Israel-haters have alleged that an “Israeli settler” deliberately ran over two brothers in a hit and run.
And it is not just social media users. PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has branded it a “horrific crime,” Zakaria Fayala from the PA’s Jerusalem Governorate alleged that the driver deliberately sped up his car before striking the brothers, and Hanan Ashrawi tweeted the following:
Heck, the United States has joined a call for an investigation.
According to the PA’s WAFA news:
WAFA quoted their brother, Ahmad, stating that he headed along with his four brothers to Nablus, and on their way back home, their car had a flat tire and had to park on the side of the road to fix it before the speeding colonizer rammed them with his car and sped away.
He added that the area where they parked was open, away from traffic, and visible to incoming vehicles, but the colonizer, contrary to Israeli army allegations, deliberately went out of his way to ram them with his speeding car before fleeing the scene.
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“I saw what happened; it wasn’t a traffic accident, Ahmad added, “the colonizer saw us, went out of his way to ram us with his car, and sped away…” he said.
When I see these allegations, it is clear to me it is yet another libel. A supposed eyewitness who refers to a Jew as “a colonizer” is probably not going to be impartial or accurate. Besides, car ramming attacks is not our thing – it is a palestinian Arab thing. And when they have perpetrated such attacks, they have invariably claimed they were mere accidents.
This isn’t even the first time they have accused us of such attacks. They have even tried to pass off a palestinian Arab driver as a Jewish one!
So clearly I am cynical about their allegations in this case. Nevertheless, I do not rely on mere cynicism as proof.
Israeli police opened an investigation into the incident, and has assessed it was an accident. It appears the brothers’ vehicle’s lights were off while it was parked on the side of the dimly lit highway.
A further indication it was an accident comes from this video from a Telegram channel called The Islamic Movement – the occupied West Bank, which seems to show the Israeli’s damaged car (hat tip: Uri).
If it was a hit and run and the driver “sped away” as WAFA claims, the car would not be stationary on the side of the road (presumably at the scene of the accident). Furthermore, you can see it is heavily damaged – the driver could very well have been severely injured or worse in such a collision. It is highly unlikely he did it deliberately.
In other words, this seems very much to be yet another libel – and it is disgusting that the US is giving it any credence.
