Soccer Dad

Revisiting a schoolyard killing

Earlier (here and here) I discussed the killing of Norhan Deeb. I thought the case was settled when the Jerusalem Post reported that a Palesitnian had been arrested for her murder. I even wrote to the ombudsman of the NY Times asking why the Times hadn't reproted it. The ombudsman got back to me and informed me that no one had been arrested.
Backspin has now linked to a very good article in the St Petersburg Times that examines the circumstances surrounding the girl's death. One of my early takes on the shooting was that the Israeli troops were too far away to have shot the girl. (Different accounts place the Israeli position as 600, 800 or 900 yards away. And Reuters reported that the soldiers weren't even in a position to see into the school yard.)
I think that these four paragraphs tell the story:

Yael Hartmann, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces, said the IDF never received any information that a Palestinian had been arrested. However, she added, the army is convinced Norhan's death was caused by Palestinian gunfire.

"There is no possible way it could have come from a bullet of ours," Hartmann told the Times.

The nearest Israeli outpost to the school is 900 meters away (some 2,950 feet) but the maximum range of bullets used in the soldiers' M-16 rifles is 350 meters, Hartmann said. According to the soldiers' log books, no Israeli troops were shooting in the area around the time of Norhan's death, she said.

Hartmann said the Palestinian Authority did not respond to an IDF request to help investigate Norhan's death.

The Israelis were not in range to kill Norhan Deeb even if they wanted to. It was physically impossible. The Palestinians had not desire to solve the murder because the myth was more important than the truth. (Just as it was with Mohammed al-Dura.) I wish that the Times would follow up like the St Petersburg Times did. I believe that the balance of the evidence supports the Israeli version and it behooves media to be at least as skeptical of Palestinian myths as they are of Israeli intentions. Short of an arrest by the Palestinians, I don't expect that the NY Times will have much further use for the story.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at February 15, 2005 12:58 AM | TrackBack