The mother of three-year-old Adelle Biton, who is fighting for her life in the hospital after being critically wounded in a terror rock attack, has called on Haaretz writer Amira Hass to come to the hospital and see for herself what rock-throwing can do.
Adva Biton responded on Thursday to a column by the leftist Hass, who resides in the Palestinian Authority city of Ramallah. Hass wrote on Wednesday that “throwing stones is the right and the duty of anyone living under foreign rule.”
Later in the column Hass termed rock-throwing “a metaphor for resistance.” Hass is the official Haaretz correspondent for what the newspaper labels the "occupied territories".
Adva Biton’s response to Hass’s column appeared Thursday in the Ma’ariv daily newspaper.
“Amira, come to the ICU, look at my Adelle, a three-year-old child, connected to tubes,” wrote Biton. “Come experience with me what I am dealing with. Amira, a rock does not distinguish between different people’s blood, and not between an adult and a three-year-old child. A rock kills. A rock is a killing tool for all intents and purposes. Three weeks ago I experienced firsthand how one rock can change a whole family's life.
“I believe in the value of life. Life is the most sacred thing, regardless of race, religion and gender. Today, after I’ve spent three weeks in intensive care, I see around me only people who fight for life and who help each other,” wrote Biton.
“The paramedic who was the first to come to our car, who saw us crushed under the truck, is an Arab. He arrived and began his sacred work. He did not speak big and hollow words like yours; words kill. He simply saved a life.
“I agree with you, Amira, that every person deserves freedom. Arab and Jew alike. I agree with you that we should all strive for freedom, but nobody will achieve freedom and liberty by killing. There's no reason that Adelle, my daughter, age three, needs to lie in the ICU, intubated and fighting for her life, and there is no reason that you, Amira, should encourage it. Why should my Adelle pay this price? Did she manage to do any evil to someone in the three years in which she has lived?
“I invite you, Amira, come to intensive care and experience with me what I have been going through. But I do not really suggest that you put yourself in my place, hear the screams of your daughters in the torn apart car, remain fully conscious and experience my helplessness, the inability to move and help. To see your three-year-old girl fighting for her life, without having any ability to influence the situation.
“I work as a lecturer. I have quite a few Arab students that I teach and during these difficult days they come visit me at the hospital every day. They say, ‘We pray for Adele,’ to me it does not matter if the prayer is in Arabic or Hebrew. Their prayer is also words, but words that come from the heart. Your words, Amira, are words of terrible incitement. Words that encourage the destruction of life.”
Yesha Council head Avi Ro'eh and Chairman Ron Shachner sent a letter to the Jerusalem Police, accusing the Haaretz newspaper of incitement to violence, after Hass’s column appeared on Wednesday.
The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel contacted Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, asking that he launch an investigation against Hass on suspicion of incitement.
Attorney Hila Cohen, writing on behalf of the Legal Forum, wrote in the letter to Weinstein that Hass’s comments were serious and constitute an incitement to violence and terrorism, while encouraging murderous terrorism.
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