The party’s response to the killings in Tell reflected the same reflexes as the right, but their rapid correction showed that public pressure can still change a party willing to listen
The initial response of the Democrats party trio to the deadly incident on the outskirts of the West Bank village of Tell – in which two Israelis and four Palestinians were killed – was disappointing. The automatic framing of what happened as a “terrorist attack,” the condolences offered only to Jewish families, the disregard for Palestinians’ right to self-defense, and the wording comprised entirely of a “heavy hand” and “defeating terrorism” – all reflected a disturbing ethnocentric reflex. In this sense, Gideon Levy is correct in what he wrote in his July 26 op-ed in Haaretz: Both the right and those who are supposed to represent the left interpret the situation through a pre-packaged construct of Jewish victimhood and Palestinian aggression.