Levi attempts to deceive his readers regarding the motive of the Palestinian terrorist who killed three Israelis last Friday night. Mida’s exclusive translation of the Facebook suicide note left by the terrorist illustrates a clash between narrative and reality.
In a recent op-ed in the left wing newspaper Ha’aretz, Gideon Levi called on all ‘honest Israelis’ to read the Facebook suicide note of the Palestinian who brutally stabbed three Israelis to death last Friday night as they were eating the Sabbath dinner.
Levi hopes that Israelis who read this facebook suicide note will gain a better understanding of the reality the Palestinians live in and the issues that drive them to violence. If Levi’s desire for both israelis and Palestinians to understand the other was genuine, that would be a praiseworthy aspiration, and his call to Israelis to understand the Palestinians should be taken seriously. Yet, Levi has a certain narrative that he has forced down the throats of Israelis and readers abroad for years, blaming Israelis for Palestinian violence and terror, be it because of Israelis living in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), IDF military operations, or any Israeli policy that upsets the Palestinians. And here, with the latest terror attack, Levi once again attempts to pump that narrative, convinced of its truth, even though in the process he is forced to bend and twist the words of the Palestinians themselves.
One example is that Levi says that the terrorist – Omar Al-Abed – wanted to kill ‘settlers’ (i.e., Jews living in Judea and Samaria). However, in the Facebook post (full translation at the end of the article) that Al-Abed wrote prior to the attack, settlers are never mentioned. Instead the terrorist mentions killing ‘Jews’ (in general) while using the ancient Muslim slur calling the Jews ‘monkeys and pigs’.
Levi also asserts that the terrorist acted as a result of ‘the magno-meters placed on the Temple Mount’, ‘the killing and torturing of Palestinians’, and ‘the destruction of Palestinian property and arrests’. This leads the reader to believe that the terrorist had a list of grievances, and his actions were an outcome of these feelings which could no longer be suppressed. Thus, the current terrorist is not a religious fanatic who decides to kill Jews one morning, he is a calculated person, with a deep political understanding. Yet in reality, none of these accusations are mentioned in the Facebook post, Al-Abed simply says that the motivation for the attack was that the “Al Aqsa mosque was closed to the Muslims.” Furthermore, this supposedly intelligent person, is a 19 year old who writes a will or suicide note with spelling mistakes, smiley faces, and hearts.
Needless to say, the reports accusing Israel of ‘closing’ the Al Aqsa Mosque to Muslims were completely false. The purpose of these media reports, happily disseminated by Al Jazeera, Arab MKs, the Palestinian Authority and other media sites, was to incite and instigate young Palestinians to violence and terror. Israeli security officials at the entrance to the Temple Mount actually tried to convince young Muslims to enter the compound to pray, yet they refused. The video below, from the international Arab TV station Al-Arabiyah depicts this refusal. To make things worse, Arab reporters who reported that Israel was permitting Muslims to pray in the Al Aqsa mosque were criticized of being treasonous. For example, Ziad Halabi, a Palestinian nationalist, reporting live of Israel’s efforts to convince young Palestinians to enter the Temple Mount to pray, was the subject of a flood of curses and threats from the Arab media claiming that he had “lied and distorted reality.”
Removing Levi’s Mask
Levi shows much sympathy for the brutal murder last Friday night because he believes wholeheartedly that the Palestinians are fighting a just war to liberate their people against the Zionist occupiers who have desecrated the holy sites of Islam and stolen their historic homeland.
Nonetheless, Levi employs a double standard, because Palestinians aren’t the only ones who have committed terror attacks in the name of a just war against an enemy. Israelis have also committed such acts of terror, but there, Levi applies a different standard.
In 1990, Ami Popper killed seven Palestinian workers in central Israel. During his trial, he said that he committed the act of terror since Arabs humiliated and raped him when he was young. Popper remarked, “I felt like I had to do something to finish this nightmare. Every night I hear them laughing at me.”
Baruch Goldstein, a doctor who treated hundreds of terror victims, killed 29 Palestinians who were praying at the Cave of the Patriarchs after his close friend Mordechai Lapid and his son Shalom were murdered by Palestinian terrorists. Goldstein also committed the act of terror because he felt humiliated and weak, and because the Muslims were desecrating the Jewish holy sites in Hebron. He, too, felt that he was fighting a just war against the Arab conquest of Israel’s historic homeland.
