Palestinian Authority Spreads Dishonest Reports Following Stabbing Attack
By Michael Zeff, TPS
Following a stabbing attack against IDF soldiers in Hebron, at around 12:00 PM on Thursday, October 29, the Fatah social media department began spreading claims that the knife was in fact planted on the perpetrator.
The Palestinian, identified as 19-year-old Farouk Sidr from Hebron, attempted to stab a soldier near the Beit Hadassah Jewish neighborhood in the city. Sidr was shot and killed during the attack.
Farouk Sidr is the cousin of Basel Sidr, who committed a stabbing attack near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem on October 14. An MSNBC reporter, Ayman Mohyeldin, claimed that Basel was unarmed in the Damascus Gate incident, despite the knife being visible in the footage shown by the studio anchorman.
Immediately following Farouk Sidr’s stabbing attack, Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling party of the Palestinian Authority (PA), tweeted a photo with the English text “Find the knife & you will know who the terrorist is.”
The PA tweet and its subsequent social media shares allege that Sidr was shot by IDF soldiers in malice and the knife was only later planted near his body. The text in Arabic asks “where is the knife?”
However, TPS (Tazpit Press Service) footage directly from the scene has shown that the knife was clutched firmly by Sdir as he was shot. A TPS cameraman on the scene verified that the attacker was indeed armed and that the knife was not placed near his body by IDF soldiers, but rather pulled out of his hand.
The Palestinian news agency Ma’an described the stabbing attack as “alleged” in an article in English and cited witnesses at the scene who claimed the IDF soldiers shot an unarmed Palestinian and later planted the knife near his body.
The Palestinian news agency later updated their article admitting that “Ma’an could not verify claims that a knife was planted at the scene.”
This is the most recent example of Palestinian Authority bodies claiming that IDF and Israeli police allegedly plant knives on unarmed Palestinians in order to justify their death.
On October 17, Fadel al-Kawasmeh, 18, was shot dead in Hebron by an Israeli man he was attempting to stab. Following the incident, Al-Jazeera reported the Palestinian claim that “Kawasmeh was assassinated by the settler.”
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the PA has begun documenting Israeli “summary executions” and “incitement” in order to file a complaint against Israel with the International Criminal Court.
The ministry claimed that al-Kawasmeh “was an innocent man who had been executed in cold blood,” and accused IDF soldiers of placing a knife near his body after he was shot “to make it look as if this crime was an act of self-defense.”
