Former Meretz MK uses image of IDF helping lost Arab boy to condemn Israel’s soldiers

Moshe Raz tweets photo showing soldiers helping an Arab boy but says they’re threatening him instead.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Moshe “Mossi” Raz, a two-time Meretz MK, twisted the meaning of a picture of IDF soldiers helping a lost Arab boy in Hebron into a condemnation of the Israeli army for cruelty, Israel Hayom reported on Sunday.

While the picture clearly shows one soldier guiding the boy on his bike as another points his gun behind the child to guard their rear, Raz accepted the Arab version that they were threatening the boy instead.

“Al Quds News says this photo was taken today in Hebron,” Raz tweeted on Friday. “I wish it was a fake.” Reactions to the tweet were sharp, as they explained the background of the event.

“A Palestinian boy is trapped with his bicycle in an area where there are clashes, and the IDF forces are evacuating him out of concern [for his well-being],” wrote Israeli citizen Aviv Benderman.

“Mossi Raz expresses anger after IDF soldiers show their concern and he puts out an inciting post. No it’s not fake, it’s an image that demonstrates a moral army that rescues a child from danger – or do you have a problem with that too?” Benderman wrote.

Hours later, Dr. Eddy Cohen of the pro-Zionist My Israel organization clarified further what had actually happened and criticized the former secretary-general of the radical-left Peace Now for jumping to conclusions.

“Soldiers of the IDF helped an Arab boy who was distressed and lost in Hebron,” he posted on Facebook. “The picture has already become a lie and blackened the IDF soldiers, and of course who publicized this fake – former MK Mossi Raz.”

Raz refused to take back his post, however.

“The picture speaks for itself,” he told Israel Hayom when approached on the subject. “I have no idea if what My Israel wrote is correct or not; the truth is – it doesn’t sound correct. But certainly what I wrote is accurate. Nor do they claim otherwise.”

Raz is a life-long activist for Palestinian rights and promotes the unofficial 2003 Geneva Initiative, which calls for the division of Jerusalem and handing over almost all of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority in the framework of a comprehensive peace agreement.

On the same day he tweeted the photo, he also listed the number of Palestinians hurt in Gaza through army operations in the past two weeks, how many cars, buildings and olive trees were damaged and how many people were arrested, with the single comment – “Enough!”

He gave no context as to why the army needed to take those actions.