seeing the demonstrators in Amman waving Palestinian flags and chanting "Amman to Jenin, with one who does not give up", and the demonstrators in Tunis waving the same flags and chanting "Shahid do not worry, blood is redemption for freedom", I understand very well that the division between us and Seeking our evil, she was on the side of the latter.

What role did she play?

Reveal the truth or serve its people? (Photo: Screenshot, Reuters)

This is exactly how I treat those who explain to me that she was killed "in the line of duty."

What exactly is this role, that she has fulfilled?

Reveal the truth or serve its people, who fought us?

Fight evil, or "pass on the suffering of the mothers of the martyrs," as Abu Mazen described it?

In general, the terrorist of Islamic Jihad who was killed by IDF fire also fell "in the line of duty." Outstanding for rest. And

in general, something should be said about the expectation from us, the journalists, to hurt the pain of injured journalists more. Sorry, I do not connect to this approach. A journalist is a person like any other person. Or a current account clerk at a damaged bank.

And in that sense, if instead of the journalist the neighbor who went out to throw the garbage was hurt, it would be the exact same thing to me.

Almost on the same matter, we have heard countless times, following this incident in Jenin, the concern for "freedom of the press."

One of the most notable concerns was US State Department spokesman Ned Price, who stated that Abu Akala's death was a "violation of freedom of the press everywhere."

Well, this phrase, "freedom of the press," is too important to spell out for an event of this kind that has nothing to do with it.

Sheerin Abu Akala was not harmed because she is a journalist.

Sheerin Abu Akla was injured because she was walking outside in the middle of a fierce gun battle between the IDF and terrorists. Just as much, a tanker driver or a resident who left his house on the way to the mosque could have been injured.

Freedom of the press obliges the IDF to allow journalists to do their job. It does not oblige the IDF to change its conduct or its ways of reacting to the enemy, just because journalists may choose to be there as well.

This is exactly how the response of the "Journalists' Organization" (whose message I learned has become the "Journalists' and Journalists' Organization"), according to which "every force, operating in every area of ​​conflict, must maintain freedom of movement and coverage of the press, I do not know what lessons the journalists

'

organization expects the IDF to produce, but as an Israeli citizen, before I call on the IDF to maintain the freedom of movement and coverage of the press in a conflict zone, I call on him to do whatever it takes to defeat the enemy everywhere, and to do so while strictly guarding the lives of our soldiers.

Awkward idea

It is quite unfortunate that the first voices calling for an international inquiry came from the Israeli government.

On Wednesday it was Minister Issawi Farage.

The next day, Minister Nachman Shai joined him, when, in another unfortunate statement, he stated on the program of Guy Peleg and Nissim Mash'al on Radio 103 that "with all due respect, Israel's credibility is not the highest in such events."

The Israeli government must contemptuously reject such calls, whether they come from Israel or from the world, and explain that the story here is clear and simple.

We are in a battlefield, our soldiers are under fire, they return fire, and we fully back them up.

Every sensible person knows that a battlefield is a dangerous area.

If God forbid Itai Engel had been hit by Ukrainian fire while filming an article on the outskirts of Kyiv, no one would have set up an international commission of inquiry.

It was clear to everyone that this was an arena where the Russians and Ukrainians were shooting at each other, and whoever chose to walk around in this arena was risking his life.

"Israel's credibility is not the highest in such events," Nachman Shai (Photo: Reuven Castro)

The initiative for a joint Israeli-Palestinian investigation, although it was clear that it was a move aimed at reducing international pressure, was also a vague idea.

The Palestinian Authority is not our fellow army.

The Palestinian Authority is our enemy.

If any of the gunmen who shot at IDF fighters in Jenin hit and killed one of our soldiers, the Palestinian government would pay him for his work. war.

Under these circumstances, letting them participate with us in an investigation that will check whether the functioning of our fighters was proper or not, is perfect madness.

Anyway, why would it end here?

After all, tomorrow the Palestinians will ask to join the checkpoint of the policeman who shot a terrorist in the Old City.

What shall we tell them then?

That it was a one-time order?

A special operation for dead journalists?

The IDF does not need the Palestinians to conduct an investigation, and when it invites them to join, it puts itself in a maze that it is not known how it will come out of in the future.

Instead of showing weakness and insecurity, the Israeli government was reluctant to declare that the IDF is a reliable and professional army, and there is no need to attach to the tests it conducts anyone else, to convince that it is so. The Palestinian, Hussein a-Sheikh, also suggested that he, in two telephone conversations with him, investigate the incident together.

"Dear Minister," Lapid should have told him, great grandchild.

And every time they shoot at us there, we will respond with force.

And in any such incident, your citizens will know that their terrorist neighbors are endangering them.

The responsibility for their safety rests with you, not with us. "This was the practice of a foreign minister of a sovereign state, confident in himself and his soldiers. Similar to 19 Israelis who were recently murdered on purpose.

And on a personal level?

More than this week I was bothered by the question of whether the IDF soldiers hit Shirin Abu Akala, I was bothered by the pictures of Jews who were caught in a demonstration by Palestinian dignitaries on Wednesday in our capital, and hurried to remove Israeli flags from their cars, lest they be disturbed. Our defense establishment, which has invested so much energy in responding to the incident in Jenin, has not invested a quarter of them in finding a line of armed Arabs who shot at Jews in Lod but a year ago and roam free with their weapons to this day. Terrorism against Jews in Lod and Jerusalem has long been a strategic problem.

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