August 06, 2002
A Tale of Two Funerals: Israel buries her dead
A Death Cult vs. a Culture that loves Life
Scholars of history and culture maintain that you can tell worlds about a society or civilization by the way they treat their dead.
I apologize for the upsetting nature of this picture, but I think it needs to be seen.
This funeral has been "staged" in all its gore with the trappings of Islamist marytrdom for 2 audiences for 2 purposes: one is for the Muslim mourners at the mosque to inflame more rage and bloodlust for the "cause" of jihad and the other is for the West to stimulate sympathy and our own "righteous indignation" at the plight of the poor "Palestinians."
If you don't ask yourself how this Reuters photographer got into this religious service, right up by the body, deep in a culture that believes that photos and images of people are anathema, you're not paying attention.
Obviously, they didn't bother to clean the body, preferring to show the blood, bandages, and injury from the deceased's wounds.
Note also the green (for Islam) shroud--which looks factory made--that portrays the 2 mosques (I presume the ones in Mecca and Medina) and all the Arabic script, possibly prayers to Allah, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't also include the usual paeans to being a martyr for the "Faith", Islam, mujahadins, etc., etc.
Yahoo describes this man's death as if he were shot by the IDF for no reason.
Yahoo Slideshows are fast becoming the Internet version of CNN, in terms of the number and kind of photos they'll choose and highlight--There's always heavy rotation on the sorrows of the...."Palestinians" rather than the Israelis.
Caption: Palestinians pray beside the body of Palestinian Abdul Rahim al-Taweel during his funeral in the West Banki city of Hebron, August 4, 2002. Al-Taweel was shot dead by Israeli soldiers on Saturday, according to Palestinian sources. A Palestinian suicide bomber turned a bus in Northern Israel into a fireball on Sunday, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens, police and rescue services said. REUTERS
Contrast that photo with this one:
CAPTION: Mourners pay their respects over the casket of Marla Bennett before her funeral held at the Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Carlos, Calif. Monday, Aug. 5, 2002. Bennett, a graduate student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, was killed last week when a remote-detonated bomb exploded in a university cafeteria.
This is a funeral service that we Jews and Christians are familiar with.
The body in death has dignity and respect, regardless of the obscene way Miss Bennett was killed and the service is designed to allow mourners a way to grieve and at the same time, to honor God and His child, this young woman, whose body was made in His image.
Except for the flag-draped casket, which is proper because I think Marla Bennett was targeted as a victim because she was American, as well as being Jewish, the funeral is not a political statement, but a way to honor a death under God, if you will.
In a very real way, Marla Bennett was an American Hero: to go to Israel to study at Hebrew University as a Jew and an American in these times was almost as courageous an act as the firefighters rushing into the WTC.
[Caption: Marla Bennett, 24, a San Diego native and one of five Americans killed from a bomb explosion at Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Wednesday July 31, 2002, is seen here in a June 2002 photo, from her family,with her boyfriend Michael Simon in Jerusalem.]
Rest in peace, Marla. You will be missed.
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