It seems that America turning its attention to its own inner turmoil is another way for some Palestinians to play upon American emotion in an attempt to garner more support for themselves.
Ferguson, Missouri has been in the news lately due to the shooting of a black youth by a white police officer. A shooting that has the whole community speaking up in outrage.
This has been the lead story on many local news broadcasts both in the US and Canada.
Not to be outdone, Palestinian photographer/”journalist” Hamde Adu Rahma has gotten himself in front of the camera to try to bring Americans to his side, by claiming the shooting of a black youth by a white officer is the same thing that Palestinians are facing.
What Hamde conveniently forgets to mention are the thousands of rockets raining down on Israel, fired by Hamas. He also seems to forget that this very same terrorist group are very present and active in Judea and Samaria too (the “West Bank”), where he lives and works taking pictures of protest demonstrations around Bi’lin.
If this American youth had also been committing all of these against the US, then perhaps a comparison could be drawn.
It is tiring to see how everyone else’s struggle always has to be eclipsed or hijacked in this way.
Perhaps Mr. Abu Rahma is concerned that the cameras are not currently on him and so he needed to get himself out there again? Either way, these publicity games are getting old…and honestly, are an insult to the struggles that others in the world face. To claim the only reason Palestinians are arrested, shot, etc is due to their ethnicity is alarmingly false and disrespects people who are actually suffering solely due to their ethnicity.
By posting this photo, Hamde is adding one more piece in the already suffocating pile of misleading propaganda designed to distract from the very real issues at hand. Shameless displays such as this do nothing to promote dialogue and cooperation and compromise that is needed for peace.
When Palestinians will commit to truthfully presenting their story, needs and complaints without resorting to propaganda designed to manipulate the minds and emotions of the viewing public, I will have much greater hope to see an end to the ongoing violence between them and Israel. As long as the parade of nonsense continues, one cannot expect anything to improve.
