Palestinians Commit Several War Crimes in Just a Few Hours. Instead of Reporting That, Reuters Publishes Gripping Tale of Glorious Palestinian Martyrdom (and We're Not Even Exaggerating About That...)
In the last 36 hours, Palestinian gunmen have committed the following war crimes (here and here):
(1) Occupied a place of worship and used it for military purposes
(2) Occupied a hospital and used it for military purposes
(3) Used civilian women as human shields in order to protect themselves and facilitate offensive and defensive military maneuvers
(4) Gotten one of their civilian human shields killed as they continued to trade fire with the IDF from within the mosque and from behind the women
Let's take a gander at how this is being reported by Reuters. Instead of writing what might be called "journalism", Shams Odeh chooses instead a less conventional, more literary approach. So instead of doing something boring like "reporting", Odeh transforms this tragic end to a Palestinian war crime into a kind of universal archetype. In his hands, this woman is not someone who walked in between Israeli soldiers on a battlefield and Palestinian gunmen hiding in a mosque. Rather, she becomes an exemplar of the eternal wanderer - someone traveling the tragic - but eternal - journey from trepid uncertainty to willing martyrdom.
Strictly on aesthetic grounds, we're going to reprint this whole thing. Chopping it up and inserting ellipses would be the equivalent of hacking off a limb from The David or removing a motion from The Fifth.
As they walked together down a deserted road towards the mosque, pressing themselves up against a high sandstone wall on their right, with Israeli troops off to their left, gunfire rang out from the Israeli positions. The women pushed on, walking faster and pressing closer together, chattering encouragement to one another as they went. More shots cracked overhead as the Israeli troops tried to force the women to turn back. Some did turn around, but others, the majority, pushed on.
Then, up ahead, where the front of the procession was advancing, several gunshots rang out from Israeli troops and one woman, dressed in a tan-brown hijab, fell to the ground.
The Israeli army said the women were being used as human shields and while it had identified shooting at armed men, it was looking into whether it had shot at the women.
Screaming and panicked, several of the woman's colleagues rushed to her side. As she lay motionless on the pavement, the cream veil covering her head fell away. A trickle and then a stream of blood emerged from under her body and ran into the drain at the side of the road. "Bring an ambulance! Bring an ambulance!" screamed the women, throwing their arms up in the air and wailing. Others grabbed one another and began to flee, then thought twice and turned back, determined to push on with their protest. Within seconds two ambulances were on the scene, and the woman, her limbs hanging lifeless, was bundled onto a stretcher. Another woman lay critically wounded nearby, one of seven wounded in all.
"World, where are you?" screamed a woman towards a television camera. "People are being killed. There are martyrs." Moments later, several women ran back down the road from the direction of the mosque, struggling to carry among them one of the wounded, a young woman in a black hijab, the bottom of her jeans showing beneath her garment. On the street, another woman held between her hands a patterned black headdress coated in blood. "Look! The brains of a woman of the resistance, splattered on her scarf. Look at it," she said, staring into a camera. At a nearby hospital, men who had heard of the protest waited to find out what had happened to their wives. "I urged my wife to join the other brave women who went to help end the siege of the hero fighters," said Khaled Faleh, a 34-year-old husband. He didn't know if she was still alive.
See what we mean? It's pure art.
At least it had better be art. Because if it's supposed to be informing readers about what happened then it's a miserable failure. Parts of it are typical weasel journalism. For instance: "the Israeli army said the women were being used as human shields": technically true, of course, since the Israeli army really did say that. And they said that because the women were being used as human shields. Walking in front of Palestinian gunmen so that Israeli soldiers can't fire back at the people who're firing at them - that's what the phrase "human shields" means. It's not like this is up for debate - the article literally describes them acting as human shields. It's the definition of the word. It's so obvious that just a couple paragraphs above he literally calls them that! Anyone want to bet as to whether that the first, objective use of "human shields" was dropped in by a nervous editor to balance the obviously weasely "the Israeli army said..." further below?
