France’s terror attacks- Is anyone benefiting from this tragedy?

As we all know, two terrible attacks took place in France within the past week.  The first attack was at the office of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo. Two gunmen killed twelve people that day. The next attack took place a few days later, at a kosher grocery store, in which four people lost their lives.

The criminals responsible for the attack at Charlie Hebdo were two brothers; Said and Cherif Kouachi. They are French citizens of Algerian descent. They killed ten civilians at the office, as well as two police officers. The second attack at the kosher grocery store was carried out by a man named Amedy Coulibaly, who has Senegalese roots. He killed four people inside of the grocery store and is believed to have murdered a female police officer before carrying out his deadly plan inside of the store. The Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly were apparently working together in carrying out both of these crimes.

The very first words we heard from the media in regard to the gunmen were, “Muslim terrorists”, or “Islamic jihadists”.  It’s become quite apparent that if someone who commits a crime just happens to be of the Islamic faith, his religion will always be mentioned, and usually it’s his religion that will take the blame. The Kouachi brothers were supposedly avenging the racist magazine’s depictions of the prophet Mohamad as well as other blasphemous cartoons regarding Islam.

When the gunmen open fired at the Charlie Hebdo office, we learned almost instantly that a police officer was shot at point blank range and left to die on the sidewalk. An important detail that wasn’t revealed until later on is that the police officer, Ahmed Merabet, was also a Muslim man of Algerian descent. He was killed while trying to defend the freedom of speech of individuals who published articles disrespecting and ridiculing his own religion. In the attack at the grocery store, it was a Muslim man who helped save the lives of many of the Jewish customers. Lassana Bathily, originally from Mali, was the clerk who risked his own life to save others by leading them to a walk-in freezer where they hid until the standoff between the police and the gunman was over. Ironically, upon escaping the store, French police automatically assumed Bathily was involved with the criminals, and handcuffed him for an hour and a half, as if he had committed a crime.

Many media outlets are referring to these attacks as the “worst terrorist attacks Europe has ever seen”. How easily they forget that just a few years ago in 2011, a Norwegian man, Anders Breivik, murdered 77 people. He used a car bomb to attack government buildings in Oslo, which resulted in eight people being killed, then went on to massacre sixty-nine more, mostly teenagers, at a summer camp. Does the media not consider this an act of terror? Is it because Breivik is a Christian and not a Muslim? I also don’t remember Christians having to publicly apologize for one of their own committing such a horrible act, while on the other hand, Muslims are expected to condemn each and every crime committed by a fellow Muslim. There also was no backlash on Christian places of worship after Breivik’s mass murder. In the days following the attack on Charlie Hebdo, two mosques in France were targeted by “criminals” who opened fire on the mosques. No one was killed or injured.

On Sunday, January 11th, an estimated one million French citizens as well as international leaders marched in unity against the terror attacks, and to support freedom of speech. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ironically, was at the front of the march. I say ironically, because I cannot think of any other word to describe how ridiculous it is that a man who ordered the ethnic cleansing of 2,139 Palestinians this past summer, could show his face at a peace rally. A man whose army is responsible for countless civilian deaths in the West Bank and ’48 territories. A man who does not allow freedom of speech or freedom of the press to Palestinians, marching for freedom of speech in France. In Gaza alone, seventeen journalists were killed by Israeli forces in 2014. The following are the names of the sixteen Palestinian journalists who were killed: Hamid Abdullah Shehab, Najla Mahmoud Haj, Khalid Hamad, Ziad Abdul Rahman Abu Hin, Ezzat Duheir, Bahauddin Gharib, Ahed Zaqqout, Ryan Rami, Sameh Al-Arian, Mohammed Daher, Abdullah Vhjan, Khaled Hamada Mqat, Shadi Hamdi Ayyad, Mohammed Nur al-Din al-Dairi, Ali Abu Afesh, and Abdullah fadel Murtaja. One Italian journalist was also killed; Simone Camille. I felt it was important to list the names of the murdered journalists, as they were real people, not just numbers. Killing journalists is a violation of international law, but then again, Israel is guilty of violating many international laws, always with impunity.

