Death in Jerusalem

The morning before we left, we took a tour of the Western Wall tunnel. We arrived a little late because we had misunderstood where we were to meet. When we joined the group, the guide was talking about a terrible tragedy that had occurred that morning. She told us we would be the first group allowed to exit the Western Wall tunnel as usual that day. A man had been killed in the street just outside the far end of the tunnel. His wife was originally to have been our tour guide.

The man, a 28-year-old pacifist Orthodox Jew, had been on his way to prayer at the Western Wall. He had entered the Damascus Gate and was walking along a wide, well-traveled avenue through the Muslim Quarter. He was attacked and stabbed to death, presumably by Arabs. His blood was still on the stones as we passed at the end of our tour.

It was interesting to see how the American press reported the story. USA Today covered it briefly in a picture caption on Friday, May 8, 1998. In the picture, a woman with traditional Muslim headdress rests her head on her hand. Behind her are three Israelis with machine guns. The caption reads:

Jerusalem dispute: Israeli police guard a building that a Palestinian woman says belongs to her family. Settlers occupied the building to protest the stabbing of a Jew.

How could the press have considered the dispute over this building to be more newsworthy than murder? Why did they write "stabbing" rather than "killing"? What kind of Jew are we to assume this man was based on this coverage, a soldier with a machine gun? What about the wife of the man who was murdered, left alone to bring up two children? Doesn't she have more reason to be distressed than a woman who is being temporarily barred from entering a building? This is a perfect example of how the press can slant truth without actually saying anything overtly untrue.

The Washington Post told the story in a paragraph of a larger article entitled "Netanyahu Says U.S. 'Cannot Dictate to Us.'"

Early this morning, a 28-year-old Jewish religious student was stabbed to death in Jerusalem's Old City and Israeli police say they believe it was a political attack by Arabs. Hours later, in the West Bank settlement of Eli, a Jewish settler was stabbed in the chest by a Palestinian who wandered into the Jewish community. The settler shot and killed the Palestinian, identified only as a 30-year-old man from a nearby Arab village.

The New York Times gave the story a headline of its own: "Jew Is Slain in Jerusalem and Palestinian in West Bank." An accompanying photo shows a friend of the slain Jew kneeling at the site of the stabbing.

Jerusalem, May 6 - A yeshiva student was stabbed to death today as he walked to morning prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City. Separately, an Israeli settler shot and killed a Palestinian who, the army said, had attacked him with a knife in the West Bank.

The student was from a yeshiva run by Ateret Cohanim, a religious nationalist group that has bought properties and settled in the Muslim quarter of the walled Old City, a source of friction with Arab neighbors. The student was identified as Haim Kerman, 28, a father of two.

The police said Mr. Kerman was ambushed and repeatedly stabbed at 5:45 a.m. on the Via Dolorosa, the route revered by Christians as the path that Jesus followed to his Crucifixion. Mr. Kerman managed to draw his gun and fire, but the assailant apparently took it, the police said.

"The murder is almost certainly on a nationalistic background," Police Chief Yair Yitzhaki said.

Mayor Ehud Olmert said Mr. Kerman had most likely been killed "by Arab terrorists."

Because the news is often our only source of information, it is very easy to be misled into making erroneous conclusions. We must be constantly on guard. Most people who have witnessed or participated in events covered by the media have been amazed at how different the reported story is from what they saw and heard. Jesus in John 8:44 calls Satan "a liar and the father of liars." The most effective lies are those clothed in truth.