"The Israeli army said"... what an offensively dumb rhetorical figure. It's as if we rolled our bike out the door, got on top of the seat, and started peddling away. And then you said "well, Mere Rhetoric biked" - and some Reuters jagoff takes that and writes "Mere Rhetoric rolled their bike out the door, got on top of the seat, and started peddling away. Witnesses claimed that Mere Rhetoric biked". Well no kidding witnesses said that - because that's what it means to get on top of a bike seat and peddle away. But the implication that this is merely witness testimony rather than verifiable fact - while plausibly deniable by the reporter - is very, very, very typical intellectual dishonesty on the part of main -stream Middle East journalists.
But again, it's unfair to judge this journalistic wire report by what some might call "journalistic standards". It's like judging a Shakespeare by the standards of a biology textbook. As our high school English teacher used to say: that's not what the author is up to. This isn't supposed to be journalism. It's supposed to be dramatic - supposed to be art. To pull at your heartstrings. To win you over to the Palestinian cause through the example of this Christ-like woman, who accepts her death willingly in order to bring life to the Palestinian terrorists.
Let's break this down, yeah?
"Slowly at first, then with growing confidence" -- [it's a journey, you see - there is some very subtle form/content going on in this morality tale... not exactly "subtle", but morality tales rarely are - illustrating abstract virtue should work like a cudgel, not a scalpel]
"the crowd of Palestinian women" -- [what crowd of Palestinian women, the audience might ask... where did they come from... why are they here? Odeh starts off in classic literary form, dropping a little in media res on the audience. A little conventional, sure, but it works just fine for a morality tale where the figures are supposed to stand in for abstract virtues]
"The women, around four dozen of them, some elderly and some teenagers" -- [more intergenerational universalism - this is like Shakespeare, really... it really speaks to everyone]
"wearing traditional hijab gowns and coloured veils, approached the outer wall of the Gaza mosque" -- [at a minimum, that's five out of fifteen words invoking tradition and faith... this is actually kind of clever... it does three things: (1) it gives a little umpff to the implication that the Jews attacked not just the women but traditional Islam itself, (2) kind of tied to that, it lets the women stand in for Islam - their sacrifice and fortitude is a credit to the faith and (3) it establishes them as women of faith, as taking courage from their faith - typical morality tale stuff... oh - and don't worry if you didn't pick up this "traditional faith" theme right here in the first sentence of the article - it's reintroduced and reinforced exactly at the second of the woman's death, just in case you forgot it... again, subtlety is not what we're after here]
"were hoping to help the gunmen flee, or at least act as "human shields" and press for their release unharmed" -- [if this was an piece of "journalism", here is where you'd expect the author to add something like "or to give the Palestinian gunmen cover as they continued to shoot at the Israelis"... but again, it's unfair to ask Odeh to do that - writing great literature is about SELECTING details that help to paint the picture you want... it's perfectly alright for an author writing historical fiction to heighten some elements and ignore others]
"As they walked together down a deserted road towards the mosque, pressing themselves up against a high sandstone wall on their right, with Israeli troops off to their left, gunfire rang out" -- [The villains are dramatically introduced to the audience! They will try to break our protagonist's will!]
