Lecturer on PA TV speculates that teens may have been kidnapped by "an Israeli mafia"
Official PA TV program The State of Politics hosted Ahmad Rafiq Awad, lecturer in communications at Al-Quds University, and journalist Hafez Al-Barghouti.
Communications lecturer Ahmad Rafiq Awad: “All this [the kidnapping of three Israeli youths] may be true. Furthermore, there are settlers who are from the Israeli underworld; there is an Israeli mafia, there is settling of scores, there are conflicts between people. Especially if you consider that some of the settlers in the West Bank are young, between 30 and 40, and are extremists in terms of nationalism and religion, as well as in terms of crime – as the West Bank is called ‘Israel 2,’ the second Israel, Israel that renounced its laws and democracy and shows all its cards in the West Bank. Therefore, there are likely to be assassinations and a large Israeli security plan (i.e., an Israeli plot). But there is also another possibility, which is very likely… that it [the kidnapping] was done by Palestinians.”
Journalist Hafez Barghouti: “How can we stand up to the Israeli propaganda machine, while Jewish funds from America, Europe and Latin America control the TV and media channels, and the central information and publication centers? How? First of all, we have to content ourselves with serious, if limited, work abroad. That’s enough, if we don’t have the option [to do more].”
Note: On June 12, 2014, Israeli teens Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists while they were hitchhiking in the West Bank. The boys' bodies were found by Israeli security forces near Hebron on June 30, 2014. They appeared to have been shot to death soon after the abduction.
Communications lecturer Ahmad Rafiq Awad: “All this [the kidnapping of three Israeli youths] may be true. Furthermore, there are settlers who are from the Israeli underworld; there is an Israeli mafia, there is settling of scores, there are conflicts between people. Especially if you consider that some of the settlers in the West Bank are young, between 30 and 40, and are extremists in terms of nationalism and religion, as well as in terms of crime – as the West Bank is called ‘Israel 2,’ the second Israel, Israel that renounced its laws and democracy and shows all its cards in the West Bank. Therefore, there are likely to be assassinations and a large Israeli security plan (i.e., an Israeli plot). But there is also another possibility, which is very likely… that it [the kidnapping] was done by Palestinians.”
Journalist Hafez Barghouti: “How can we stand up to the Israeli propaganda machine, while Jewish funds from America, Europe and Latin America control the TV and media channels, and the central information and publication centers? How? First of all, we have to content ourselves with serious, if limited, work abroad. That’s enough, if we don’t have the option [to do more].”
Note: On June 12, 2014, Israeli teens Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Frenkel, 16, were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists while they were hitchhiking in the West Bank. The boys' bodies were found by Israeli security forces near Hebron on June 30, 2014. They appeared to have been shot to death soon after the abduction.