A Jewish woman in Israel runs from a wild boar

The Truth About Mondoweiss' Lie About Wild Boars Being Weaponized

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Emanuel Engelmayer
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File this under 'You Can't Make This Shit Up.'

Mondoweiss, the pro-Palestinian news aggregator is at it again, well, it's not like they ever stopped lying about Israel. This time, however, it is just a bit too insane of a story, and the fact they printed it only proves that they will print anything that is written, true or not, as long as Israel and the Jews who live there are portrayed as evil.

In an article published in the "news" category, Mondoweiss claims that Israeli “settlers” are using wild boars to destroy Palestinian agriculture and even kill Arab farmers in Judea and Samaria. The outrageous report, like most things reported by Mondoweiss, is patently false. While most lies have some hint of truth in it, this one has none, that is how false it is. It is so ridiculous it borders on comedic, as perhaps something that appeared in parody publications like "The Babylon Bee" or “The Onion” instead.

The article begins by mentioning that wild boars have never been an issue in “Palestine” before, which just right off the bat is completely false. The nature reserves within the land of Israel are infested with boars, and that has always been the case going all the way back to biblical times and is documented in biblical texts that go back three thousand years. 

Psalm 80:13, which speaks of the Israelites' desire for God’s help in maintaining their kingdom, mentions wild boars as a severe problem that plagues the land; “The boar from the forest ravages it [the streets of an unspecified Israelite city], and the creatures of the field feed upon it."

Apparently, that request to the almighty was not granted as the issue with the infamous wild pigs in Israel has not faded since. In fact, too often cars run into them on rural roads that are poorly or completely unlit. In Israeli cities, there are sightings and reports of hogs walking through the streets. To document the issue, just last month Israel's Yediot News website, Ynet reported “A wild boar attacks a 14-year-old girl in an ice cream parlor in Haifa - and injures her.”

Now that it has been proven the Mondoweiss premise is hogwash (pun intended), the article continues on and spirals down a rabbit hole giving reasons for the “boar attacks” in Arab villages.  

“In the past few decades, the wild boar population has increased rapidly in Palestine due to a number of factors. Declining human populations in rural regions have led to the vacancy of large swathes of land with low population density, which creates a habitat for wild animals such as pigs. Another significant reason for the spread of wild boars in Palestine is Israeli colonial practices- recent reports have indicated that settler-owned boars are being intentionally released into Palestinian villages, even though solid documentation has lagged behind."

The only true statement in the previous paragraph is that “solid documentation has lagged behind." In other words, Mondoweiss is accusing predominantly observant, Kosher-eating, Jews residing in Judea and Samaria of owning pigs and then sending them off to cause havoc in nearby Arab villages. This claim is hilarious if not completely absurd. What religious Jew would keep, out of all animals, a hog, let alone a flock of them? Where does one purchase a wild hog, considering the fact that they are, you know, wild?

Then, in a natural progression for an anti-Israel article that relies on fiction, the Mondoweiss piece then claims that the Israel Defense Forces are releasing the hogs into Arab villages. This takes crazy to a whole new level.

“Israel’s complex matrix of colonial practices in the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly its illegal settlements, the separation wall, and bypass roads, have had disastrous environmental consequences, cleaving natural habitats and impeding the seasonal migration and survival of wild animals. In some areas large amounts of animal species (e.g wild pigs) are stuck on one side of the separation wall, increasing their numbers in that area.”

The paragraph shows the ignorance not just of the author, but of the editors and publisher. For starters, pigs are also unholy in Islam, the religion that most “Palestinians” observe. Most, if not all, Arabs in Judea and Samaria could not give a damn about the state of the animal population. It should also be noted that the grand “separation wall” mentioned is not actually a continuous border in real life, in total it is only 43 miles in length and it is not continuous. For example, between the southern part of Tulkarem, in northern Samaria, and Jerusalem in the center which is roughly a 38-mile distance, there is no wall. Therefore, no animal species can physically be isolated by it.

After quoting Arab farmers' experiences with wild boars, and blaming the Israeli Nature and Park Authority for not allowing them to own guns to kill the wild boars, the article makes the wackiest claim of all. “Israeli settlements, of course, are mountaintop fortresses, and hence shielded from the boars. The only thing we can conclude from this is that, regardless of how wild boars have become part of the West Bank landscape, they have certainly been used as a form of colonial domination and attack.”

Hence shielded from boars? Although indirectly, Mondoweiss attempts to argue that Israeli settlements are fenced because of wildlife, and not dozens of thousands of annual attempts to kill Israelis living behind the fences. The truth is Wild Boars plague Jewish communities and farmland as much as they do Arab ones. Israelis though have guard dogs to help keep the non-kosher beasts away, whereas Arabs in Judea and Samaria beat and kill dogs instead of employing their skills to help protect their property.

It seems that Rawan Samamreh, supposedly the author of this frustrating yet entertaining Mondoweiss article, could not hack it as a real screenwriter for any Hollywood production company, so he is using what little talent he has to shill for Pallywood.

A suggestion for Palestinian nationalists, dump the narratives spread by publications like Mondoweiss, +972, and others. Take the high road, the truthful road, It will guarantee your people are no longer victims of aggressive misrepresentation by “analysts" and “reporters” that have likely never spent more than a few hours in a Palestinian Authority-governed village, and certainly have no experience in Israel. 

 

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