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Sunday, March 13, 2011

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words

Since late last night, the Israeli media has been reporting that the government is wrestling with the decision of whether to release photographs of the terror scene (including those of the victims) to the international media.

Under normal circumstances this is not done; not just out of respect for the victims, but because it is feared that it plays to the basest desires of those for whom the sight of dead Jews is not necessarily a bad thing.

However, there are a growing number of people (in and out of government) who feel that if left to the various media outlets to carefully chose their own words to describe terror attacks, the reality and horror of these events is largely lost in the translation (which is likely the goal of carefully crafted reporting).

I should point out that of all the terror attacks against Israeli targets that were reported in the International media when I was a kid... none is more vividly etched in my memory than the Munich massacre of the Israeli Olympic team by Palestinian terrorists.  This is because the international press were given bloody photos of the scene... and of the victims.

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.

No official decision has yet been made by the government, but apparently the Fogel family (what remains of it, anyway) has co-opted the decision makers and made a decision of its own.  They have released several EXTREMELY GRAPHIC photos that were taken of some of the victims as they were found by security and medical personnel.

Here is what has been published:

Photos of the murder of the Fogel family in the town of Itamar, north of Jerusalem, on March 11, 2011 by Arab terrorists.

WARNING: THESE PHOTOS ARE EXTREMELY GRAPHIC AND NOT INTENDED FOR CHILDREN.

These photos were released by the family. They have given full permission for their use in order to report on the horrific reality of murdering children and babies in their sleep, "simply because they are Jewish."

I post this link for the benefit of those who find it convenient to draw moral equivalency between the act of living peacefully on disputed land, and the wanton slaughter of innocent children in their beds.

Link to photos here.  Click at your own risk.

Posted by David Bogner on March 13, 2011 | Permalink

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By the following I have no intent whatsoever to criticize the decision of the family. Whatever they decide to do, I respect and support without reservation. But since I am German and Munich is very vivid in my memory let me add this.

Of Munich only the foto of the hooded terrorist on the balcony is stuck in my memory, the rest is remembered in words and phantasized images. I am in favour of words and the picture of the peacefully sleeping baby is the one that I'll undoubtedly remember. That and the imagined picture of a manstabbing and/or slashing while looking at that face.

As best I remember in 1972 in Germany photos of killed people weren't yet shown and I am all for reviving that habit. Nothing frightens as much as the Unknown and fear of the Unknown is best evoked by language combined with fotos of the living.

I don't criticize the decision

Posted by: Silke | Mar 13, 2011 1:09:56 PM

Silke... You are correct. they didn't show the actual bodies. But the newspapers and magazines of the day showed photos of the althletes juxtiposed by photos of the bloodstained rooms in the ahtletes village. The hooded terrorist on the balcony is an iconic one. But it is as heroic a pose to some as it is chilling to others.

Posted by: treppenwitz | Mar 13, 2011 1:18:40 PM

The photos are all over Facebook at this point. I applaud the family for publishing these--- it's about time the world sees what living next door to our "peace partners" really means, why we need a security fence/wall, and why we need defined borders, and why any piece of paper alleging to be a peace agreement is pretty worthless when Palestinian racism, hate and glorification of murder is the rule of the day.

Posted by: aliyah06 | Mar 13, 2011 1:36:51 PM

All I can do is cry. Who could want the world to be like this? The world has been robbed of these beautiful people. It is the worst kind of crime.

Posted by: Alice | Mar 13, 2011 2:38:50 PM

Rachel is surely weeping for her children. I weep with her.

Posted by: Maureen | Mar 14, 2011 4:18:45 AM

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