Nina Butler, The Con
There has been a Hebrew
Facebook page circulating that demands the murder of one Palestinian every hour
that the three Israeli teenagers, who disappeared on June 12 while hitchhiking
late at night in the West Bank, are missing. The dead bodies of the three teens
were found two nights ago near Hebron. Although evidence is yet to be
publically released, the Israeli government claims that Hamas is responsible,
and it would seem as though the Israeli military is set on carrying out the
desire of the 20 000-plus facebookers who ‘liked’ this page. The social media
page is premised upon the assumption that ‘Palestinians’ (the entire populace) are
behind this, and so has been the Israeli Defence Forces’ campaign of collective
punishment – Operation Brother’s Keeper – over the past 18 days that has
resulted in the imprisonment of more than 500 Palestinians, the death of six
mostly male youths of the same age as the missing Israeli teens, and the
destruction and invasion of more than 1 000 homes, offices and buildings. Now
that the inexcusable and disgraceful crime of the abduction and killing of
three Israeli lives has come to a head, all indications are that the
‘operation’ of collective punishment will evolve into a large-scale mission in
multiple forms of vengeance – aimed at harming yet more innocent young lives.
