Anyone see the horrible photo of Israeli Police "quelling" demonstrators?

[Atman]

(edited for clarity -- not a palestinian protest)

This is un-fucking-believable. I will attempt a google search for it, but will scan it and post it if I have to. This just blows my mind...the Hartford Courant ran a huge, nearly half-page photo today with the following caption "Israeli police clash with demonstrators during a protest in Tel Aviv, Israel, by opponents of Prime Minister Arial Sharon's plan to withdraw from settlement from Gaza and the northern West Bank. Groups staged protests and snarled traffic across Israel.

The photo show police throwing a man off of a very high bridge, while another, in the clutches of police, is about to get tossed over, too, while still other onlookers stare down into the ravine where other victims have already met their fate. Let's hope like hell this isn't the kind of protest-quelling BuchCo plans for the 2006-2008 fake elections! This is just outrageous. Almost as outrageous as the fact that the caption mentions nothing of these people getting tossed to their deaths by police for protesting! The pic is credited to Uriel Sinai/Getty Images.

[In Truth We Trust]

1. are you serious? Please post this picture when you locate it!

[Stand and Fight]

2. Good God...

Please find a link and PM me when you do -- this is the very reason I have a problem with the Zionist movement in the Middle East.

[lateo]

3. Those protestors were...

probably the Zionists who are squatting on illegally taken land. If so, fuck them.

[Dhalgren]

4. If these civilians are

"opponents of Prime Minister Arial Sharon's plan to withdraw from settlement from Gaza and the northern West Bank", then they are probably not Palestinians, but right-wing Israelis. It makes no difference who they are or what they're political affiliation is, they should not be brutalized. But for clarity, I think this should be known.

[peacetalksforall]

5. If they are protesting the withdrawal, then aren't they Israelis?

If yes, they are throwing their own into a ravine?

[leveymg]

6. Hartford Courant.com - no photo; LA Times.com - no photo

The article at the Courant was by-lined as an LAT piece. Looked there - an article, but no photos. When and where did you see these shots of people being thrown from a bridge?

[Atman]

8. I am scanning now, will post with story...

Give me a minute!

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cobalt Violet]

13. It doesn't look like a deep fall.

The guy is standing on the ground in the lower right hand corner.

[Atman]

14. sharpening the photo during scan

It actually came out much better than the original in the Courant. The guy in the foreground could easily be standing on the ground near the edge of the bridge, but I have to agree, upon looking at the sharpened version. What looked like the tops of trees in the newspaper photo look as if they could actually be just weeds and brush in the sharpened version. Still, the two guys in the background seem to be looking DOWN at something. That, and the "tree tops" are what led me to think this was a "very high bridge." Hopefully I am wrong in my oringal interpretation of the photo.

[leveymg]

15. They're weeds. The "ravine" is about two feet deep.

Try ditch.x(

That doesn't make this right. But, your description was way over the top.

[Atman]

16. My description was of what I saw in the newspaper photo

And my subsequent descriptions aren't at odds with what you see. I even mention in my first post that the captions mentions nothing of what is happening in the photo, which probably would have gone a long way towards clarifying this. If you'll check back at my post about the sharpening, you'll see that I am not making any fight to defend my original interpretation. The photo was of poor contrast and quite fuzzy in my newspaper, and it only began to appear as a smaller drop AFTER I scanned and sharpened it. Which, again, I very clearly pointed out.

Either way, I assure you, that is much more than a two-foot drop. Check the people leaning against the wall in the background...it comes up to above their waists. The ground is sloping pretty severly in the background. And, after all, there is a CEMENT JERSEY-BARRIER type wall there. For what? To protect cars from plummeting into a gutter? This is a bridge, clearly. Over what, how high?...we're left wanting much more information, imo. I don't know how they build roads over there, but here in the states, we don't do Jersey barriers to keep you from running off onto the shoulders. This is a bridge.

So, please skip the frowny-faced implication that I deliberately tried to go "way over the top" in my post. I've been very, very up front about what I saw before and after I digitized the photo. What about the thousands of others who decided not to Photoshop it? What impression will they be left with?

[leveymg]

17. I'm glad you retracted your original interpretation.

But, you used poor judgment in the following statement: "The photo show police throwing a man off of a very high bridge, while another, in the clutches of police, is about to get tossed over, too, while still other onlookers stare down into the ravine where other victims have already met their fate."

Enough said.

