So I was listening to NPR's ATC this afternoon and caught a report by Kelly McEvers talking to freelance reporter Daniel Estrin about the arrest of Israeli youths for the revenge murder by immolation of the Palestinian teenager kidnapped from East Jerusalem yesterday, and about the beating by Israeli police of the victim's cousin who is a US teenager on vacation, visiting family.
The report ended abruptly, just as Estrin was about to play a clip of the beaten teen's mother who was responding to official Israeli reports that her son had been arrested because he was using a slingshot to hurl stones at the police during a demonstration. The teen had previously denied on tape that he was doing anything other than observing the demonstration, and so I was quite interested in what the mother had to say about the slingshot. But when Estrin said "Here's what his mother had to say about that," there were several seconds of silence and then McEvers said, I'm sorry Daniel, but we're going to have to cut you off now," and that was the end of the report.
So I decided to go to the ATC website to see what they had posted for that report and, sure enough, the mother's comment about the slingshot was included. Here's the URL for the audio. Since NPR typically doesn't post the transcripts for their audio reports for a day or so, here is my transcription of the mother's comment that was deleted from the on-air presentation (time sig 3:19 - 3:32):
Where's the slingshot they caught with him? They didn't bring it into the courtroom. They didn't mention it, at all. We didn't hear of no slingshot when we were in the courtroom. So I'm thinkin' that they're tryin' to frame him somehow.
Now, why did NPR delete that clip from their on-air report? Were they provided video footage by the Israeli court authorities that disproved the mother's account of what she said she witnessed at her son's arraignment? Or did they get pushback from Israeli authorities who didn't want their forces cast in a bad light? If it was the former, why didn't they report the debunking of the mother's allegations of her son being framed? If it was the latter, however, the inexplicable silent space and clumsy outro with the reporter (which was dubbed, since the outro in the report linked above is completely different) makes total sense; also, although I can't provide proof, I'm certain that the lead-in to the mother's commentary, which from the link above is:
(Estrin): Well his mother refuted all of the police's accusations..."
Was deleted from the on-air version. I say that because when I went looking for the mother's comment on the NPR site, I wasn't expecting to hear her claim that the Israeli authorities were framing her son; what I heard just prior to the mother's statement during the newscast was only the second half of Estrin's lead-in:
"...Police said he was carrying a slingshot to hurl rocks with and here's what his mom said about that..."
Final thoughts after the orange contusion.
I was actually expecting her to say something about the obvious David/Goliath aspect of the story, and that's what this diary was going to be about: about NPR giving Israel some PR shielding against the obvious ramifications of their being on the wrong side of a story that harkens back to one of the defining narratives of the Jewish culture - the story of the small young nobody who stood up to the massively overpowering bully with nothing but a slingshot.
Instead, I heard the kid's mother claim that the Israelis were framing her child after beating the shit out of him. that there was no slingshot involved.
Honestly, I can't think which narrative is worse for Israel.
prepublication update:
Ok, so they just published the transcript of the interview and the end of the interview is indeed a scrubbed version (although Estrin's lead in to the mother's comment - which is indeed cut out in its entirety - is different than what I heard on-air and commpletely jumbled around). Here it is:
MCEVERS: Of course, Israeli officials say he was caught with a slingshot and resisted arrest. You also met Tariq's mother. What did she have to say?
ESTRIN: Well, his mother, Suha, refuted all of the police's accusations. The police said her son was caught wearing a Kafiya, an Arab headscarf, to mask his face - is what Palestinian demonstrators wear to conceal their identity. She said he wore that headscarf to protect himself from tear gas from Israeli security forces firing tear gas at the demonstrators. And police, as you said, also told reporters he was found carrying a slingshot to hurl rocks with. And here's what his mom, Suha, said.
MCEVERS: Thank you Daniel Estrin Tel Aviv. We've got to cut you off now. Thanks very much for joining us.
ESTRIN: OK. Thank you.
Can someone record the audio in the link at the top of the diary before they scrub that as well? I'm going to publish right now for that reason, with minimal tags.