Munib Masri did not throw a refrigerator
May 20th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Munib Masri, prior to being shot in the back
A curious article on the English language website of the Israel Defense Forces, entitled “A conversation with soldiers who stopped Nakba events”, begins with the following summary—in bold—of Nakba Day protests near Ramallah:
Throwing televisions, refrigerators, large stones, burning tires and more, Palestinian protestors didn’t hold rioting against IDF forces in the events of Nakba Day. Four combat soldiers and one officer in a special unit stationed in the area tell the story of what it all looked like up close”.
The placement of the term “didn’t” in the first sentence would suggest that, even though Palestinian protesters were allegedly throwing the various items listed, they were not in fact rioting. What exactly happened becomes even more unclear in the body of the article when one of the soldiers announces:
We didn’t have refrigerators thrown at us.”
Another soldier meanwhile adds:
Yesterday they used objects I’ve never seen. Slingshots with marbles, for example.”
As for other novel sorts of projectiles that might also astound naïve members of IDF elite units, these include the IDF bullet that hit 23-year-old American University of Beirut student Munib Masri in the back during the Nakba Day protest at the Lebanese border with Israel.
To borrow the words of another soldier in the elite Ramallah unit:
That’s the idea, to be restrained. The mission isn’t to kill. It’s the exact opposite – that people will come out alive.”
