Posted on 10/05/2003 8:10:06 AM PDT by Dallas59
The Photo that Started it All On the day the Intafada broke out, Tuvia Grossman was riding a taxi to visit the Western Wall. He was unwittingly thrust into the international limelight -- and nearly killed in the process.
Updated May 2002
On September 30, 2000, The New York Times, Associated Press and other major media outlets published a photo of a young man -- bloodied and battered -- crouching beneath a club-wielding Israeli policeman. The caption identified him as a Palestinian victim of the recent riots -- with the clear implication that the Israeli soldier is the one who beat him.
The victim's true identity was revealed when Dr. Aaron Grossman of Chicago sent the following letter to the Times:
Regarding your picture on page A5 of the Israeli soldier and the Palestinian on the Temple Mount -- that Palestinian is actually my son, Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago. He, and two of his friends, were pulled from their taxicab while traveling in Jerusalem, by a mob of Palestinian Arabs, and were severely beaten and stabbed.
That picture could not have been taken on the Temple Mount because there are no gas stations on the Temple Mount and certainly none with Hebrew lettering, like the one clearly seen behind the Israeli soldier attempting to protect my son from the mob.
In response, the New York Times published a half-hearted correction which identified Tuvia Grossman as "an American student in Israel" -- not as a Jew who was beaten by Arabs. The "correction" also noted that "Mr. Grossman was wounded" in "Jerusalem's Old City" -- although the beating actually occurred in the Arab neighborhood of Wadi al Joz, not in the Old City.
In response to public outrage at the original error and the inadequate correction, The New York Times reprinted Tuvia Grossman's picture -- this time with the proper caption -- along with a full article detailing his near-lynching at the hands of Palestinians rioters.
Read Tuvia Grossman's in-depth, first-person account of his ordeal, entitled Victim of the Media War. www.aish.com/jewishissues/israeldiary/
The photo of a bloodied Tuvia Grossman became a symbol in the struggle to ensure that Israel receives the fair media coverage that every nation deserves.
In April 2002, a District Court in Paris ordered the French daily newspaper "Liberation" and the Associated Press to pay damages to Grossman in the amount of 4,500 Euro.
The Court condemned the Associated Press for "mispresenting [Grossman] as a member of the Palestinian community," while the court censured "Liberation" for "publishing the litigious picture with a comment edited the same faulty way, giving the picture a meaning and a scope it could not have."
===== ARAB ABUSE ===== Even more remarkable is that Arab groups have adopted Grossman's photo to use in their own propaganda campaigns, cynically using a bloodied Jew as a symbol of the Palestinian struggle.
An official Egyptian government website is using the Grossman photo on its "Photo Gallery".
And the Palestinian Information Center, www.islam.net, incorporated Tuvia's photo onto its homepage banner, (The graphic was recently removed from the site, but is reprinted here:)
Additionally, some Arab groups have called for a boycott of Coca-Cola, for doing business with Israel, and have circulated a series of posters to state their case. One poster shows Grossman's bleeding face juxtaposed with the Coca-Cola logo, and the tag line: "By supporting American products, you're supporting Israel."
Snopes.com reports that, ironically, since Ramallah is home to a Coca-Cola bottling facility that employs about 400 local residents (and indirectly creates employment for hundreds more), and Coca-Cola industries throughout the Middle East are operated as local businesses, any boycott of Coca-Cola in Middle Eastern countries is likely to cause more monetary harm to Arabs and Palestinians than it is to Americans or Israelis.
Snopes.com notes another irony: Pepsi is also on the Arab boycott list, with claims that the name "Pepsi" is an acronym for 'Pay Every Penny to Save Israel' or 'Pay Every Penny to the State of Israel.' As the Associated Press once noted, "Calling Pepsi a 'Jewish product' is ironic, given that Pepsi was one of many multinationals that wouldn't do business in Israel during the 40-year Arab commercial boycott of the Jewish state."
And of course the biggest irony of all is that the image chosen in the poster to represent Palestinian suffering was none other than Tuvia Grossman who nearly beaten to death by a Palestinian mob.
Agree. They've never found one thing positive to say about Bush.
The folks that do their editorials fall in line and take the liberal position 100% of the time. It makes you wonder if they're free thinking people because I know that I don't agree with the Republicans or conservatives 100% of the time. I know the position the NYT is going to take on everything before I even read it.
Even before they became neocons and relaxing from filing FCC "fairness doctrine" complaints against conservative talk radio of the day liberals were always up to no good. Even in those days when they were pro-American patriots they still had their little bag of tricks. To wit,
The Kerner Commission Report studied 1968 race riots in our cities. The book that contained the report for the public was published with a book cover photo of South African police beating black South Africans. You see, with all the tens of thousands of rioter photos the liberals just could not find a photo of American police with the "correct" message.
Today's liberals are traitors to our sovereignty and Constitution. Here are reasons why.
Former Sec. of State Allbright was on Medved's show pushing her book, 3 Oct.
When asked by a caller would she surrender any of our sovereignty she first said no -- BUT she kept talking, She revealed that she would give away our sovereignty IF IT MADE US SAFER. People give up rights to have police protection, she said!
Look how Justice Ginsberg happily says she uses foreign culture and standards to judge our Constitution and our inalienable rights!
THE WHOLE LOT OF THEM ARE TRAITORS!
The liberals/progressives, whatever, cannot be allowed to govern again, EVER. They are traitors to our sovereignty. General elections should NOT be a path to the end of America, our Constitution, and our inalienable rights.
I'm a little pessimistic. Exactly what would you suggest we do? I think we need to keep on protesting, i.e. coopt the techniques of the left. It's also very important to keep on gaining ground in the media, as we have been with Fox News Channel.
We need more major newspapers, though. The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, et al are killing us. It's time to get a Conservative-run major network, too.
I have a Jewish friend, who was also a lifelong Democrat, who's cancelled his subscription to the Times because of this outrageous propaganda.
For elections I'd like to know the Dem candidates' feeeeeeeeeeeeeelings about our sovereignty. I'd like for the "new" Democrats to define their "new social compact" and just what is "the Third Way." How do both affect our Constitution and inalienable rights?
I'd like for candidates to know that these are NOT traditional political issues like monetary v. fiscal policies, defense policies, social programs. They do not belong being decided in general elections; i.e., where the winner feeeeeeeeeeeels he has a mandate to dilute our sovereignty for example. A constitutional convention may be more appropriate.
But mostly I want to see Congress get more involved with investigating internal security threats. I want to know what's behind the "anti-war" people for starters and expand from there. I know that this will provoke the leftist crazies to commit blatant acts of violence and treason. Then we got 'em -- if we have the will.
Anna, I seem to remember you first posting this back in 2000.
In response to public outrage at the original error and the inadequate correction, The New York Times reprinted Tuvia Grossman's picture -- this time with the proper caption -- along with a full article detailing his near-lynching at the hands of Palestinians rioters.
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