The question arises: Why does Levi praise the Palestinian terrorist who writes “I will ascend to the Garden of Eden with the mercy of Allah” (from Al-Abed’s Facebook post), yet expresses disgust for “give me a portion in the Garden of Eden, and merit me to the world hidden for the righteous” which was part of Goldstein’s will. Would Levi contemplate publishing an article praising Goldstein’s statement of intent? Would he agree that everyone who considers himself to be a freedom fighter is an actual freedom fighter? Of course not.
Instead, Levi needs to be exposed for what he is: a passionate Palestinian nationalist, who is even more radical than many Palestinians. He could care less about human rights or his purported worry for the future of Israeli society. Levi and his Palestinian friends, who support terror attacks and radicalize young people like Omer el-Abed, do not contribute one bit to coexistence or calming the tensions between Palestinians and Israelis. It’s the opposite. Levi’s hate filled articles encourage the bloodthirstiness of young Palestinians and give their actions moral legitimacy instead of fighting relentlessly against them and those who support such acts.
Levi and his radical Palestinian collaborators, who are part of an industry that glorifies terrorists, do not care about compromises, peace, or mutual understanding. They are part of a radical group in Palestinian society which aspire to establish another Arab-Islamic state on the ruins of the Jewish state.
This is why Levi doesn’t address the Palestinian incitement to violence on TV, social media and Palestinian culture in general, as the vehicle which provokes these terror attacks. Imagine if Israeli politicians, TV shows, and newspapers constantly derided Palestinians as subhumans and dirty creatures? Would it be any surprise if Israelis would then go out and murder Palestinians? But for Levi, it’s the Jews living in Judea and Samaria and the so called ‘military occupation’ who are responsible for the Palestinian conflict.
One Blood, One Enemy, One Al Aqsa
Finally, here is the translation of Omer Al-Abed’s Facebook suicide note.
“My will to you (In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.)
The prayer and peace upon the most honorable of creations, his messenger Mohammed, may the prayer and peace of his god be upon him. Please read my last words. I am young boy who has not reached the age of twenty. I had dreams and many aspirations. I believed that with the help of Allah all of my dreams would be materialized, I loved life and I loved to make people smile, but what kind of life is this? Our women and our young ones are being killed having committed no crime. And they [the Jews] are dirtying Al Aqsa, the site of our beloved Mohammed’s night journey, and we are sleeping. Is this is not an embarrassment?
Is it not an embarrassment that we are sitting here in silence? You (Arabs) whose weapons only make noise, you that use your weapons only at weddings (editors note: there is an Arab tradition to shoot in the air at weddings), are you not embarrassed by your actions? They have declared war against allah, are you not indebted to Allah? They have closed our Al Aqsa, and your weapon has not responded. All I have is a sharp knife, he will answer the call of our Al Aqsa. An embarrassment upon ourselves and you that are creating internal strife, Allah should take revenge on you and hold you accountable,isn’t it enough that we are the sons of Palestine and Al Aqsa.
Behold sons of the monkeys and the pigs! If you don’t open up the gates of Al Aqsa I hope that men will come out after me and smite you with an iron hand. I am warning you, I know that I am going there and will not return here, but rather to the Garden of Eden with the mercy of Allah. How good is death and sacrifice for the sake of Allah and his messenger, and the place of his messenger’s night journey. I ask your forgiveness, my last breaths are numbered. My mother, father and sisters, you will suffer after my death, please forgive me, I am going to the Garden of Eden. There is my house. I will drink from the Alkutar river, from the hands of God. I don’t want anything beyond that, so forgive me. I am saying my will, and I will judge opposite Allah those who do not fulfill it.
My family, I trust you. Muslims, place on my head a thread of Al-Kassam and on my chest a thread of Abu-Ammar (Arafat). Put those with me in the grave. I know what I am going to say, and I am excited for my meeting with God. I request of you, don’t mourn for me, play songs and just remember me and have mercy on me. I ask of you, unite together, all of us as one, we have one blood, one enemy, and one Al Aqsa. Why should we have these foolish arguments amongst us. Your brother, with the help of Allah, will be a shaheed. Omar el-Abed (Abu Eyn) peace of Allah upon you.”
Roni Bialer is the Director of Hikma, a school for Arabic language and researches Arab media.
