Only Palestinians are 'martyrs'

I will open with greetings for the State of Israel and the Jewish people, whom I view as true friends. As a writer and journalist from Kuwait, who is following the current wave of Palestinian knife and rock terrorism and Palestinian crimes against IDF soldiers and innocent Israelis, I can only express my support for every civilian and military action the free and independent State of Israel takes for the legitimate defense of the lives of its citizens and its land.

I am baffled by the international community's silence in the face of the crimes committed by Palestinian terrorists against the Israeli people. I am equally baffled by the international community's outcry against Israel's legal right to defend itself and its soldiers and against Israel's legitimate right to live and stand strong.

The Arab media has become afflicted with stupidity and delusion and has lost its ability make true distinctions. The words "wisdom" and "reason" are no longer part of its lexicon. It has become debased and mentally challenged. It considers the victims of battles in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, etc. "casualties," whereas the Palestinian terrorists killed in the Gaza Strip or in the West Bank are dubbed "shahids" (martyrs). This same media, which is biased in favor of a group of people called "Palestinians," neglects every human, Arab, or Muslim issue and associates shahada (a martyr's death in the name of belief) with them only.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims are killed worldwide every day in wars and internal conflicts -- in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, the Philippines, China, and Nepal -- but the defective Arab media does not refer to any one of the casualties by name or the title "shahid." Only when a Palestinian is killed, be it in battle or in a car accident or in a fight or when celebratory gunshots are fired at a wedding, does the Arab media applaud him and give him, falsely and deceptively, the name "shahid."

Why, when Palestinian terrorists and murderers holding knives and rocks are killed by Israeli soldiers, who are forced to open fire in cases of legitimate self-defense, do these debased Arab media outlets twist the truth and call the Palestinian terrorists "shahids"? By what right did they earn that exalted rank, while being murderous terrorists and criminals? The accursed Arab media outlets that warp and make things up, glorify the murderers and terrorists as well as Palestinian crimes, and give them, exclusively, the title "shahid."

Finally, it is not easy for an Arab writer to express views in the Hebrew media, so I would like to thank Dr. Edy Cohen from the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, who helped me express what I had to say.

Abdullah al-Hadlaq is a Kuwaiti writer and journalist who writes a column for Al-Watan newspaper.


http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=14795