A recent article published by the pro-terrorist news aggregator, Mondoweiss, should have anyone who cares about human life on all sides of any conflict outraged. The headline in itself is infuriating, “Contextualizing the Shooting in Neve Yaakov”, as if the murder of seven innocent unarmed people leaving a synagogue can be justified, the article attempts to do precisely that. The piece not only makes the Palestinian cause look awful but begs the question of why a respectable site that has been quoted by the New York Times on numerous occasions feels the need to defend acts of non-negotiable pure evil.

The article begins by defending the joy Arab residents of East Jerusalem felt when learning of the attack, which included celebrating with fireworks and candy. “It is hard to explain the fleeting spark people felt when they heard the news. I know for a fact that not one of us would delight in death. But to understand the events at Neve Yaakov and the Palestinian reaction to it, you need to understand its context…”

RT @Mondoweiss "Steve Inskeep of NPR today described the settlement of Neve Yaakov, scene of an attack, as being in Israel. While Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street called it a Jerusalem “neighborhood.” https://t.co/QGSjDz3JHT"

— Richard Hardigan (@RichardHardigan) February 4, 2023

What type of legitimate writer dares his audience to dig deeper into a cold-blooded murderer's past to legitimize his actions? Did the courts beg the American people to keep Ted Bundy’s troubling childhood in mind while evaluating his wrongdoings? Obviously, it is a rhetorical question given the insanity of thought it suggests. The article then continues by undermining the attack being on the Sabbath and on Holocaust Memorial Day, claiming that perhaps the terrorist who executed the attack was not motivated by killing Jews at their place of worship, but was motivated by the military base that is situated nearby, which is one of several that coordinate Israel Defense Forces activity in Judea and Samaria. 

To be fair, the IDF military base in Neve Yaakov does control the operations, or “occupation” in the West Bank, that is because it is the IDF’s central command base, meaning anything that happens in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva or Samaria is under its jurisdiction. Nonetheless, nothing suggests at all that the military base was the terrorist’s target, as his bullets were not being aimed there but at the Jews surrounding the synagogue.

MUST READ: "Media and political leaders have misrepresented Khairy Alqam’s attack in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov that killed seven Israeli settlers by ignoring the context."

Important article by @JalalAK_jojo in @Mondoweiss https://t.co/PkRr2q1T3w

— Palestine Deep Dive (@PDeepdive) February 3, 2023

The article then moves along and attempts to delegitimize the entire Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Yaakov. The writer contextualizes the murders based on the fact that Neve Yaakov is over the so-called 'Green Line', in what is called by some occupied territories, or defined in the Mondoweiss article as an “illegal settlement” despite it being a part of the Jerusalem municipality with no walls, gates or guards that are typical of 'settlements' in Judea & Samaria.

The fact is, the entirety of the Jenin and Nablus refugee camps are built illegally and hazardously according to both Israel and even the Palestinian Authority, does that give an armed Jew the right to walk in there and shoot at random unarmed people? According to Jalal Abukhater, this awful writer for Mondoweiss, perhaps. 

Finally, the article uses the killing of the terrorist’s grandfather back in the 90s, his namesake, as a definitive contextualizing of the killing of 7 unaffiliated with his death. If an eye-for-an-eye is the far-fetched argument here, then allow me to disappoint Mondoweiss by saying that every single IDF operation ever executed is based on that logic; the difference is they operate against actual armed men who seek their death and not random civilians; so in a backward way, Mondoweiss made an argument for the IDF as well here. 

Mondoweiss famously reported on the “Jenin Massacre” just a day before the attack in Neve Yaakov; an IDF operation against armed Jihadists who were actively shooting in the troop's direction and ultimately lost the battle they began along with their lives. Somehow in their broad term for a massacre, the killing of 7 innocent Jewish and Christian men, women, and children is not included and actually requires more context. 

A day of protest and resistance across Palestine following ‘massacre’ in Jenin – Mondoweiss https://t.co/AmfQah96ak

— Oscar Roberts (@Spoba24) January 31, 2023

Mondoweiss should be careful. By reaching too far over the lines to where the justification for killing unarmed civilians is argued, the outlet risks its own integrity. Creating stories about Jews weaponizing wild boars in Judea and Samaria is one thing, excusing a cold-blooded murder places them on an entire lower level.