"The women pushed on, walking faster and pressing closer together, chattering encouragement to one another as they went. More shots cracked overhead as the Israeli troops tried to force the women to turn back. Some did turn around, but others, the majority, pushed on." -- [Ah ha! But now you see! Our protagonist has already come too far in her physical and spiritual journey! She is somewhere that the evil villains can't reach her, having achieved a kind of Socratic inner peace and fortitude... We believe that Odeh is in fact directly alluding to the Apology here - it's a risky gesture, and in the hands of a less skilled author it would come off as forced... but he pulls it off with aplomb]
"Then, up ahead, where the front of the procession was advancing, several gunshots rang out from Israeli troops and one woman, dressed in a tan-brown hijab, fell to the ground." -- [In case you forgot from all the way back in the first sentence, here's your reminder: MARTYR FOR THE FAITH]
"Screaming and panicked, several of the woman's colleagues rushed to her side. As she lay motionless on the pavement, the cream veil covering her head fell away. A trickle and then a stream of blood emerged from under her body and ran into the drain at the side of the road." -- [This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we refer to as "pathetic writing"... when the author tries too hard to make you feel a particular emotion, but it just seems overwrought because the author goes SO over the top with really heavy-handed imagery]
"Bring an ambulance! Bring an ambulance!" screamed the women, throwing their arms up in the air and wailing. Others grabbed one another and began to flee, then thought twice and turned back, determined to push on with their protest." -- [The others take strength from the martyr's example - though tragic, it was not a failed martyrdom... the audience of this little morality tale gets the message: they too must draw the appropriate lessons from her brave martyrdom, and continue to hide in mosques and take potshots and Israeli teenagers trying to root out missiles that are fired at their younger siblings' schoolhouses. Or something like that]
"Within seconds two ambulances were on the scene, and the woman, her limbs hanging lifeless, was bundled onto a stretcher. Another woman lay critically wounded nearby, one of seven wounded in all" -- [it's a good thing that this REPORTER took the time to REPORT that the DEAD woman's limbs were "hanging lifeless"... because we might have not figured out that she was LIFELESS from being DEAD - good reminder... you know what that is, ladies and gentlemen? It's EMPHASIS. The key to a effective writi - actually, it makes for crap writing... but it's the key to good propaganda]
""World, where are you?" screamed a woman towards a television camera. "People are being killed. There are martyrs." Moments later, several women ran back down the road from the direction of the mosque, struggling to carry among them one of the wounded, a young woman in a black hijab, the bottom of her jeans showing beneath her garment. On the street, another woman held between her hands a patterned black headdress coated in blood. "Look! The brains of a woman of the resistance, splattered on her scarf. Look at it," she said, staring into a camera." -- [Let's review: the woman was martyred alone in the world, just her and her faith... the other women, some of whom had been running away before, now take strength and run toward the mosque... also, the Palestinians have been abandoned by the world and need to be saved from the evil Israelis who kill and splatter brains... oh, and that's one, two, three references to traditional Muslim dress - because these women are women of faith, remember]
"At a nearby hospital, men who had heard of the protest waited to find out what had happened to their wives. "I urged my wife to join the other brave women who went to help end the siege of the hero fighters," said Khaled Faleh, a 34-year-old husband. He didn't know if she was still alive." -- [Reuters won't quote Israelis calling people who blow up school busses "terrorists" because that would tilt their coverage, but closing with a quote from Khaled Faleh that involves action verbs like "urge" and "join" and glorifying adjectives like "brave" and "hero" is apparently just fine. And notice that of all the things that he is, Khaled is described as a "husband". Just a normal person like you or us... remember, effective writing is about painting a picture through SELECTION of details... But Khaled is confused: because he sent his wife to go stand in between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen, and now he's faced with the possibility that this might have been dangerous!]
And that's the end of the short story. It leaves you hanging, so you can imagine different endings and then discuss how they would effect the meaning of the story. It's a nice touch. In fact, it's probably the only thing that could propel this clumsy, C+ propagandist screed into B- territory. Then again, it's a judgment call - that passage where the cream veil glides off the martyr's visage and blood drains from her body to replenish the land she died for was literally eye-roll inducing, and that's never good.
Listen, joking aside - this woman's death is tragic. We're not just saying that to backstop against charges of insensitivity. Civilians should stay and be kept out of wars - and not just as an a priori principle of just war. There's a sound empirical reason: wars fought army vs. army have a natural ending point - the destruction of one army by another. Wars fought population vs. population play out the same way, but our word for that is "genocide".
And you know what's going to keep throwing Palestinian civilian against Israeli civilian? Precisely this kind of utter garbage that Reuters just published. For all that we just mocked it, step back for a second and consider just how disgusting this article is. It is - from the first word to the last word - a literal celebration of civilians who act as human shields (a war crime) for gunmen who are being chased for launching missiles at Israeli civilians (a war crime), so that the gunmen can escape from the mosque that they fled to (a war crime). And it bears the imprimatur of one of the most important news outlets on the face of the planet.
Previously: Reuters Pretends That History Is What Reuters Would Like History To Be, Like Hezbollah, Hamas Uses Children As Human Shields, Palestinians Hide Bomb Under Baby, Prepare to Blame Israel Anyway, The Church of the Nativity: Palestinian Desecration of Holy Places / War Crimes
