Green-Lined: How the double standard Is applied

The weekly Bilin fence protests have just picked up some major support.  Here's a quote taken from a quite sympathetic New York Times report:

The protesters chant and shout and, inevitably, a few throw stones. Then just as inevitably, the soldiers open fire with tear gas and water jets, lately including a putrid oil-based liquid that makes the entire area stink. It is one of the longest-running and best organized protest operations in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it has turned this once anonymous farming village into a symbol of Palestinian civil disobedience, a model that many supporters of the Palestinian cause would like to see spread and prosper."

I would take issue with that characterization.  Only "a few" throw stones? Need it be inevitable that stones be thrown? Why initiate such violence? Stone-throwing constitutes neither "peaceful protest" nor civil disobedience - stone-throwing is violence.

But, of course, if retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu compares it to Gandhi's nonviolent struggle in India, to Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, and declares, as he does in that article, that "people here in Bilin are leading a nonviolent struggle," then maybe the New York Times understandably got a bit mixed up.

But does the Times take a moment to consider that perhaps stone-throwing is but practice and preparation for tossing firebombs and grenades, and that that is what is truly inevitable? 

Or that stones kill, as in the case of my neighbor, 5-month old Yehuda Shoham, who died of extreme contusion and concussion caused by a rock thrown at the window of his parents' car in June 2001?

Indeed, just a few days later we read that an Arab teenager was shot in a clash and died.  But was he throwing stones?

No.

"IDF soldiers shot a Palestinian man dead and lightly wounded a second after the pair threw firebombs at homes in Beit-El, north of Ramallah, on Friday evening. "

Sorry, that was in April. Here is this week's story:

"The Israeli military said the boy was one of three attackers who on Monday night hurled Molotov cocktails at a guard post near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank."

And it would be quite interesting to seek out previous reports on the haredi demonstrations recently in Jerusalem to review and compare the terminology and characterization.

Just one more point. The Jerusalem Post reports:

"Arab educators expressed outrage Monday at Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar's intention to remove the phrase 'nakba' from textbooks in the Arab education system, and threatened civil disobedience if the ministry follows through on its decision...."

Civil disobedience? Will they be throwing stones?