If freedom of speech is so important to the folks over at Charlie Hebdo, why is it that they fired one of their cartoonists, Siné, in 2008, after his remarks in which he referenced the fact that then President Sarkozy’s son was converting to Judaism in order to marry a woman who came from a very wealthy family? Siné wrote, “He’ll go far, this lad”. Shortly after this comment, he was fired from the magazine for anti-Semitism. If freedom of speech is so important to Netanyahu, why is it that his army and police open fire on peaceful protestors with live ammunition, tear gas, and the most disgusting creation ever known to man, skunk water? Two of my close family members were killed by Israeli forces while attempting to exercise this very important right of freedom of speech. My cousin Bassem Abu Rahma was killed on April 17th, 2009, when Israeli soldiers aimed a high velocity teargas canister directly at his chest. The incident was caught on camera, but no one was charged or convicted of the murder. On January 1st, 2011, Bassem’s sister, Jawaher Abu Rahma died of severe asphyxiation after attending a non-violent demonstration in which she was poisoned after inhaling massive amounts of tear gas. As in her brother’s case, justice was not served in Jawaher’s case either. Just a few months ago, Israel started their policy of arresting Palestinians in the ’48 territories who made anti-Israel posts on their social media accounts. Many Palestinian activists have been arrested for their Facebook posts, and are being charged with “incitement”.

On November 23, 2014, Benjamin Netanyahu made the following statement- “Recognition of a Palestinian state by France would be a grave mistake”. Seems like he is good at predicting the future. He might have a promising career as a psychic one day. Just yesterday, he made a public statement in which he calls for all of the Jewish people of France and Europe in general to “come home to Israel”. His exact words were “To all the Jews of France, all the Jews of Europe, I would like to say that Israel is not just the place in whose direction you pray, the state of Israel is your home. All Jews who want to immigrate to Israel will be welcomed here warmly and with open arms. We will help you in your absorption here in our state that is also your state”. So basically, these people of Europe who just happened to be born into the “right” faith have more rights to our land than we do? In reality, they would not be “returning” anywhere. They are from Europe, not the Middle East, so how can they possibly be returning? Since the creation of Israel in 1948, millions of Palestinians have been displaced. Why hasn’t Netanyahu extended his invitation to return to this land, to all of these Palestinian refugees as well? This is the only homeland Palestinians have ever known. It is our motherland. Furthermore, with these statements, we can see that Netanyahu is totally contradicting everything he has ever said regarding the safety of the Jewish citizens of Israel. Supposedly, the main reason for building the separation walls are to ensure the safety of the Jewish people, because they are in constant danger of being killed by Palestinians. So on one hand, Israelis are under constant threat, and on the other hand, Israel is the safest place in the world for all Jews. Netanyahu constantly changes his story according to how it will benefit him and the Zionists on that particular day.

It’s disgusting that Netanyahu is using the tragic events that occurred in France to his advantage. Just as Palestine is being recognized as a state in more countries around the world, and is about to join the International Criminal Court, he is desperately working to divert attention away from the illegal occupation and his war crimes. He went as far as to compare the French criminals with Hamas. The problem is, the men involved with the attacks in France were indeed criminals. They were in no way justified in their murder of innocent people. Hamas on the other hand, is a resistance group, only created in response to the brutal, illegal Israeli occupation. There is no comparison between the two. The court of the European Union recently ordered that Hamas be removed from their terror list. Netanyahu was not happy about that either.

While freedom of speech and freedom of the press are very important, I believe that there must be some kind of line that as journalists, we do not cross. Insulting people’s religion should be one of them. Racism is not freedom of speech. Racism is hateful speech. Hate only brings about more hate, which can ultimately lead to violence. It’s a vicious cycle that must end. It’s very unfortunate that seventeen French citizens had to lose their lives in such a manner. My condolences to all the families of those who were killed in both attacks.