Analysis //
Israel's Public Relations Machine Had a Very Bad Week
Israel’s made a mockery of itself this week in Jericho and in its ongoing war with the Palestinian Tamimi family
Tamimi's 'admission'
Israel’s making a mockery of itself in the Tamimi affair and it is no less worrying than what happened in Jericho. Since
17-year-old Ahed Tamimi was filmed hitting, kicking and slapping two soldiers from the Givati Brigade, it seems the Israeli defense and legal establishments are sinking into the mud of a petty and excessive campaign of revenge against the entire family. This reached a new height this week when the Coordinator of the Government’s Activities in the Territories (or COGAT) released an absurd claim according to which 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi, Ahed’s cousin, was not injured by a sponge-tipped bullet that hit him in the head, but rather by a bicycle accident.
The Tamimi family is a bitter enemy of Israel in the propaganda war being fought in the territories. It is reasonable to assume that a large part of the incidents in which the Tamimis are involved were initiated by them as part of this battle. Yet, it would have been better if those in charge would have reined in the system a bit. The decision of the Givati company commander – and outstanding officer marked for promotion – to withdraw and end contact with the women attacking them in the filmed incident with Ahed Tamimi and not to confront them, was seen in the military and some of the media as a superfluous humiliation from the minute the clip was released.
This quickly led to the overreaction: The night-time arrest of Ahed Tamimi, the insistence on arresting other relatives, including her cousin – despite his injuries – and most of all holding her in detention for two months so far.
The Tamimi family is a bitter enemy of Israel in the propaganda war being fought in the territories. It is reasonable to assume that a large part of the incidents in which the Tamimis are involved were initiated by them as part of this battle. Yet, it would have been better if those in charge would have reined in the system a bit. The decision of the Givati company commander – and outstanding officer marked for promotion – to withdraw and end contact with the women attacking them in the filmed incident with Ahed Tamimi and not to confront them, was seen in the military and some of the media as a superfluous humiliation from the minute the clip was released.
This quickly led to the overreaction: The night-time arrest of Ahed Tamimi, the insistence on arresting other relatives, including her cousin – despite his injuries – and most of all holding her in detention for two months so far.
Israel may think it is teaching the Tamimi family a lesson, but as it became clear this week – the longer the story takes, the more damage it causes mainly to itself.
Israel's public relations machine had a very bad week - Israel News -…