Sir, - Decades ago, there was a play on Broadway called "I am a Camera" which merited the brief comment by a non-appreciative critic, "No Leika!" I completely endorse that critical appraisal when applied to the title of the article published on Monday about a video taken by B'Tselem : "We have video footage showing settlers shooting at stone-throwing Palestinians."
The most fitting comments about videos of this type, is that they can be deceptive, sometimes fraudulent, and often maliciously treacherous. A video that focuses on a particular scene, action, or moment, depicts an event 'frozen' in the present without providing any real understanding or insight to what preceded the events shown.
B'Tselem, that purports to be an organization concerned with fairness and human rights, seems to constantly deny those rights to Jewish settlers, and always describes events based on Palestinian accusations without any evidence to support their narrative. Frankly, based on the history of Yitzhar and the atrocities they have suffered at the hands of their Palestinian neighbors, I totally accept their version of acting in self defense. If in fact, the settler fields were set on fire, and they came to the defense of their lives and property, and then were attacked my murderous Palestinian stone-throwers, a judicial appraisal of the situation would have concluded that the stone throwers perhaps, got off too easy.
ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petach Tikva