[eyl]

19. That looks like a roadside barrier

look at the plants near the barrier; those types grow to about 2 feet or so (or less), and they seem to reach a fair distance up the barrier. I can't determine whether there's a slope or not, because the entire picture is tilted. Note that

A) It's not uncommon for roads here to have ditches running parallel to them (I assume the roads were built on a raised surface), and in some places there are ditches to prevent people from veering off the road into them. IIRC, along the Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem highway, where these protests took place, there's such a barrier for most of the Sha'ar Hagai area (the area where you start driving up into the mountains)

B) AFAIR, there are only two or three bridges on that route on the TA-J route, and none of them look like in the picture. For that matter, I can't remember seeing any bridge in Israel with enough space to the "far" side of the barrier for people to stand and plants to grow; the barrier always marks the span's edge.

And if people had been "tossed to their deaths ", as you charged, there's no way it wouldn't have made headlines over here; as it is, Haaretz doesn't even mention any injuries.

[Atman]

20. Thanks

You obviously have a direct knowledge of this area that I do not share. Which is why I've attempted to make it very clear that my first interpretation of what I was seeing is probably not accurate, due to the quality of the original photo in my newspaper. There are plenty of visual cues to indicate a higher span...the guys looking down in the background, the slope of the background, and last but not least, the look on the guys' face in the foreground, who looks a bit more concerned than if he'd been about to be tossed into the weeds. I could have just deleted the whole post, or completely changed my original premise. But I chose to leave it open for discussion. I appreciate your using some facts to support your conclusion, instead of simply flaming me for trying to mislead people.

Again...again...if the newspaper photo was so easy for me to misinterpret, think of all the other readers seeing it. I'm not one prone to make these kind of mistake, being a visual kind of guy. So, I contend a descriptive caption would have helped a lot!

Just for the record, I do retract my original "very high bridge" comment. I think I already did.

[eyl]

22. No problem

As you say, the photo isn't exactly clear.

I'd also like to point out (to everyone, not specifically in response to you) that with a single still - and in the absence of a caption or description - we don't know what preceded this instant; that guy being flipped over the barrier may be a victim of police brutality, or he may just have taken a swing at the policeman in question.

[Violet_Crumble]

24. That's why photos aren't allowed in the I/P forum...

I'd also like to point out (to everyone, not specifically in response to you) that with a single still - and in the absence of a caption or description - we don't know what preceded this instant

Just popping in quicky before this thead is locked. Yr exactly right, eyl. Also photos are open to different interpretations. When I first saw that one, I didn't see a huge drop or a ravine in it...

Violet...

[eyl]

21. Oops

That should be "barriers to prevent people"

[leveymg]

12. Video feed of clashes available at another site

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3105677,00.html

halfway down page. Lot's of mayhem, footage looks like Palestinian shot (reported elsewhere) and burning hotel occupied by settlers. But, I didn't see anyone being thrown from a bridge here. Hasn't been reported elsewhere, according to a Google search: "Israel protestor thrown from bride"; "Gaza Protestor thrown from bridge"

[unhappycamper]

7. The pic is not on the internets. Take a pic of the front page & post

the picture of the front page.

[methinks2]

18. thanks for the flags

[durutti]

9. Where's the outrage when they *kill* Palestinian protesters? n/t

[radwriter0555]

10. Where is the outrage from the world when the US terrorists slaughter Iraqi

civilians?

I don't see any about that either.

Apparently it's ok for the israelis and the USA to be terrorists.

[Andromeda]

25. The USA terrorists?

Who are you calling terrorists? The soldiers? The mercenaries? Who?

You don't see anything about that because our soldiers are not terrorists.

Israeli soldiers are terrorists too? Nice. And Hamas, Hezbollah, et.al are "freedom fighters", huh?

Terrorists are religious fanatics who think dying and taking as many people as possible with you will take you to paradise. Get your facts straight and stop with the inflammatory rhetoric because it doesn't help the situation.

[idontwantaname]

23. re: Anyone see the horrible photo...

heres one for you.



the folks in the picture are international peace activists.

they are not in a closed military zone nor are they violating any rules.

there was no warning given before they were detained and beaten.

for further information about stories like this feel free to PM me.

[Lithos]

26. Locking per I/P guidelines

New threads must be based on a recently-published news item or op-ed piece. They may not be based on editorial cartoons or photographs. Citations and references should include a link to the original source. Exceptions will be allowed if, based on prior approval, the moderators feel a thread is appropriate.