The woman killed by a kassam rocket fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the terrorist group that Sami al-Arian was convicted of raising money for, has a name: Shuli Katz.
She leaves behind her 90-year-old mother. Her mother is in a retirement home.
She leaves behind four children. One of them, her son, was with her during the attack, and probably saw her die.
She leaves behind five grandchildren. None of them will see their bubbe again.
None of these facts will find their way into the AP, Reuters, or AFP stories about Shuli’s death. The AP finally updated its story, but the focus is still on the Hamas truce demands. And they still have Katz’s age wrong, and no name, nor quotes from family, nor even circumstances of her death. From Ynet, with an update time of 00:33 Israel time (17:33 Eastern time):
Qassams claim another victim: Shuli Katz, a 70-year-old resident of Kibbutz Gvaram was killed early Monday evening from a Palestinian Qassam rocket which crashed into the backyard of a residential home in Yesha – a small community belonging to the Eshkol Regional Council.
A widow, Katz is survived by four children, five grandchildren and her 90-year-old mother, who lives in a retirement home.
She sustained critical injuries from the impact and MDA paramedics alerted to the scene fought to resuscitate for some time before ultimately calling the time of death. Medics also treated a 50-year-old man for shock.
It doesn’t say if the 50-year-old man is Shuli’s son. But note the time: 5:33 p.m. Eastern standard time. Now look at the AP lede, with a timestamp of 6:10 p.m. Eastern standard time.
A rocket fired by Palestinian militants killed a 75-year-old Israeli woman Monday, just as an Egyptian mediator was winding up truce talks in Israel – underlining both the urgency and complexity of working out a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
The rocket hit a house in the village of Yesha, about four miles from the Gaza Strip. As recently as Friday, a fatal rocket attack drew reprisal Israeli airstrikes that killed five Palestinians in Gaza.
That’s it. No name, nothing about the survivors—all information that Israeli reporters managed to get. Compare this with the reports of Palestinian civilian casualties. Two weeks ago, the news was filled with stories about the Palestinian family that was killed “while eating breakfast” by a supposed Israeli tank shell. (It was subsequentlly shown to be the explosives on terrorists hiding outside the house.
And if the media do acknowledge Israeli victims, you usually get the terms “settlers” or “ultra-Orthodox” appended to the victims.
Welcome to Israeli Double Standard Time. It occurs on days that end with a “y.”
Shuli was not just another name to me. For over 10 years I served as a volunteer dentist on Kibbutz Gvaram, coming over to Eretz for a month at a time. She was the nurse in the medical 1/2 of the clinic. She was a gentle, compassionate, dedicated nurse whose kindness enveloped everyone. What did she do to deserve this, only that she was a Jew? The Palestinians must be made to pay a price for this and their other atrocities. It was predicted that this would happen when the settlers were removed in 2005 from Gush Katif but those who were intent on trading land for peace have now substituted innocent lives into the equation. When oh when will the world learn that there is no trusting an Arab?