The palestinian Ma’an News Agency has published photos of what it claims is a checkpoint stalling Palestinian firefighters, presumably on the way to assist Israel with extinguishing the Carmel fire.
The implication is clear: such is Israel’s brutality towards the palestinians that even when the latter are on their way to assist us, we still insist on subjecting them to demeaning and cruel treatment. By extrapolation, one could conclude there is no method to the madness of checkpoints beyond simple cruelty.
However, what is clearly missing from these photos is the context. Yes, we seem to see a firetruck going through what looks like a checkpoint, but:
- We are not made aware of the fact that in the past, terrorists have made use of ambulances to smuggle weapons and terrorists, which is pertinent when considering whether Israel is justified in stopping a palestinian fire truck for what might be a routine search
- We don’t know how long the fire truck was at the checkpoint. For all we know, the whole process may have lasted 2 minutes.
- We don’t know what exactly transpired at the checkpoint. For all we know, the Israeli soldiers assisted the palestinian firemen in loading equipment.
The lack of this contextual information renders the photos rather useless as “proof” of Israeli cruelty, but rather compelling evidence of Ma’an’s agenda.
