Gun culture of Palestinians is a concern

Another Palestinian teenager was shot to death last weekend. You didn’t hear about the latest killing? Maybe that’s because she was shot by Palestinians, not by Israelis. That kind of news, it seems, is not fit to print.

Ilaa al-Araj, age 16, was shot in the head by gunfire that erupted during a wedding in Balata, in Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled territory. 

Palestinian Arabs bring their shotguns to weddings because it is a staple of their culture to fire guns in celebration on such occasions. It’s a “common practice,” according to the Palestinian news agency Ma’an. In 2006, Ma’an recalled, three young Arab girls were killed by such gunfire at a wedding in the PA city of Jenin.

Jews like to use noisemakers and musical instruments to express their joy at weddings.

The Boston Globe didn’t consider Ilaa’s death newsworthy. Nor, for that matter, did the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post or, it seems, any major American daily newspaper.

Why the silence?

For editors who are hostile to Israel, it’s a non-story. Can’t blame the Israelis, no point in reporting it. As one editor told me, “a dog biting a man is not news.” It’s the same reason that American newspapers almost never report on so-called “honor killings”—when Palestinian Muslims murder their female relatives on suspicion that the women violated some Islamic moral stricture (such as speaking to men). 

For editors who want to make the Palestinians look good—so that Americans will sympathize with their cause—the story is a problem. It makes Palestinians look violent and reckless. These editors want Americans to think that the Palestinians are “just like us.” Acknowledging cultural differences might undermine that agenda.

For anyone concerned about Israel, however, the death of Ilaa al-Araj should be big news. In addition to the natural humanitarian sympathy we all feel any time an innocent person loses his or her life—especially at such a young age—there is also a powerful, life-and-death lesson for Israel.